Bethesda, MD (BlackNews.com) -- RLJ Entertainment Inc., (NASDAQ: RLJE), created by Robert L. Johnson, founder of Black Entertainment Television (BET) and The RLJ Companies, today announced the launch of two paid channels on YouTube under the "Acorn TV" and "OnCue" brands. RLJ Entertainment is a leading creator, owner and distributor of media content across digital, broadcast and physical platforms, which leverages its branding expertise, access to content and direct to consumer skills to optimize the value of its programs for distinct audiences. RLJ Entertainment was formed in October 2012 through the business combination of RLJ Acquisition, Inc., Image Entertainment, Inc. and Acorn Media Group, Inc.

As with RLJ Entertainment's existing Acorn TV digital channel, the YouTube version (www.youtube.com/AcornTV) will provide viewers with access to the best of British TV with a variety of unique, specially-curated content for consumers who have interest in high quality British TV programs. Content will include the ever popular pastoral mystery Midsomer Murders, Iain Glen (Game of Thrones) starring in the new series Jack Taylor, engaging comedy drama Honest with Amanda Redman, David Suchet (Poirot) in the fantasy series Going Postal, the Royal Shakespeare Company's master acting class starring Judi Dench, Patrick Stewart, and Ben Kingsley in Playing Shakespeare, and many others.

OnCueNetwork is RLJ Entertainment's newest digital channel, offering selected urban themed programming, to include original content, that features some of today's most recognized African American and minority talent. OnCueNetwork (www.youtube.com/oncuenetwork) will provide viewers with an alternative to conventional subscription-based channels by showcasing the best digital films and series, in action, drama, romantic comedies, as well as stand-up comedy, documentaries, music and stage plays. Among the programming features will be: 35 & Ticking starring Kevin Hart and Meagan Good, All Things Fall Apart, starring 50 Cent and Lynn Whitfield,The Last Fall featuring Lance Gross, Nicole Beharie, and Vanessa Bell Calloway, and I Ain't Scared of You (stand-up/documentary), featuring the late comedian Bernie Mac.

"We are pleased with today's launch of these two new subscription-based channels, Acorn and OnCue, that will offer exciting British and urban entertainment across this innovative platform," said Robert L. Johnson, Chairman of RLJ Entertainment. "This announcement marks the beginning of RLJE's goal to become a major player in producing targeted digital entertainment to audiences that are underserved by existing outlets. We believe the subscription model presents not only an opportunity to develop original programming but also create further shareholder value," he concluded.

Miguel Penella, RLJ Entertainment Chief Executive Officer commented on the partnership, "We are thrilled to be in an alliance with Google to bring our unique programming to the over one billion unique users that visit YouTube each month. As the demand for our targeted content continues to grow and we build a following among passionate audiences, YouTube offers a way to diversify the manner in which the content is consumed and another new revenue stream for our business."

RLJ Entertainment is focused on driving growth through the development of interest-based lifestyle entertainment services for targeted audiences in niche genres including British drama and mystery, stand-up comedy, fitness, faith and urban by using new technologies to deliver that content to consumers.

Nationwide (BlackNews.com) -- The Explore Microsoft Internship Program is a 12-week summer internship program that is specifically designed for college underclassmen (freshmen and sophomores) and offers the opportunity to experience working at Microsoft. This program is designed to expose students to the field of software development and encourage students to pursue degrees in computer science, computer engineering, or related technical disciplines through hands-on training and group project experience.

Candidates must be a freshman or sophomore enrolled in a bachelor’s degree program with a demonstrated interest in majoring in computer science, computer engineering, software engineering, or related technical major. Students must have completed an Introduction to Computer Science course (or equivalent class) as well as one semester of calculus (or equivalent) by the start of the program. Finalists will be selected on the basis of eligibility and demonstrated interest in the software industry.

All candidates who meet the above criteria may apply, but they especially encourage applications from groups currently underrepresented in the field of computer science - women, minorities (African American, American Indian, Hispanic), and individuals with disabilities.

For more details and/or to apply, visit:
www.findinternships.com/2013/04/Explore-Microsoft-Internship-Program.html

For other internship opportunities, visit:
www.FindInternships.com

Reposted  from Personal Branding Blog

Today’s job market doesn’t give you the wiggle room to be anything less than exceptional. It’s good to keep these major pitfalls at the top of your mind. Don’t bethat guy.

Want to know how to fail? It’s easy…

1. Don’t Follow Up  Follow up, follow up, follow up. The people you are dealing with have full, busy days. You need to stay top of mind. As long as you are aren’t making more than one to three connection attempts per week, you don’t need to worry about bothering them.
2. Don’t Personalize Your Resume & Cover Letter  Personalization is about two things: showing investment in the opportunity and displaying yourself in the most positive terms possible. Show investment by clearly displaying it through research, connection or visual branding. Consider how to portray yourself and your skills most effectively for each opportunity. This means re-taking and revising the job section of our assessment for each application!
3. Don’t Research  Research is key to showing that you care, that you can find information and that you are intelligent — three key aspects of the job hunt! Make sure you read the whole company website, including the last few months of their blog, Google the company, the CEO and any executives in your field. Additionally, when you know who will be interviewing you, Google them too!
4. Don’t Connect with Lots of People  However many people you are connecting with or connected to, you should aim to meet more. A large, high-quality network is the best safety net you can have for your job search. Research shows that "loose" connections (friends of friends and similar) are where the majority of job opportunities are found.
5. Don’t Send Thank-You Notes  Thank-you notes are a key part of following up. They instill positive feelings about your mutual experience and show that you are organized and effective. Surprise notes, like to the executive assistant who gave you the inside scoop on the dress code, are uber effective and often ensure that you have their vote.
6. Don’t Offer a Clear Value Proposition  Tell companies why they want you! This sounds obvious, but many applicants get caught in stories of what they have done or narratives about what they want. Rather, as a revolutionary, you will tell the company why they want you.
7. Don’t Prepare Your References  There is nothing worse than calling a reference who doesn’t know that they are a reference. And, only slightly better when they don’t know what the industry and position are for the opportunity. Make sure that your references are TOTALLY prepared to speak with potential employers by arming them with the information in advance. Do the work for them — tell them what you want them to say!
8. Be DESPERATE  The only thing you will get if you offer to do anything is nothing. Confidence and initiative are imperative during the job search. You can think of it a bit like dating… no one is attracted to someone desperate. Approach each interaction as an equal.
9. Make It All About You  An application is supposed to be all about you, after all, it is selling you… right? WRONG! This is a very common mistake in sales and it is a killer. Applications, interviews, emails, they are all about the other person and the value you will bring to them. Ninety percent of materials should focus on the core value you will deliver.
10. Don’t Make a Good First Impression  Poor first impressions change the one-mile jog you were about to go on into an uphill marathon. It may not be possible to recover from a bad first impression. To impress, dress a notch up, stand up straight with deliberate eye contact and learn the art of the handshake!
11. Be a Debbie-Downer  Positivity rocks. No one wants to work with a negative nelly and a positive attitude is often the difference between success and failure. Even when talking about the worst boss and job ever-in-the-world, it is important to have a positive outcome, if with strong lessons learned. How can you change your frustration into lessons?
12. Use Only One Strategy  Today’s market is competitive and deep. It’s important to use multiple strategies for your job search — at the same time and, often, for the same position. Don’t only use big job boards, but don’t totally ignore them either. Build your network, but don’t solely depend on it. Anything you can do to decrease your dependence is gold.
13. Don’t Build Your Network Before You Need It  Networks are something unquestionably best built before it is needed. That said, many people who enter the job hunt have to then reach out to contacts that are long overdue, which can be an uncomfortable undertaking. If, rather, your network is fresh and readily abreast, it will be much more quickly useful and powerful.
14. Uhh, Pepper Your Speech, Like, With, Umm, Filler Words  Nothing makes you come across dumber, quicker than littering your speech with verbal ticks. Like, umm and uhhh all count. Practice taking them out!

Don’t be that guy. Be the one who gets the job offer.

By Andrew M. Seaman
(Reuters Health) - Strict school lunch standards that are similar to new regulations from the U.S. government may be tied to healthier body weights among students, according to a new study.

"I think it's evidence that healthier school lunches have a positive effect but it's preliminary evidence. It's far from definitive," said Anne Barnhill, who studies food policy at University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia but was not involved with the new research.

The new findings, published in JAMA Pediatrics on Monday, bode well for the standards introduced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in January 2012 that - among other moves - set maximums for calories offered during lunch and mandate that only skim or reduced-fat milk are offered to students.

Prior to 2012, the USDA only set minimum calorie counts for school lunches. Now, the agency requires school lunches to fall between 550 calories and 850 calories - depending on a child's grade level.

Previous studies questioned whether the USDA's National School Lunch Program, which provides free or reduced-priced meals to low-income students, helped children maintain a healthy weight. Research also found the lunches sometimes didn't meet standards and students who ate those meals tended to be obese.

Dr. Daniel Taber, the new study's lead author from the Institute for Health Research and Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said students who receive free or reduced-price lunches from the government tend to be more obese, but that may be due to their families' low-income status.

And while it's still too early to know the true effects of the new USDA regulations - other public policies could also play a role - the researchers said some states had already implemented their own lunch requirements that exceeded the federal standards by 2012.

STAYING AWAY FROM VENDING MACHINES

For the new study, they compared the gap in obesity prevalence between students in states with strict lunch standards in 2006 and 2007 - before the new regulations took place - to states with less restrictive regulations.

Fewer than ten states exceeded the USDA's standards back then. The states could do that in a variety of ways. For example, they could have increased the amount of fruits and vegetables available to students or mandated schools only offer skim or low-fat milk.

Overall, the researchers found students who received free or reduced-price lunches were more obese than students who did not take part in the USDA program, but the gap in obesity prevalence was much smaller in states with strict lunch standards.

In states that did not exceed the standards, 26 percent of students in the lunch program were considered obese, compared to about 14 percent of students who did not get free or reduced-price lunches.

That compared to about 21 percent of students in the lunch program and about 17 percent of students who weren't in the program in states that exceeded the standards.

What's more, the researchers also found that students in states with strict lunch standards did not seem to compensate with less-healthy food from vending machines or other places.

"We didn't find any evidence of that, and we found healthier school meals have the potential to reduce obesity," Taber said.

Nutritionist Marion Nestle of New York University, who wrote an editorial accompanying the new study, told Reuters Health in an email that the study shows that regulations work.

"This is important work and should stimulate government agencies to take a closer look at what they might do to make the food environment a lot healthier for children and adults," Nestle said.

SOURCE: bit.ly/Ms92Cy JAMA Pediatrics, online April 8, 2013.  Photo:blogworld.com