38 Studios, the now-bankrupt company behind Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and in-development MMO Project Copernicus, spent more than $133 million before it collapsed according to newly released documents. WPRI.com detailed the company's various expenses, which were paid for largely by state loans from Rhode Island and the personal fortune of founder and former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling.

38 Studios spent $118 million in the period between its founding in August 2006 and the end of 2011, before it began to take in any appreciable revenue from the release of Reckoning. When the role-playing game finally hit shelves it sold 1.3 million copies. For the company to make back its $28.7 million advance from Reckoning publisher Electronic Arts and begin to receive royalties, sales would have had to surpass 2 million.

"I don't think 2 million was an unreasonable estimate--I thought it would do 2 million to 3 million," said Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter. "They may have been counting on an extra $30 million to $40 million of revenue from the game."

Less-than-anticipated revenue from Reckoning and drying investor interest left the company unable to cover massive expenses laid down for research and development on Project Copernicus--$104.5 million as of March. That figure did not surprise National Alliance Capital Markets analyst Michael Hickey, who said a typical high-end MMO will take "north of $100 million" to bring to market. The studio's six years of work and a development team of 400 (some of its hiring was encouraged by state loan job creation stipulations) raised the stakes for the project's success.

But EA MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic's colder-than-expected subscriber retention over the winter put a serious damper on the developer's efforts to attract investors to its own game. "I honestly think if 38 Studios had moved to get financing months earlier they would have been fine," Pachter said. "Had they been out in the market in December I think they would have been fine."

A Boston magazine feature on Schilling's role in 38 Studios' demise said the developer was courting Take-Two to publish a potential sequel to Reckoning in May, and in talks with Korean MMO publisher Nexon. Nexon declined comment, and a Take-Two representative told Boston he wasn't aware of any negotiations.

Saul Kaplan, who was executive director of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation until 2008, said the new documents suggested at least another $60 million would have been needed to complete development on Copernicus. "I can't imagine a scenario where anyone was going to put that capital in," he said.

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38 Studios spent $133 million before bankruptcy

Construction on a 74-bed personal care home should begin in a month after developers received the necessary approval from Scranton's planning commission.

At a special meeting Wednesday, the commission unanimously approved the land development plan submitted by Senior Health Care Solution principal partners, Michael P. Kelly and Susan Keefer, and their architect/engineer Mike Probst with Keystone Consulting.

Construction on the $6 million project is slated to be complete in August 2013, according to Mr. Kelly.

The new personal care home will be located at 2471 Boulevard Ave., next to Senior Health Care Solution's skilled nursing and rehabilitation center, and will be focused on providing comfortable living for the independent elderly when it opens, Mr. Kelly said,

"It's for the elderly who don't really need skilled nursing," Mr. Kelly said after the meeting.

He said residents of the home will pay between $1,400 and $2,200 a month. The personal care home will offer meals, maid services and will have nurses on staff to help administer medication, among other duties, he added.

At Wednesday's meeting, Mr. Probst told planning commission members that all zoning, ordinance, land development conditions and recommendations have been met by the group.

Commission member John Kennedy moved to approve the project and member Betsey Moylan seconded.

Contact the writer: eginader@timesshamrock.com

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Scranton Planning Commission approves construction of personal care home

Irda widens health insurance net Neha Pandey Deoras / Mumbai Jul 25, 2012, 00:39 IST

In the draft guidelines on health insurance announced by Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irda) in May, the definition of health insurance was widened. According to the draft norms, travel, personal accident and critical illness covers would fall under the health insurance segment.

Health insurance business means the effecting of insurance contracts which provide for sickness benefits or medical, surgical or hospital expense benefits, travel health insurance and personal accident cover, said the guidelines issued by Irda. Presently, personal accident and critical illness covers come under miscellaneous business.

While personal accident and critical illness covers insure health-related expenditures, an international travel cover is largely health insurance as it is a mix of medical and travel-related covers. For example, consider a $5 lakh cover with Tata AIGs Travel Guard that insures you for accident and sickness medical expense reimbursement. This comprises accidental death and dismemberment (common carrier) for $5,000, accidental death and dismemberment for $25,000 (24 hours), sickness dental relief ($500) along with emergency medical evaluation. Here travel or baggage related covers (baggage, passport, trip delay) are covered for maximum $1,000.

Also, the insurance regulator wants travel medical policies may be offered either as a stand-alone product or as an add-on cover to existing health policy as and when an existing policyholder travels. Presently, travel covers are only stand-alone covers. Personal accident and critical illness indemnity covers are also available only as stand-alone covers, while benefit covers (issued by life insurers) can be bought as an add-on on term plans.

At the same time, the regulator has disallowed assigning policies to anyone else. No assignment of health insurance policies shall be allowed irrespective of whether they are indemnity or benefit based, said the draft guidelines. This means you may not be able link any of the general insurance policies to loan.

Many general insurers allow linking personal accident or critical illness cover under the credit shield business, that is link it to home loan. Here, in case of you lose your income (due to accident and disability or any terminal disease) the policy proceed takes care of the loan repayment.

The regulator is discouraging the credit shield business as these covers are short-term ones and may lead to huge payouts for insurance companies, said another health insurance head.

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Irda widens health insurance net

STUTTGART, AR The Rice Foundation is accepting applications for the 2013 Leadership Development Program. Rice producers or industry-related professionals between the ages of 25 and 45 are eligible to apply for the program. The application deadline is Oct. 6.

The Rice Leadership Development Program provides a comprehensive understanding of the rice industry, with an emphasis on personal development and communication skills. During a two-year period, class members attend four one-week sessions designed to strengthen leadership skills through studies of all aspects of the rice industry.

The class is comprised of five rice producers and two industry-related professionals chosen by a committee of agribusiness leaders. The committee evaluates the applications of all candidates, reviews letters of recommendation and conducts personal interviews with the finalists. Interviews will be conducted at the USA Rice Outlook Conference in San Diego, CA, in December 2012.

The program is sponsored by John Deere Company, RiceTec, Inc. and American Commodity Company through a grant to the Rice Foundation and is managed by the USA Rice Federation.

For additional information on the Rice Leadership Development Program or an application form, go to http://www.usarice.com and click on the 2013 Rice Leadership Development Program icon in the lower right of the webpage or call Chuck Wilson at (870) 673-7541.

STUTTGART, AR The Rice Foundation is accepting applications for the 2013 Leadership Development Program. Rice producers or industry-related professionals between the ages of 25 and 45 are eligible to apply for the program. The application deadline is Oct. 6.

The Rice Leadership Development Program provides a comprehensive understanding of the rice industry, with an emphasis on personal development and communication skills. During a two-year period, class members attend four one-week sessions designed to strengthen leadership skills through studies of all aspects of the rice industry.

The class is comprised of five rice producers and two industry-related professionals chosen by a committee of agribusiness leaders. The committee evaluates the applications of all candidates, reviews letters of recommendation and conducts personal interviews with the finalists. Interviews will be conducted at the USA Rice Outlook Conference in San Diego, CA, in December 2012.

The program is sponsored by John Deere Company, RiceTec, Inc. and American Commodity Company through a grant to the Rice Foundation and is managed by the USA Rice Federation.

Excerpt from:
Clear

PISCATAWAY, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

IEEE, the world's largest professional association advancing technology for humanity, today announced four IEEE 11073 standards-development projects intended to expand support for plug-and-play, interoperable medical-device communications.

In a separate press release today, IEEE announced two new standards and a revised standard for the IEEE 11073 family.

We continue to build out the IEEE 11073 family of standards to help address challenges with consistency, interoperability, nomenclature and code that reveal themselves as e-health technologies mature, said Daidi Zhong, co-chair of the IEEE 11073 Personal Health Device (PHD) Working Group. These standards assist in the support of patients living independently with chronic diseases like asthma, diabetes, congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, hypertension and obesity, as well as people seeking for healthy lifestyle with wellness and fitness. Informed by coordination and cooperation with a host of global health-focused organizations, we will endeavor to address standards gaps as they are revealed, in order to help industry introduce solutions that improve quality of life.

The four standards-development projects, when approved by the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA) Standards Board as official standards, will join a growing suite of standards that is designed to help healthcare product vendors and integrators create devices and systems for disease management, health and fitness and independent living:

To participate in development of any of the four standards projects, please visit the IEEE 11073 PHD Working Group at http://standards.ieee.org/develop/wg/PHD.html.

To learn more about IEEE-SA, visit us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ieeesa, follow us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ieeesa, connect with us on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1791118 or on the Standards Insight Blog at http://www.standardsinsight.com.

About the IEEE Standards Association

The IEEE Standards Association, a globally recognized standards-setting body within IEEE, develops consensus standards through an open process that engages industry and brings together a broad stakeholder community. IEEE standards set specifications and best practices based on current scientific and technological knowledge. The IEEE-SA has a portfolio of over 900 active standards and more than 500 standards under development. For more information visit http://standards.ieee.org/.

About IEEE

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Four New IEEE Standards-Development Projects for Medical-Device Communications Underway

Bullies make Judy Kajander come unglued.

Their aggression reminds the YES Prep Public School counselor of her own childhood, when she lived in an alcoholic home and endured bullying at school. In her 30 years in education, Kajander has been quick to defend young victims of bullying, but less likely to examine the needs of the bully.

When Kajander learned about a startup nonprofit called FuelEd, created to help train educators on social and emotional skills, she saw an opportunity to help herself and other educators learn how to better overcome their own past experiences while on the job. She invited FuelEd founder Megan Marcus to offer her inaugural training at the Houston charter school system.

"Most schools are so focused on testing, there's no time," Kajander said. "This is so innovative. I've never seen a program quite like this."

In the three-day session, more than two dozen YES Prep counselors and teachers learned the importance of self-awareness and self-care, a few of the areas the nonprofit's founder has identified as struggles for today's teachers.

Motivating students

Education schools train teachers on course content, classroom management skills and test-taking strategies, but not on the relationship-building skills that can help them better connect with students.

That connection is the best motivator for children and can make a huge difference on their performance and their passion for school, said Marcus, who pinpointed the shortcoming while earning a master's degree in psychology from Pepperdine University. Psychologists are taught to leverage personal relationships, but teachers are not, she realized.

Marcus, 26, further developed the concept working on her master's in education policy at Harvard University. Great teachers inspire their students to dream and develop as humans.

"I am a steam engine with this idea," said Marcus, who will officially launch FuelEd next month in Los Angeles.

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Program helps teachers with personal development

Photo by Jason A. Smith Connie Dodgen (right), of Hampton, was recently joined by several individuals who spoke out against placing additional restrictions on personal-care homes in Henry. Dodgen said such restrictions would limit the care given to people with special needs.

McDONOUGH Efforts are ongoing in Henry County to clarify requirements for operating personal care homes.

A pending ordinance on the subject has generated debate regarding whether to allow such facilities in residential neighborhoods, according to Henry County Planning & Zoning Director, Cheri Hobson-Matthews. Currently, personal-care homes can have up to three clients in a residentially-zoned district as a home occupation, or up to four clients in residential-agricultural district, as a non-home occupation, she said.

Officials are seeking to determine if the original intent of the countys personal-care home ordinance was to allow the homes to operate inside a subdivision, and to discern how many clients and employees are appropriate in those areas.

With some inconsistencies regarding the utilization of properties for a personal-care home as a home occupation, versus a non-home occupation, Hobson-Matthews said she and her staff felt that it was pertinent to clear up any ambiguities that the Unified Land Development Code (ULDC) presented.

A moratorium, enacted in March, remains in place that gives staffers the opportunity to review and revise the ULDC and Comprehensive Plan, as they relates to the location of personal-care homes within single-family residential districts. It also regulates the development and standards of personal-care homes located anywhere within unincorporated Henry County.

We have not accepted any applications for personal-care homes in unincorporated Henry County, Hobson-Matthews said. The cities have not enacted a moratorium.

Hobson-Matthews said prior to the moratorium, the county did not have adequate licensing measures in place for personal-care home applications.

We wanted to make sure that were incorporating rules and regulations that would protect not only property owners, but individual clients and citizens who utilize personal-care homes for their personal-care services, she said.

A personal-care home can go into an area where they apply for a business license, and there is no further notification, said Hobson-Matthews. Its not like an alcohol license, where you have notify property owners. Its not like a zoning matter, where we have to notify all the affected property owners.

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Where to place personal care home debated in Henry

LOS ANGELES, CA--(Marketwire -07/23/12)- MMRGlobal, Inc. (MMRF) ("MMR"), a leading provider of Personal Health Records (PHRs) and electronic document management and imaging systems for healthcare professionals, today announced that The RHL Group, Inc. will increase the credit line of MyMedicalRecords, Inc. by $1.5 million to a total of $4.5 million. The increased credit facility will help the Company with sales and marketing of its MyMedicalRecords (www.mmrvideos.com) patented Personal Health Record and MMRPro (www.mmrprovideos.com) professional products and services as well as continue ongoing talks with potential strategic partners to add to and exploit its biotech portfolio. The Company is also working on identifying a Chief Science Officer to help manage and license existing biotech assets including patents, patient samples and other related intellectual property and other opportunities. Robert H. Lorsch, MMRGlobal's Chairman and CEO, is also CEO of The RHL Group, Inc. Details of the financing will be disclosed in filings with the SEC later this week.

Mr. Lorsch said, "eHealth is clearly becoming the standard for the future of healthcare. Based on the Company's eHealth and biotech patent portfolios, I believe the Company is severely undervalued at this time. I cannot think of a better way to communicate my support and enthusiasm for MMR's future than to increase its RHL Group credit line by 50%. As a result of the passage of the HITECH Act, having a Personal Health Record will someday be as important as having a credit report."

The Company sells its Personal Health Record products and services direct to consumers and healthcare professionals, employers, affinity groups, nurse advocates, senior care providers and retailers. The Company sells its MMRPro document management and imaging systems to physician group practices, ambulatory surgery centers and small hospitals.

MMRGlobal is considered to be a leading provider of Personal Health Record services. The Company is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the rapid growth of health IT and the national and worldwide adoption of eHealth solutions and services as it owns the underlying technology and numerous patents issued pending and applied for globally in the healthcare IT sector.

About MMRGlobal, Inc. MMRGlobal, Inc., through its wholly-owned operating subsidiary, MyMedicalRecords, Inc., provides secure and easy-to-use online Personal Health Records ("PHRs") and electronic safe deposit box storage solutions, serving consumers, healthcare professionals, employers, insurance companies, financial institutions, and professional organizations and affinity groups. The MyMedicalRecords PHR enables individuals and families to access their medical records and other important documents, such as birth certificates, passports, insurance policies and wills, anytime from anywhere using the Internet. MyMedicalRecords is built on proprietary, patented technologies to allow documents, images and voicemail messages to be transmitted and stored in the system using a variety of methods, including fax, phone, or file upload without relying on any specific electronic medical record platform to populate a user's account. The Company's professional offering, MMRPro, is designed to give physicians' offices an easy and cost-effective solution to digitizing paper-based medical records and sharing them with patients in real time through an integrated patient portal. MMR is an Independent Software Vendor Partner with Kodak to deliver an integrated turnkey EMR solution for healthcare professionals. Through its merger with Favrille, Inc. in January 2009, the Company acquired intellectual property biotech assets that include anti-CD20 monoclonal antibodies and data and samples from its FavId/Specifid vaccine clinical trials for the treatment of B-cell Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. To learn more about MMRGlobal, Inc. visit http://www.mmrglobal.com. View demos and video tutorials of the Company's products and services at http://www.mmrtheater.com.

Forward-Looking StatementsStatements in this press release that are not strictly historical in nature, whether or not such statement relates directly to The RHL Group, Inc. credit facility, and to the Company's future performance, management's expectations, beliefs, intentions, estimates or projections, constitute "forward-looking statements." Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Company's actual results to be materially different from historical results or from any results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Some can be identified by the use of words (and their derivations) such as "need," "possibility," "offer," "development," "if," "negotiate," "when," "begun," "believe," "achieve," "will," "estimate," "expect," "maintain," "plan," "intend" and "continue," or the negative of these words. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, the prosecution of our patents; defending, protecting and maximizing the value of our biotechnology and health information technology intellectual property; timing of milestone payments in connection with licensing our IP; the risk the Company's products are not adopted or viewed favorably by the healthcare community and retail market; business prospects, results of operations or financial condition; risks related to the current uncertainty and instability in financial and lending markets, including global economic uncertainties; timing and volume of sales and installations; length of sales cycles and the installation process; timing of new program launches; market acceptance of new product introductions; ability to establish and maintain strategic relationships; relationships with licensees; competitive product offerings and promotions; changes in government laws and regulations and future changes in tax legislation and initiatives in the healthcare industry; undetected errors in our products; possibility of interruption at our data centers; risks related to third party vendors; risks related to obtaining and integrating third-party licensed technology; acceptance of the Company's marketing and promotional campaigns; risks related to a security breach by third parties; litigation matters; risks associated with recruitment and retention of key personnel; uncertainties associated with doing business internationally across borders and territories; and additional risks discussed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company is providing this information as of the date of this release and, except as required by law, does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Originally posted here:
MMRGlobal Announces Increase in RHL Group Line of Credit to $4.5 Million

NEW YORK, July 24, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Reportlinker.com announces that a new market research report is available in its catalogue:

http://www.reportlinker.com/p0937491/Current-Development-and-Future-Trends-of-Ultrabooks.html#utm_source=prnewswire&utm_medium=pr&utm_campaign=Personal_Computer_and_Server

With notebook PCs entering the maturity, the room for the introduction of new features and applications on notebook PCs is therefore limited. Therefore, vendors have been focusing on enhancing user experience in battery run time as well as fashionable and lightweight industrial design, which used to be only common for high-end notebook PCs. After, Intel put forth the concept of Ultrabook and the pace of such industrial design to become mainstream is further accelerated. In 2012, the Intel Ivy Bridge platform hit the market and it is anticipated there will be more ultrabooks unleashed in the market. This report provides insight into the ultra-thin trends of the notebook PCs based on the development of ultrabook market, leading chipmakers, key components, and major ultrabooks presently available or to be made available in the future.

Key development trends among ultrabooks, including major vendors, major chipmakers, key component suppliers, and product specifications Worldwide ultrabook market scale forecast for the period 2012-2016 Current specifications of ultrabook products, key vendors, and important factors for their future development Current specifications of MID products, key vendors, and important factors for their future development

1. Introduction 2. Market Development 3. Major Chipmakers' Strategy 3.1 Intel: Ultrabook 3 3.2 Other Ultra-thin Notebook PC Platforms 3.2.1 AMD: Ultrathin 4. Key Component Development Trends 4.1 Unibody Metal Casing's Adoption Share Reducing 4.2 Hybrid SDD-HDD are Currently Mainstream 4.3 Open-cell Design is a Passing Phase; Slim-type LCM to Become Mainstream 4.4 Li-Polymer Cell Remains Mainstream 5. Ultrabook Product Development Trends 5.1 Ultrabooks Aim to Walk out of the Shadow of Apple Macbook Air 5.2 Windows 8 to Unveil New Chapter for Ultrabooks with Touchscreen Design 5.3 Touch-screen Applications to Innovate Existing Notebook PC Portfolios 6. Conclusion 6.1 New Generation Processors Designed for Ultra-thin Notebook PCs 6.2 Touchscreens to Drive Changes in Traditional Shape of Notebook PCs Appendix

List of Tables

Table 1 Intel Ultrabook Ivy Bridge Platform Product Specs

Table 2 AMD Ultrathin Trinity Platform Product Specs

Figure 1 Worldwide Ultrabook Market Volume, 2011 - 2016 Figure 2 Ultrabook 1.0 BOM Analysis Figure 3 Ultrabook 2.0 Product Specs Figure 4 Diversified Notebook PC Development Trends

List of Companies

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Current Development and Future Trends of Ultrabooks

by Kate McDowell

Fairbairn Private Bank joined forces with two local charities last month to deliver a bespoke training programme for some of its staff. The three-day course comprised an experiential workshop with Corporate Personal Development (CPD) at The Childrens Centre Community Farm, a challenging sail along the coast of the island and a post-training review.

As a platinum corporate sponsor of Sailing for the Disabled, the bank is entitled to a number of sailing days each year and this year it decided to do things a little differently and use one of these as a staff training opportunity. Lynn Kelly, the banks senior training executive, then worked in conjunction with the training services provided by Corporate Personal Development to design an intensive programme of team-building events. Corporate Personal Development is a social enterprise of another local charity, The Childrens Centre, and is a leader in the field of experiential learning.

The objective of the course was to bring staff from the banks Jersey office and sister company in Guernsey together with their colleagues in the Isle of Man in order to forge stronger working links. It also provided a perfect opportunity to explore some of the difficulties that can be associated with teams working across different locations, said Mrs Kelly.

Ultimately, a team of 12 hardy staff spent an intensive, and rather wet and windy, afternoon at The Childrens Centre Community Farm participating in the experiential workshop developed by John Knight, the CEO of the Childrens Centre, and Mark Payne, the head of experiential learning at Corporate Personal Development.

Day two saw the participants put their new found team-working skills into practice on board the Pride of Mann II, Sailing for the Disableds 46 foot yacht. The sail on stormy seas around the north east coastline of the island involved some very challenging team collaboration tasks which were set for the staff by the crew.

The programme was a tremendous success and thoroughly enjoyed by all the staff who participated. It also offered a unique opportunity to experience some of the inspiring services provided by two of the islands leading community organisations.

If you'd like to send any information or news releases to us then please feel free to do so and we would be more than happy to consider sharing your news with the Isle of Man!

Send your Isle of Man news to:webmaster@manx.net

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Fairbairn Private Bank take training to extremes