TechCrunch Writer Update, Sat 02/16 ? Fri 02/22

Every week, Eric and Alexia update the TechCrunch editorial team on our performance, providing important stat breakdowns for the week, such as total number of posts and pageviews. They also provide updates on notable news within the team and organization -- things like new hires, new roles, and important upcoming events and goals. This was my response to our fearless leaders this week.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/PYlsPBaETpc/

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Movie Review: Jack the Giant Slayer Is No Towering Achievement ...

Location

Wide Release

Dates

Open Mar 1

Bryan Singer (Usual Suspects, X-Men) directs a sometimes lively update of the Jack and the Beanstalk fable, reimagined as a slap-stick quest. Nicholas Hoult is Jack, a pauper orphan living with his uncle on a tenant farm outside a walled kingdom. We first meet Jack when he is a boy and his father reads him a story about a legendary king who helped save the kingdom from giants. The boyhood story is intercut with scenes of the young princess, Isabelle, being read the same story. The cross-class bond is struck.

You know these two will somehow get together. Flashing forward, Isabelle (Eleanor Tomlinson) has grown into a daring tomboy (c.f. Brave) and yet she is betrothed to Roderick (Stanley Tucci), a nasty man who is bent on using rediscovered magic beans and a magic crown to unleash ? and then control ? the giants and lead a new invasion of the kingdom. It?s hard to tell why. After all, he?s about to become king when he marries the princess. I suppose he?s just that bad. But the plan is somewhat foiled when the beans unexpectedly fall into Jack?s hands when he is in town one day. The princess also falls into the boy?s lap after she runs away from the castle, it storms, and Jack?s home is the sole shelter from a storm, naturally. The stage is set. Cue beanstalk, the princess swept up into the clouds, the giants, and the mythical quest.

The highlight here is Ewan McGregor who plays Elmont, an Errol Flynn-inspired swashbuckler who is tapped by the king to lead the exhibition up the beanstalk and rescue the lost princess. Elmont adds a knavish sense of humor to the film, but he also inadvertently highlights just what is wrong with the rest of Jack the Giant Slayer. The rest of the ensemble falls flat, and their characterizations ? from one the one-dimensional Roderick, to the wasted Crawe (Eddie Marsan) ? lack both depth and distinguishable tone. Jack and Isabelle?s relationship is equally routine. There are times when Jack the Giant Slayer?seems to be grasping for farcical, melodramatic oomph a la The Princess Bride, while at other times it plays like a sleeping, overly serious kids fable. That middling tone is what makes the movie feel rather pipsqueak.

Source: http://frontrow.dmagazine.com/2013/02/movie-review-jack-the-giant-slayer-is-no-towering-achievement-more-like-middling-on-the-beanstalk/

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POPE LIVE: Ready for departure, final meetings

FILE - This Nov. 3, 2006 file photo shows Pope Benedict XVI's hand as he waves to faithful from his car at the end of his visit at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, files)

FILE - This Nov. 3, 2006 file photo shows Pope Benedict XVI's hand as he waves to faithful from his car at the end of his visit at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, files)

A nun clasps her hands in prayer during a Mass honoring Pope Benedict XVI at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013. Benedict made his final public appearance as pontiff in St. Peter's Square Wednesday. He thanked his flock for respecting his retirement, which takes effect Thursday. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Armando Martin Duenas shows replicas of the two pairs of hand-crafted loafers that were given to Pope Benedict XVI during his March 2012 visit to Mexico at the Ackerman shoe factory in Leon, Mexico, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013. Benedict's title and what he will wear have been a major source of speculation since the 85-year-old pontiff stunned the world and announced he would resign Thursday, the first pope to do so in 600 years. (AP Photo/Alfredo Valadez)

FILE - This Sept. 6, 2006 file photo shows Pope Benedict XVI wearing a "saturno hat", inspired by the ringed planet Saturn, to shield himself from the sun as he waves to the crowd of faithful prior to his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito, files)

In this photo released by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, Pope Benedict XVI receives German politician Horst Seehofer and his wife Karin during a private audience which followed his last general audience, at the Vatican, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013. Benedict XVI basked in an emotional sendoff Wednesday at his final general audience in St. Peter's Square, recalling moments of "joy and light" during his papacy but also times of great difficulty. He also thanked his flock for respecting his decision to retire. (AP Photo/Osservatore Romano, ho)

"Pope Live" follows the events of the final day of Pope Benedict XVI's papacy as seen by journalists from The Associated Press around the world. It will be updated throughout the day with breaking news and other items of interest.

___

LAST TASKS

The big speeches are done. It's almost time to go.

In just a few minutes, Pope Benedict XVI meets with his cardinals this morning on the day he heads into retirement. No major speech is expected during his morning farewell with his closest advisers, just a simple greeting to each one inside the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace.

Shortly before 5 p.m. local time, Benedict will leave the palace for the last time as pope, head to the helipad on the top of the hill in the Vatican gardens and fly to the papal retreat south of Rome. And there, at 8 p.m. ? the exact moment Benedict's resignation goes into effect ? the doors of the palazzo will close and the Swiss Guards in attendance will go off duty, their service protecting the pope now finished.

___

QUICKQUOTE: JOHN KERRY

"The United States sends its best wishes to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI as he leaves the Vatican after years of service and dedication to God, the Catholic Church, and world peace. As the papal conclave assembles, I look forward to continuing our important relationship with the Vatican and working with the new pope to foster dialogue and promote human rights and human dignity throughout the world."

? New U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, visiting Rome for a conference on Syria as part of his first diplomatic tour abroad.

___

A GLIMPSE INSIDE

Victor L. Simpson, Rome bureau chief for The Associated Press, reflects on his decades of covering the papacy:

___

One thing that sets the Vatican apart from other places: You can't just stroll around and poke your head in everywhere.

As many as 18 million people pass through Vatican territory each year, but their visits are effectively limited to St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican museums. Aside from the Vatican's 492 residents and its 4,700 employees, everyone else needs a pass, even to drop by the Vatican pharmacy for medicine not sold in Italy (bring a doctor's prescription please) or to buy back copies of the Vatican paper at the offices of L'Osservatore Romano.

After all these years, I still feel a tingle of excitement to be let in through the Bronze Door, escorted past Swiss Guards in full regalia, and taken up to the pope's apartment on the third floor of the Apostolic Palace for a papal audience with a dignitary. These meetings have given a rare peek inside Vatican diplomacy.

? Victor L. Simpson

___

TOWN TOUR

The town where Benedict is spending his last hours as pope and his first hours as the first pontiff in 600 years to retire is one of several picturesque "castle towns" known as the "Castelli," less than an hour's drive from Rome. Nestled in the Alban Hills, southeast of Rome, it is an area that is volcanic in origin. One of the volcano's old craters became Lake Albano, whose shores include Castel Gandolfo.

The volcano's no longer active, but the Castelli area gets its share of earthquakes, generally fairly mild and doing no damage. The rich volcanic soil helps produce inexpensive white wines that are a favorite in local trattorie as well as in restaurants in Rome.

The town is older than Christianity. The papal residence grounds include ruins from an imperial Roman villa, which itself had been on the site of ancient temples built several centuries before the ancient Romans came to check out the cool breezes and views.

The sprawling papal grounds, which as Vatican property enjoy extraterritoriality, include a working farm. Coffee bars in town have been known to serve milk from the farm's cows. (Yes, it's already been said: "Holy Cow.")

? Frances D'Emilio ? Twitter http://twittter.com/fdemilio

___

GOODBYE, RED SHOES

The red shoes are being retired.

The Pope is giving up the trademark that briefly made him a fashion star, trading in his snappy ruby-red loafers for a pair of hand-crafted brown ones made for him by artisans in Mexico. He will wear those in retirement, Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi says.

The flash of red sparked (unfounded) rumors he was wearing Prada and helped make him Esquire magazine's accessorizer of the year in 2007. The actual designer? An Italian craftsman who had previously created a pair for Pope John Paul II, according to the Italian news agency ANSA.

A former Vatican official assured The Associated Press back in 2005 that Benedict was no clothes horse, advising that the pontiff "wouldn't know Gucci from Smoochi."

? Matt Surman ? Twitter http://twitter.com/apsurman

___

LAST DAY AS POPE

Pope Benedict XVI is making history today, becoming the first pontiff to retire in nearly 600 years.

Only a handful of popes have ever done so.

The last was Pope Gregory XII, who stepped down in 1415 in a deal to end the Great Western Schism, a dispute among competing papal claimants. The most famous resignation was Pope Celestine V in 1294; Dante placed him in hell for it.

Benedict is saying farewell this morning to his closest advisers in Clementine Hall at the Apostolic Palace. Then shortly before 5 p.m., he will leave the palace for the last time as pope and fly by helicopter to the papal retreat at Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome.

Exactly at 8 p.m. ? when his resignation takes effect ? the doors at Castel Gandolfo will close and the papacy that began on April 19, 2005, will come to an end.

? Nicole Winfield ? http://twitter.com/nwinfield

___

Follow AP reporters on Twitter where available.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-02-28-Pope%20Watch-Package/id-58be4acb7a464484a47eaadbfc7b80eb

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Illegal music file-sharing down 'significantly'

Suzanne Choney , NBC News ? ? ? 1 hr.

Illegal music file-sharing "declined significantly," down by 17 percent in 2012 compared to 2011, according to The NPD Group.

With more services available, such as Spotify, Last.fm and Pandora for streaming and buying music, and giant digital music retailers like Amazon and Apple, consumers have more choices than ever for getting music legally, easily and relatively cheaply.

"For the music industry, which has been battling digital piracy for over a decade, last year was a year of progress," said Russ Crupnick, NPD's senior vice president of industry analysis, in a statement about the research group's findings, part of its "Annual Music Study 2012" report.

NPD's findings come on the heels of a recent report that says music sales actually saw a small gain, 0.3 percent, in 2012 to $16.5 billion, the industry's first revenue increase in 13 years, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.

Meanwhile, a new, U.S.-based Copyright Alert System is kicking in this week to target consumers who use peer-to-peer software to illegally share music, as well as movies and TV shows. The alert system will be used by five major Internet service providers to notify a customer whose Internet address has been detected sharing files illegally.

Peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing peaked in 2005, NPD said, when about 20 percent of Internet users ages 13 and older used P2P services, such as LimeWire (now shut down), to download music. In 2012, "that number fell to 11 percent."

P2P services are still out there, of course. But The NPD Group notes that the volume of illegally downloaded music files from P2P sites "also declined 26 percent, compared to the previous year."

Also down: the "number of music files being burned and ripped from CDs owned by friends and family fell 44 percent, the number of files swapped from hard drives dropped 25 percent, and the volume of music downloads from digital lockers decreased 28 percent."

The NPD Group says the main reason for the reduced sharing is the "increased use of free, legal music streaming services. In fact nearly half of those who stopped or curtailed file sharing cited the use of streaming services as their primary reason for stopping or reducing their file-sharing activity."

"In recent years, we?ve seen less P2P activity, because the music industry has successfully used litigation to shut down Limewire and other services," said Crupnick. "Many of those who continued to use P2P services reported poor experiences, due to rampant spyware and viruses on illegal P2P sites."

NPD's research was based on 5,406 completed online surveys in the U.S., a spokesman told NBC News. The survey was done between Dec. 12, 2012 and Jan. 9, 2013.

Check out Technology, GadgetBox, Digital Life and In-Game on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/illegal-music-file-sharing-dropped-significantly-2012-says-npd-1C8590466

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We Cast Brandi Glanville's Book As a Lifetime Movie

Brandi Glanville's book Drinking & Tweeting: And Other Brandi Blunders has only just been released, but she's already got big plans for it. The 40-year-old Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star says the tell-all book is potentially being considered for the big -- or small -- screen.

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/brandi-glanvilles-book-be-lifetime-movie/1-a-524092?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Abrandi-glanvilles-book-be-lifetime-movie-524092

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Martha Stewart in middle of giant retail tug-of-war

Karen Freifeld ? ? ? 10 hrs.

Macy's Chief Executive Terry Lundgren said he was shocked when Martha Stewart told him in 2011 that she was starting a new alliance with rival J.C. Penney Co.

Lundgren, testifying on Monday in the trial of two Macy's lawsuits over the alliance, said Stewart told him of the deal the night before J.C. Penney announced it. He said he was so appalled he hung up on her.

"I was completely shocked and blown away," Lundgren said. "I was literally sick to my stomach."

J.C. Penney announced on December 7, 2011, that it would launch Martha Stewart boutiques in about 700 of its department stores in 2013. It also bought 17 percent of her company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia .

Macy's, which has its own deal with Martha Stewart, sued her company in January 2012 for breach of contract, and later sued J.C. Penney as well. Macy's says it has the exclusive right to sell Martha Stewart products in certain product categories, including cookware and bedding.

The two cases were consolidated for a non-jury trial before Justice Jeffrey Oing in New York state court in Manhattan.

Lundgren, 60, said Stewart sounded like she was reading from a document prepared by lawyers when they spoke, and that he cut off the conversation when the home goods doyenne claimed her deal with J.C. Penney would be good for Macy's.

"I think that's when I hung up," said Lundgren. "The thought this was going to be good for Macy's was so far from anything I could comprehend."

Lundgren said that at the time he considered Stewart a friend, and he has not spoken to her since.

Macy's is still committed to the business relationship it developed with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, however. The Martha Stewart brand at Macy's grew 8 percent last year, growth that is twice that of Macy's as a whole, Lundgren said.

"This is an extremely important brand and we are going to continue to highlight the brand in our stores," Lundgren testified.

Macy's built Martha Stewart into its No. 1 home brand after Stewart came out of prison in 2005 after serving time for lying about a stock sale.

J.C. Penney CEO Ron Johnson is scheduled to take the stand on Friday. Martha Stewart also is expected to testify, but it is unclear when.

Martha Stewart shops in J.C. Penney stores, set to open in May, are the centerpiece of an improved home goods section that Johnson has called crucial to returning Penney to growth.

The cases are Macy's Inc. v Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc., 650297/2012, and Macy's Inc. v J.C. Penney Corp., 652861/2012, New York State Supreme Court, New York County.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/martha-stewart-middle-giant-retail-tug-war-1C8541698

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Apartment Careers: jobs, Issaquah jobs, Washington jobs, Assistant ...

About Pinnacle.

We invest in great people. That's why clients trust us with their real estate investments!
At Pinnacle, we consider our employees our most valuable asset. In fact, our number one key business objective is to attract and retain the best talent in the industry! At Pinnacle, the key to our continued success and competitive advantage is our people.

We offer a total compensation and benefits package to help with your needs today and build for your future tomorrow. We recognize that each employee is an individual with individual needs, lifestyles, and interests. Our benefits package was created with the flexibility to support employees who are at different places in their lives and careers.

Pinnacle values diversity and is committed to equal opportunity in employment. We offer a safe, healthy work environment for employees through a commitment to maintaining a drug-free workplace.
Pinnacle has ongoing employment opportunities at our headquarters in Seattle, our more than 40 branch office locations nationally and our many managed communities throughout the country.

Pinnacle is the national leader in third-party fee management of investment real estate encompassing multi-family, commercial space, affordable housing and military housing. Pinnacle is built on four basic principles:

Quality people

Strong customer service

Solid market knowledge

Superior systems and support capabilities

At Pinnacle, success is about more than having a healthy bottom line. Guided by our principles and values, we are committed to making Pinnacle an amazing and unique place to work for each member of our team.

About the job..

As an Assistant Business Manager at Pinnacle you are an important piece of the onsite management team. You help guide the ship, so to speak, of a Pinnacle community under the direction of the Business Manager. The Assistant Business Manager is a business leader who focuses on resident customer service and assists in managing the operations, leasing activity, renewals, collections, financial reporting, supplies, and communications of a multi-million dollar apartment community. This position requires unmatched customer service and individuals who thrive in a customer-centric, fast-paced environment. Be ready to be busy!

Essential Responsibilities:

Address the concerns of current and prospective residents in a friendly and professional manner.

Helps set the standard on how Leasing Agents engage prospective and current residents. Tours and leases apartments as necessary.

Helps with training staff as necessary and models effective sales techniques on a daily basis.

Leads rent collection efforts, specifically with delinquent residents. This may involve lease termination and legal action if necessary.

Assist in managing the propertys budget by making sound fiscal decisions to increase the net operating income of the community.

Inspecting apartments during move-in and move outs, walking apartments and the community as needed.

Fill the role of acting Business Manager when the Business Manager is absent.

Personal Competencies:

Business leader

High energy

Customer focused

Articulate

Detail oriented/organized

Strong Communicator both oral and written

High degree of flexibility and tolerance for change

Qualifications:

Minimum of high school diploma, Bachelors degree preferred.

1 to 2 years previous minimum related work experience, property management exp a plus!

General office, bookkeeping and sales skills

Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to deal effectively with persons from diverse social, economic and ethnic backgrounds.

Extremely computer literate, including Microsoft office Suite

Previous experience in a supervisory role is helpful.

Pinnacle has grown to become America's largest apartment manager through many different successes. Yet, in today's ultra-competitive market, each success must fuel the next and speed is essential in the ongoing race to lead the industry.

If you are ready to work hard and be empowered and encouraged to innovate, contribute ideas and discover solutions to provide current and potential residents with unparalleled, world class customer service please complete click Apply Online.

Source: http://jobs.apartmentcareers.com/jobs/5217081/assistant-business-manager

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