Create a No-Waste Soap Dish

Soap gunk can clog drains when you wash the buildup from its container, but soap dishes designed to prevent buildup still end up wasting the soap you use. YouTube DIYer OneFreeBrain created a no-waste soap dish that prevents both problems.

As demonstrated in the video above, he discovered that a silk printing screen will hold soap without anything getting through. As a result, he created a soap dish using a silk screen to avoid wasted material and build up. Watch the video for a full walkthrough on how to make your own.

Make your own no-waste soap dish | YouTube via Devin

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/WJ3PrLzmBi4/create-a-no+waste-soap-dish

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TEXT-S&P summary: PT Astra International Tbk.

(The following statement was released by the rating agency)

Oct 22 -

===============================================================================

Summary analysis -- PT Astra International Tbk. ------------------- 22-Oct-2012

===============================================================================

CREDIT RATING: BBB-/Stable/-- Country: Indonesia

===============================================================================

Credit Rating History:

Local currency Foreign currency

11-May-2011 BBB-/-- BBB-/--

===============================================================================

Rationale

The rating on PT Astra International Tbk. reflects the company's 'bb+'

stand-alone credit profile (SACP) and a one-notch uplift because of expected

support from its parent, Jardine Strategic Holdings Ltd. (Jardine Group:

A-/Stable/--; cnAA/--). The rating also reflects our view that the company has

a "fair" business risk profile and "modest" financial risk profile.

Astra's SACP is similar to the long-term foreign currency rating on Indonesia

(BB+/Positive/B; axBBB+/axA-2). We expect Astra to have low leverage over the

next six to 18 months, excluding its captive financial services entities. Over

the same period, the company should also generate adequate foreign currency

cash flows from the commodities businesses to service its borrowings. In

addition, Astra has good capital market standing and excellent financial

flexibility, in our view. This is because many of the company's operating

companies are listed and have strong market positions and good profitability.

The SACP also factors in Astra's exposure to cyclical and economically

sensitive sectors (such as palm oil and mining contracting), increasing

competition in the automobile business, and the company's potential large

investments and high execution risk in capital-intensive segments.

The one-notch of uplift due to support from Jardine Group reflects our

assessment that Astra is strategically important to its parent, even though

the parent does not guarantee the company's financial obligations. Jardine

Group has a record of owning and closely managing its core businesses over a

long period.

In our base-case scenario, we expect Astra's borrowings (excluding financial

services) to increase in 2012-2013 to about Indonesian rupiah (IDR) 9

trillion-IDR11 trillion. As of June 30, 2012, Astra's leverage is low, with a

debt-to-EBITDA ratio of 0.5x and a ratio of funds from operations (FFO) to

debt of more than 100%, reflecting a "modest" financial risk profile,

according to our criteria. The company has increased debt to fund its capital

expenditure, but we believe its credit protection measures are more than

adequate for its SACP. We anticipate that the ratio of total debt to EBITDA

will remain below 1.5x and the FFO-to-debt ratio will exceed 60% in the next

six to 18 months. We calculated these ratios after adjusting for debt and cash

flows, based on our captive finance methodology.

Most of Astra's businesses have minimal debt, except for the heavy equipment

and mining segments that PT United Tractors Tbk. (UT: unrated) runs. UT

accounted for almost 46% of Astra's total debt as of June 30, 2012.

Astra's automotive distribution and palm oil businesses contributed almost 50%

to its pretax profit in the first six months of 2012. These businesses have

minimal debt and are cash generative, with limited capital expenditure needs.

Financial services entities contribute about 17% to operating income.

In our view, Astra's profitability and cash flows are particularly sensitive

to credit market conditions because its financing business depends on

wholesale funding to underwrite automotive sales. Nevertheless, we note that

Astra has increasingly diversified its funding sources. A simultaneous

disruption in the credit market and a slowdown in the economy could increase

credit costs and weaken the loan quality of Astra's financing business.

Nevertheless, we believe the company's management of its financial services

entities is conservative. Our view is based on Astra's practice of prudent

provisioning, its strong capital structure, and locked-in interest margins

with back-to-back matching of receivables and loan tenor. The financial

services entities' ratio of debt-to-equity is about 4.5x-5.5x, which is within

the regulator's maximum debt-to-equity ratio of 10x.

Liquidity

In our opinion, Astra's liquidity is "strong." As of June 30, 2012, the

company has a cash balance of IDR9.4 trillion (US$986 million) and undrawn

committed financing facilities of US$1.85 billion. We estimate the company's

liquidity sources will exceed uses by more than 50% in 2012, based on the

following major assumptions:

-- Astra will generate EBITDA of IDR23 trillion to IDR24 trillion (US$2.4

billion to US$2.5 billion) in 2012.

-- Astra's expenditure for 2012 will include working capital needs of

IDR5.5 trillion (US$570 million), capital expenditure of IDR16 trillion

(US$1.7 billion), and dividend distribution of IDR9.5 trillion (US$986

million).

In assessing liquidity, we have assumed that Astra will be able to renew its

short-term bank debts of IDR4.4 trillion (US$460 million) based on its record

and good relationships with banks. Cash, undrawn committed facilities, EBITDA,

capital expenditure, and short-term debts do not include those of its

financial services companies.

Outlook

The stable outlook reflects our expectation that Astra will maintain strong

cash flows and liquidity. The prospects for profitability appear reasonably

good. In our opinion, Astra will invest in expanding its business portfolio,

but will still manage the expansion within its conservative investment

framework.

We could lower the rating if Astra undertakes aggressive expansion and

acquisitions, leading to a significant change in its business and financial

risk profiles, or we assess the support from Jardine Group has weakened.

We could upgrade Astra if we raise our transfer and convertibility risk

assessment of Indonesia to 'BBB' from 'BBB-'. This would be accompanied by an

improvement in the company's business risk profile, particularly through

greater diversification and reduced concentration of profits from a particular

business segment. At the same time, Astra would maintain its "modest"

financial risk profile and its ability to weather sovereign financial stress.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/text-p-summary-pt-astra-international-tbk-090623675--sector.html

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How Amazon is crowdsourcing movies and TV shows

7 hrs.

Alistair Barr , Reuters

Amazon.com is producing its own movies and TV programming using the consumer tracking and data crunching skills it developed while becoming the world's largest Internet retailer.

Essentially, Amazon is crowdsourcing the creation of original content???movies such as "Zombies versus Gladiators" and the children's TV series "Magic Monkey Billionaire."

The retailer hopes the approach will result in more hits and fewer flops than the traditional Hollywood practice of filtering creative ideas through three-martini lunches with studio bosses and movie stars.

Like rival movie provider Netflix, Amazon is developing its own content to supplement movies and TV shows from Hollywood's back catalog. Amazon pays an estimated $1 billion a year to stream programming from others over its Prime Instant Video service.

Since late 2010, the company's Hollywood studio, Amazon Studios, has let aspiring screenwriters and film makers upload thousands of scripts to its website.

It has an exclusive, 45-day option to buy movie scripts for $200,000 and TV series for $55,000. It can also pay $10,000 to extend options for 18 months.

Instead of green-lighting a feature-length film or TV pilot, Amazon first helps develop the scripts it options into trial videos. It posts these online to solicit reviews and feedback from its millions of customers. Writers use the feedback to adjust scripts, hoping to boost the chances of creating a hit when Amazon spends millions of dollars turning projects into full movies or TV shows.

"Hopefully we can avoid big bombs," said Roy Price, head of Amazon Studios. "Our notion for what the world needs may be a roller-skating movie or a battleship film, but that could be wrong. We can do tests and find out that, actually, no one cares about this project or that one. If you do that before you spend $200 million on it, that would be good. Good for customers and good for the business."

For instance, Amazon took its nine best test movies from 2011 and posted them on Amazon Instant Video, the company's streaming video service. Customers viewed the projects hundreds of thousands of times, according to the company. It is using reviews and feedback to re-write scripts.

Amazon also collected data on how long customers watched the test videos and how many watched all the way through.

"That form of implicit feedback is as useful, or more useful sometimes, than the explicit feedback," Price said. "This told us something about the marketability of these ideas."

Amazon Studios recently turned "Blackburn Burrow," a movie script by screenwriter Jay Levy, into a digital comic to get more consumer input.

The comic, recently the most-downloaded free comic on Amazon's Kindle store, comes with a survey for feedback on what people thought about the story, according to Levy.

"If you look at the amount of data Amazon collects every day, it's incredible," Levy said. "This way, they begin to get actual feedback about the story and will create something that people really get invested in."

Bringing market research to the creative process is nothing new, of course. Hollywood tests movies with focus groups all the time. But it is not done on such an open, large scale as Amazon's approach.

"You often don't get audience feedback until you almost release a movie," said Edward Saxon, Oscar-winning producer of "The Silence of the Lambs."

"Film-making is an iterative process???a draft and then another draft. Amazon is very smart to find more places along the way to get feedback."

Saxon is one of a handful of big-name producers who have signed on to Amazon Studio projects. He is helping develop "Children Of Others," about a woman who takes her last chance at a fertility clinic, only to find that her unborn child may be the first wave of an alien invasion.

Amazon Studios currently has 21 movie projects and nine TV projects in development.

The movies will be made for theatrical release - Amazon has a deal that gives Warner Bros. Pictures the first crack at bringing them to the big screen, known in industry parlance as a "first-look" deal. Any TV series will be distributed on Amazon's video streaming platform as exclusive shows, according to Price.

Amazon has been clear about what it wants to spend and it knows movie-making costs money, Saxon said.

"I am betting my professional energy that we are going to see a good number of Amazon movies, and I hope mine is one of them," he added. "The movie we're making is going to compete with the big boys."

(Reporting By Alistair Barr; Editing by Peter Lauria and David Gregorio)

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Check for restrictions at:?http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp?

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/how-amazon-crowdsourcing-movies-tv-shows-1C6370916

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Ark. GOP calls candidates' statements 'offensive'

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) ? Arkansas Republicans tried to distance themselves Saturday from a Republican state representative's assertion that slavery was a "blessing in disguise" and a Republican state House candidate who advocates deporting all Muslims.

The claims were made in books written, respectively, by Rep. Jon Hubbard of Jonesboro and House candidate Charlie Fuqua of Batesville. Those books received attention on Internet news sites Friday.

On Saturday, state GOP Chairman Doyle Webb called the books "highly offensive." And U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford, a Republican who represents northeast Arkansas, called the writings "divisive and racially inflammatory."

Hubbard wrote in his 2009 self-published book, "Letters To The Editor: Confessions Of A Frustrated Conservative," that "the institution of slavery that the black race has long believed to be an abomination upon its people may actually have been a blessing in disguise." He also wrote that African-Americans were better off than they would have been had they not been captured and shipped to the United States.

Fuqua, who served in the Arkansas House from 1996 to 1998, wrote there is "no solution to the Muslim problem short of expelling all followers of the religion from the United States," in his 2012 book, titled "God's Law."

Fuqua said Saturday that he hadn't realized he'd become a target within his own party, which he said surprised him.

"I think my views are fairly well-accepted by most people," Fuqua said before hanging up, saying he was busy knocking on voters' doors. The attorney is running against incumbent Democratic Rep. James McLean in House District 63.

Hubbard, a marketing representative, didn't return voicemail messages seeking comment Saturday. He is running against Democrat Harold Copenhaver in House District 58.

The November elections could be a crucial turning point in Arkansas politics. Democrats hold narrow majorities in both chambers, but the GOP has been working hard to swing the Legislature its way for the first time since the end of the Civil War, buoyed by picking up three congressional seats in 2010. Their efforts have also been backed by an influx of money from national conservative groups.

Rep. Crawford said Saturday he was "disappointed and disturbed."

"The statements that have been reported portray attitudes and beliefs that would return our state and country to a harmful and regrettable past," Crawford said.

U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin, R-Ark., kicked off the GOP's response Saturday by issuing a release, saying the "statements of Hubbard and Fuqua are ridiculous, outrageous and have no place in the civil discourse of either party."

"Had I known of these statements, I would not have contributed to their campaigns. I am requesting that they give my contributions to charity," said Griffin, who donated $100 to each candidate.

The Arkansas Republican House Caucus followed, saying the views of Hubbard and Fuqua "are in no way reflective of, or endorsed by, the Republican caucus. The constituencies they are seeking to represent will ultimately judge these statements at the ballot box."

Then Webb, who has spearheaded the party's attempt to control the Legislature, said the writings "were highly offensive to many Americans and do not reflect the viewpoints of the Republican Party of Arkansas. While we respect their right to freedom of expression and thought, we strongly disagree with those ideas."

Webb, though, accused state Democrats of using the issue as a distraction.

Democrats themselves have been largely silent, aside from the state party's tweet and Facebook post calling attention to the writings. A Democratic Party spokesman didn't immediately return a call for comment Saturday.

The two candidates share other political and religious views on their campaign websites.

Hubbard, who sponsored a failed bill in 2011 that would have severely restricted immigration, wrote on his website that the issue is still among his priorities, as is doing "whatever I can to defend, protect and preserve our Christian heritage."

Fuqua blogs on his website. One post is titled, "Christianity in Retreat," and says "there is a strange alliance between the liberal left and the Muslim religion."

"Both are antichrist in that they both deny that Jesus is God in the flesh of man, and the savior of mankind. They both also hold that their cause should take over the entire world through violent, bloody, revolution," the post says.

In a separate passage, Fuqua wrote "we now have a president that has a well documented history with both the Muslim religion and Communism."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ark-gop-calls-candidates-statements-offensive-212508499.html

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