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30 Best Pictures of 2017

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KickFire

KickFire

How KickFire Classics Toys Awakens Your Inner Child

Remember when “fun” was more than pixels, apps, and WiFi? When you were limited only by your imagination, and not by the number of gigabytes on your device? At KickFire Classics, we believe there is nothing quite like classic toys to awaken the inner child in all of us!

Webster’s Dictionary defines “classic” as: an item judged over time to be of the highest quality and outstanding of its kind. Since video games and electronic devices don’t fit in that definition, we are committed to finding toys from our childhoods that are challenging and exciting enough to capture the attention of today’s youth.

As parents ourselves, we encourage our kids to experience good ‘ole fashioned fun. Playing outside, and being active are some of our favorite things! On any given day you can find Janelle out biking, longboarding, or in search of a new adventure. Cory is a true outdoorsman and can’t stand being cooped up inside for long periods of time, and Ty is busy entertaining his kids with his ninja-like juggling skills. We don’t have the attention spans to sit through endless hours of TV, video games and movies–we want to be out moving, and want our kids to do the same! So, our passion for fun classic toys from our childhoods was born.

Recapture the joy of childhood, and fire up your kids passion for activities by introducing them to our line of classic toys! Finally, a line of toys your kids will love and you will understand!

‘Despacito’ Is Now the Most Viewed Video in YouTube History

‘Despacito’ Is Now the Most Viewed Video in YouTube History

‘Despacito’ Is Now the Most Viewed Video in YouTube History

August 04, 2017

Only 204 days after first being uploaded to YouTube, Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s breakout hit “Despacito” has officially become the most viewed video in YouTube history. And with 3,000,730,629 views and counting, the video today also became the first to reach the once unfathomable 3 billion marker on the platform.

“Breaking the record for most viewed video of all time on YouTube is truly incredible, not only for me but for Latin music and our culture.” Fonsi explained in a statement. “Working with a platform like YouTube has allowed our song to reach audiences all over the world, something that just a decade ago was nearly impossible.”

The new record comes less than a month after Wiz Khalifa’s “See You Again” took over YouTube’s top spot from PSY, who held the crown for over four and half years with his ubiquitous clip for “Gangnam Style.” And while the previous record holders and other YouTube heavyweights like Justin Bieber – “Sorry,” Mark Ronson – “Uptown Funk” and Major Lazer – “Lean On” have displayed impressive trajectories, nothing quite compares to the unprecedented growth of “Despacito.” Averaging 14.5 million views per day since upload, the video already owned the record for fastest video to 1.5, 2 and 2.5 billion views, reaching each of those milestones in less than 1/2 of the time of the previous record holders. See how other top viewed music videos on YouTube compare to Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s collaborative effort here.

Today’s numbers are just the latest in a growing list of accomplishments for the international chart topper, which last month became the most liked video on YouTube. The clip is currently the most viewed video of the year in over 40 countries, earning massive numbers in every corner of the world — 385 million views in Mexico, 224 million in Brazil, 146 million in Italy, 85 million in France, 41 million in Indonesia, 33 million in India, 18 million in Israel, 10 million in Egypt, and millions more throughout the globe.

But Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee are not the only Latin artists currently experiencing a massive growth spurt, with acts like Nicky JamMalumaJ Balvin, and Ozuna each already earning over 1 billion views across YouTube in 2017. Around the world, monthly view counts for top Latin acts have skyrocketed since this time last year, growing 940 percent in Indonesia, 821 percent in the Philippine, 463 percent in India, 284 percent in South Africa, 260 percent in Israel, 270 percent in New Zealand, 237 percent in Turkey, 178 percent in the U.K. and 110 percent in Canada. And as further proof of the explosion, Latin artists make up a full 1/3 of the slots on this week’s YouTube Global Tracks Chart.

Kevin Meenan, YouTube Music Trends Manager

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10 Secrets of North Korea

10 Secrets of North Korea

10

Labor Camps

Labor Camp
North Korea currently operates about 16 labor camps—massive compounds scattered across the mountainous terrain and enclosed by electrified barbed wire fences. It’s estimated that somewhere around 200,000 prisoners are held in these camps at any given time.

9

Three Generations Of Punishment

North Korean law dictates a “three generations of punishment” policy: If you commit a crime, your children and grandchildren will carry the stains of your sin and be punished accordingly. That means that if your grandfather committed a crime, you get to bear the full brunt of his punishment. As mentioned above, this usually leads to entire lives spent inside prison camps. One of the worst offenses that a North Korean can commit is attempting to leave North Korea, which can justify either immediate execution or an extended sentence in one of their labor camps.

Criticizing the government, no matter how slightly, is also considered a treasonous offense. Simply learning about other cultures warrants a death sentence. Recent smuggling between the border of North Korea and China has allowed some people to get DVDs of Western movies—which are illegal. The North Korean National Security Agency has begun raiding villages in the north of the country by shutting off the electricity to a whole village then storming into houses and checking which DVDs are stuck in the DVD player.

8

Insurance Fraud

Insurance Fraud

The North Korean economy is, in all measurable aspects, completely failing. Exports are virtually nonexistent due to their reluctance to interact with foreign markets, as well as the fact that they struggle to feed everyone living within their own borders. The current population of North Korea is about 25 million, and the average GDP per person is about $500 (for comparison, in the US it hovers around $50,000).

7

Arms Dealing

Replicas of a North Korean Scud-B missil

Insurance fraud aside, the United Nations has also accused North Korea of selling illegal weapons and nuclear technology to the highest bidder, which usually means countries in Africa and the Middle East. For example, in 2012, the UN seized a North Korean shipment heading to Syria which contained nearly 450 graphite cylinders meant for use in ballistic missiles. In 2009, shipments to both Iran and the Republic of Congo were caught in transit—one had 35 tons of missile components, and the other contained Soviet-era tanks.

6

Electricity

north korea satellite nasa lights OLD

The capital city of North Korea, Pyongyang, is something of a self-styled utopia reserved for the population’s elite. Armed guards patrol the borders to keep the lower classes from entering, and most of the residents of Pyongyang live in something approaching luxury—with a given value of “luxury” (maybe they don’t get enough food, but they at least get more than everyone else in the country). Yet even the three million upper-class citizens aren’t given electricity for more than an hour or two a day.

5

Three-Caste System

North Korea Kim Jong Il

In 1957, when Kim Il Sung was struggling to retain control over North Korea, he launched a massive investigation into the populace of the country. The end result of that investigation was a completely changed social system that separated everybody into three classes: “hostiles,” “wavering,” and “core.” The designations were based not on the person, but on their family history.

4

Human Feces Fertilizer

Fertilizer

North Korea’s geography is mountainous and arid, with long, frigid winters and short, monsoon-filled summers. About 80 percent of the country is located either on the side of a mountain or at the top of one, which means most of the land is terrible for farming. Historically, North Korea has always relied on foreign aid to get the fertilizers it needs: The Soviet Union gave them fertilizer before it collapsed, and until recently, South Korea was sending them 500,000 tons of fertilizer each year to help boost food production.

3

South Korean Citizenship

Citizen

To put it simply, there are so many people fleeing North Korea that there’s nowhere for all of them to go. China’s official policy is to send them back across the border. There they are either executed or consigned to a labor camp for decades of brutal work that usually turns out to be just as effective as any death penalty. Only South Korea maintains a policy of near-absolute clemency: All North Korean defectors (who aren’t criminals) are immediately provided with citizenship, job training, and for those who need it, psychological counseling. They’re also given a place to live and $800 a month. As an incentive for businesses, the South Korean government offers a bonus of $1,800 to anyone who will hire a refugee.

2

Cannibalism

North Kore Hunger

A crippling famine struck North Korea between 1994 and 1998. Widespread flooding left most of the farm land unusable. When that was combined with an ever-increasing debt to the Soviet Union that prevented any importing of food, entire cities drifted into a twilight of death. It’s estimated that close to 3.5 million people died of starvation during that time—more than 10 percent of the population.

1

Torture Prisons

To date, very few people have escaped from North Korea’s labor camps and lived to tell the tale. And of these refugees, only one known person has escaped from the dreaded Camp 14, widely considered to be the most brutal labor camp in the country and reserved for only the most serious political criminals. That person was Shin Dong-hyuk, whose story is told in the incredible book Escape From Camp 14.

Mimosa Memory

Mimosa Memory

Do Mimosa’s have memories? Some experts believe so. Mimosas have the ability to move their leaves when encountering outside influences. Watch the video below to see the plants in action.

Mimosa is a genus of about 400 species of herbs and shrubs. The generic name is derived from the Greek word μιμος meaning, an “actor” or “mime,” suggesting its ‘sensitive leaves’ which seem to ‘mimic conscious life’.

Members of this genus are among the few plants capable of rapid movement. The leaves of the Mimosa close quickly when touched. Some mimosas raise their leaves in the day and lower them at night, and experiments done by Jacques d’Ortous de Mairan on mimosas in 1729 provided the first evidence of biological clocks. Reference Wikipedia

Sheriff Shaq

Sheriff Shaq

Shaq Says He’ll Run For Sheriff In Henry County In 2020

ATLANTA, GA — Retired basketball Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal has made it into the record books in high school, college and in the NBA, but he is poised to add yet another badge to his illustrious career: Sheriff of Henry County.

Shaq owns a home in Henry, about 20 minutes from Atlanta, and he said earlier this year that top cop was the next job for him, it was just a question of where.

O’Neal left no doubts this week when he told the Washington Post that he plans to run for sheriff in Henry in 2020. Some thought he’d pick a place closer to his job. Shaq works in Midtown at TNT studios as an NBA analyst.

“I don’t think I could be sheriff in Florida and work in Atlanta,” he told the Post. “So I bought a house in Atlanta, and I’m going to be in Atlanta full time, so it’s like, let me try here first, and maybe when it’s all said and done, I could go back and be the sheriff in Florida.”

No word yet on whether current Henry Sheriff Keith McBrayer will challenge the 7-footer.

Image via Kevork Djansezian / Staff / Getty Images Sport

Eastern tiger swallowtail enjoying its tulip tree.

Eastern tiger swallowtail enjoying its tulip tree.

Turn on the volume. This is not sped up. Eastern tiger swallowtail enjoying its tulip tree.

Papilio glaucus, the eastern tiger swallowtail, is a species of swallowtail butterfly native to eastern North America. It is one of the most familiar butterflies in the eastern United States,[3] where it is common in many different habitats. It has also been found in Olüdeniz, Turkey. It flies from spring to fall, during which it produces two to three broods. Adults feed on the nectar of many species of flowers, mostly from those of the ApocynaceaeAsteraceae, and Fabaceae families. P. glaucus has a wingspan measuring 7.9 to 14 cm (3.1 to 5.5 in). The male is yellow with four black “tiger stripes” on each forewing. Females may be either yellow or black, making them dimorphic. The yellow morph is similar to the male, but with a conspicuous band of blue spots along the hindwing, while the dark morph is almost completely black.

The green eggs are laid singly on plants of the Magnoliaceae and Rosaceae families. Young caterpillars are brown and white; older ones are green with two black, yellow, and blue eyespots on the thorax. The caterpillar will turn brown prior to pupating. It will reach a length of 5.5 centimetres (2.2 in). The chrysalis varies from a whitish color to dark brown. Hibernation occurs in this stage in locations with cold winter months.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papilio_glaucus

Google might have a complete list of almost everything you’ve ever looked at.

Google might have a complete list of almost everything you’ve ever looked at.

Google might have a complete list of almost everything you’ve ever looked at.

 The list will at least include every Google search you’ve ever done while signed in. But if you use Google Chrome, it will also include just about every website you’ve ever visited, all cataloged by date and time, and completely searchable.

The list can be quite helpful. All of the information is completely searchable, so if you remember just one part of a website’s name or only the day you visited it, for instance, you can find it back out again.

Google collects the information in part so that it can be useful to you – jogging your memory, helping you find past websites, and learning more about you so that it can recommend more relevant things. But it is mostly so that Google can use that information for its ads, learning what you’re into and what marketing is most likely to appeal.

So if that makes you worry, it’s easy to turn the collection off. (You’ll still get ads, they’ll just be more generic.) That’s done by heading to the Activity Controls page, and turning off the data collection.

The page is similar to Google’s audio history page, which collects the recordings that your phone makes of you. Like the search results, the recordings are supposed to be useful – but you can easily stop them being stored from the same page.

Google also keeps information on where its users have been. That too can be viewed on a handy timeline at the location history page, where it can also be turned off and deleted.

BEHAVIORAL TARGETING

BEHAVIORAL TARGETING

BEHAVIORAL TARGETING

Creating connections with precise audience and behavioral data

Behavioral targeting is about reaching customers during “Micro-Moments” that happen throughout the entire customer journey. Our industry-leading Behavioral Targeting solution drives traffic to your site by reaching and influencing audiences based on their interests and browsing behavior. This type of targeting is a powerful online advertising method that generates super effective and efficient campaign results while minimizing your wasted budget. Our behavioral targeting technology has access to over 45 networks and ad exchanges giving you the advantage to serve your ad on millions of publishers across all devices. Every ad campaign is custom-built, daily managed and optimized for performance. Additionally, we provide in-house ad design service to help maximize clicks and conversion. Win your next customer with our second to none Behavioral Advertising solutions.

AUDIENCE / INTEREST TARGETING

This form of audience targeting reaches consumers who match your customer’s demographic profile – ie. interested in the outdoors, foodies, love movie night and green cars. Interest targeting ensures that you are serving up your campaign to audiences who are likely interested in your, or your competitor’s category based on their browsing history. We will target consumers who will more likely click on your advertisement and engage customers who will be excited about your brand.

CONTEXTUAL TARGETING

Contextual targeting delivers relevant messages to users based on the type of content they consume. Our system scans publisher websites in real time to determine its central theme, which is then matched to your ad using keywords, topic selections, your language, location targeting, recent browsing history, and other factors. This in-depth system of pairing proves to be an effective way to reach consumers who are actively researching your category or product online.

LOOK-ALIKE AUDIENCE TARGETING

Attracting new online users to your site is a key factor in growing your business or brand. Look-alike targeting is our way to reach new audiences by targeting similar characteristics and behaviors of your most valuable customers. Our system creates a profile of your ‘best website visitor’ that is updated daily. We then deliver your ad to new potential customers who match this profile.

IN-MARKET AUDIENCE TARGETING

Reach potential customers while they are actively browsing, researching, or comparing the types of products you sell. To qualify someone as being in-market for a specific product or service, our system considers clicks on related ads and subsequent conversions, along with the content of sites and pages they visit and the recency and frequency of visits. In-Market Targeting can drive incremental conversions, helping you connect with consumers as the last step before they make a purchase decision.

RETARGETING

Retargeting gives you the ability to reach consumers after they have interacted with your website. Our system tracks consumers visiting your website, and then serves ads to them for a pre-determined length of time. With over 95% publisher reach, we can deliver your Retargeting ads to online users anywhere they browse on both websites and mobile apps. With our Retargeting solutions, you can provide timely touch points to your customers to potentially drive them back to your website throughout the entire customer journey.

PROGRAMMATIC PLUS™

Our Programmatic Plus™ campaign management process ensures the highest level of post-click engagement. Your campaigns are fully optimized programmatically and by a certified Digital Analyst to help you maximize your ROI. Our team monitors your campaign daily to ensure you are consistently acquiring high-quality traffic to your website from verified ad audiences.

REAL-TIME REPORTING

Visibility into your advertising performance is crucial for optimization. Our proprietary platform, HYPERbase™, will provide you with 24/7 access to real-time reporting on all your campaigns. Watch your advertising work for you from your personal dashboard by viewing your website’s traffic and monitoring your campaign’s performance daily. You will see instantly how many people are visiting your site while they are at home or even when they are on-the-go. Our Real-Time Reporting delivers you visibility into the KPIs that matter the most to your business.

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GEO-FENCING

GEO-FENCING

Reach on-the-go consumers as they enter or leave your ‘geo-fence’. Our proprietary hyperlocal targeting technology increases the likelihood of your ads being served in a single or multiple location geo-fence with a radius as small as 25 yards.

GEO-FENCING

Hyper target on the go consumers with 100% efficiency

Our proprietary Geo-Fencing technology offers location-based targeting to put your brand in the hands of the right audience at the right moment, wherever they are. We influence consumers to visit your website by combining multiple layers of GPS and IP targeting around a specified area or at various locations. Our technology will better serve your ads across all devices within mobile apps and web browsers through programmatic buying to give you access to almost all available publishers through a multitude of ad exchanges. With our leading expertise in digital marketing, we will help boost your business by reaching consumers in real time wherever they may be located with our Geo-Fencing advertising solutions.

HYPERLOCAL TARGETING

Target your audience in a manner that matches your advertisement to the context of their physical location. Our hyperlocal technology is so precise that it can target a radius as small as 25 feet. Once they have entered your “geo-fenced” radius, consumers will be served your ads on mobile apps. This targeting will help capture your customers on a more personal level by providing them with special offers that apply to their current location.

COMPETITOR CONQUESTING CAMPAIGNS

Establish your dominance over your competitors with our Conquesting Campaigns. This type of campaign builds a “virtual fence” around a competitor’s location and delivers your ads to potential customers. Our technology aims to steer customers away from the competitor’s doorway and into your own. This advantage ensures your brand stays relevant and timely when consumers enter that “zero-moment” of purchase.

FRANCHISE / MULTILOCATION CAMPAIGNS

As your partner, we can help grow your personal brand and drive foot traffic to your physical storefront. Our Franchise/Multi-location Campaigns offer advanced targeting solutions to reach multiple groups of potential customers based on their location and the activities they are engaged in. Whether they are within an airport, shopping center, or business district, we will deliver your ads to help provide new and returning qualified customers to your business.

PROGRAMMATIC PLUS™

Our Programmatic Plus™ campaign management process ensures the highest level of post-click engagement. Your campaigns are fully optimized programmatically and by a certified Digital Analyst to help you maximize your ROI. Our team monitors your campaign daily to ensure you are consistently acquiring high quality traffic to your website from verified ad audiences.

REAL-TIME REPORTING

Visibility into your advertising performance is crucial for optimization. Our proprietary platform, HYPERbase™, will provide you with 24/7 access to real-time reporting on all your campaigns. Watch your advertising work for you from your personal dashboard by viewing your website’s traffic and monitoring your campaign’s performance daily. You will see instantly how many people are visiting your site while they are at home or even when they are on-the-go. Our Real-Time Reporting delivers you visibility into the KPIs that matter the most to your business.

Contact Our Team

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