YouTube Announces Top 10 Videos of 2012

YouTube has just released their top 10 videos of 2012 along with one dazzling video bound to become a viral sensation in its own right.

Watch the clip to see the Rewind YouTube Style video featuring the website's biggest stars acting out a parody of Gangnam Style and Call Me Maybe. The video was shot at the new YouTube Space in Los Angeles, a place for YouTube creators to come learn, collaborate, and create great content to put up on their YouTube channels.

Check out the list of 2012's greatest YouTube moments below:

1) PSY - Gangnam Style: The Korean pop music video that surprised the world is set to hit 1 billion views and has become the most viewed video of all time in just six months.

2) Walk off the Earth: This is the most-viewed cover song of 2012, attracting 140 million views this year.

3) KONY 2012: This video contained a call to action and collected 31 million views in a single day -- the most views ever for a YouTube video.

4) Call Me Maybe - Bieber, Gomez, Pena: This video, covering the song of the summer, kicked off a trend of lip sync videos that spanned from the Harvard baseball team and celebs to Olympians.

5) Epic Rap Battles - Obama vs. Romney: This episode featured well-known Obama impersonator Alphacat, and is one of the better known instances of the 2012 trend of Obama and Romney videos.

6) Dramatic Surprise: This video, featuring a mysterious sign in the middle of a Flemish square, brought in 25 million views in its first week.

7) Why You Asking All Them Questions: Comedian Emmanuel Hudson's popularity exploded this year partly from this video that garnered 39 million views -- almost half of which came from mobile devices.

8) Lindsey Stirling: Lindsey's trademark dubstep violin styles created a lot of buzz this year -- especially in the U.S., Germany and Poland. This video, which was shot by Lindsey's fellow YouTube creator Devin Graham, has over 500,000 likes and 100,000 comments.

9) Facebook Parenting: This video taught us not to mess with Dad. Bringing in 11 million views in one day, this video was the catalyst for an international discussion about parenting and Facebook.

10) Stratos Highlights: This live stream of Felix Baumgartner's free-fall from 128,000 feet shattered previous live stream records with 8 million concurrent views.

Visit youtube.com/rewind for more.

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‘His smile was larger than life’

Andrea Peyser

IN NEWTOWN, CONN.

He looked as if he was asleep.

I thank God for that.

Jack Armistead Pinto, a little boy with a big and important name, lay in a pure white casket, eyes shut as if in slumber. He wore a small, white-and-red Jersey bearing the No. 80, for Victor Cruz, his beloved New York Giants player. In each chubby fist was a small, gray stuffed whale, along with rosary beads from which hung a tiny metal crucifix.

He cannot be gone.

If Jack had the chance to grow into a man, the small boy with the infectious grin and enormous personality might have played for the Giants one day. For Jack was a nimble and talented athlete, even at a tender age, said Wally, the dad of his best friend, J.J.

We’ll never know.

Jack was 6 when he died.

Crushing grief so great it threatened to swallow this small town washed up on the Honan Funeral Home yesterday, where hundreds of people lined up for hours to say goodbye to Jack. A child who never had a chance.

It was up to Jack’s father, Dean, to comfort the many mourners who hugged him, wordlessly, and wept into the arms of Jack’s mom, Tricia.

“Just think of our baby boy, Jack,” said Dean, tears staining his face.

“Just think of our baby boy.”

Jack’s was among the first of 26 funerals for those who died in this town, torn by senseless violence, ripped by unimaginable tragedy. Twenty of the dead are children, each just 6 or 7, who made the grievous mistake of coming to Sandy Hook Elementary on Friday.

The funeral home was adorned with flowers, letters and a white Teddy bear — along with many photos of little kids, their faces all asking an unanswerable question:

Why?

“Jack was one of Jesus’ lambs,’’ said Pastor Rob Morris of Christ the King Lutheran Church. “All of us are asking, ‘Where was God when this happened?’ ”

The pastor answered the question simply:

“He was with Jack.

“Today we weep together as Jesus wept when he was on this earth.’’

Pastor Morris’ voice broke with pain.

“He wept for everyone who went to Sandy Hook Elementary School. He wept for 20 children.

“He wept for Jack.”

But the pastor did not mention the name of the man who brought such unfathomable grief. No one, not one mourner or minister, not Jack’s grieving family, mentioned the name Adam Lanza.

This was a day to remember Jack.

A friend of the Pinto family, Mary, talked of Jack’s large personality. “From the moment Jack arrived in a room, he attracted all the attention,” she said.

He adored his big brother, Ben, too.

“He followed Ben anywhere. He was so proud you were his big brother,” said Mary.

J.J.’s dad added, “His smile was larger than life.”

The boys were inseparable.

“He and J.J. would run around the house like two wild animals,’’ Wally said. “We’d say, ‘Jack, would you like a hot dog?’

“ ‘Is J.J. having a hot dog?’ ”

“ ‘Jack, would you like to go swimming?’ ’’

“ ‘Is J.J. going swimming?’ ”

Jack was an avid wrestler at school. He once told the coach he lost a tooth, and the coach took it. Jack immediately went back to wrestle.

Eventually, his mom asked where his tooth was.

“Coach has it.”

“Now, when someone loses a tooth,” said Wally, “they call it a Pinto Break.”

Mourners’ laughter got mixed up with their tears. They celebrated a boy whom Wally called “a real ego booster.” The kind of kid who always told others, “Good job!” — whether or not they deserved it.

“Jack is a model for all of us, young and old,” Wally said.

My heart is breaking.

Jack Pinto was precious. Kind, strong and brave, he was a bright light, taken too soon.

This town will never get over his loss.

andrea.peyser@nypost.com

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American Airlines adds new agreements, flights in South America

In a nod to the importance of Latin America for its business, American Airlines on Monday announced new codeshare agreements with airlines in the region as well as new routes.

American has agreed to codeshare with TAM Airlines, based in Sao Paulo, and LAN Colombia, both part of LATAM Airlines Group.

The airline also said that it will add new routes in late 2013 between Miami and two destinations in Brazil: Curitiba and Porto Alegre. American also plans to add service between Dallas/Fort Worth and Bogota late next year.

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Sperm whale dies off Pompano Beach coast

The carcass of a 40-foot sperm whale that apparently died as it neared the shore off of Pompano Beach on Sunday afternoon later drifted back out to sea, ending a drama that had drawn the attention of beachgoers and scientists alike.

The whale was spotted about noon offshore near the 600 block of North Ocean Boulevard, according to the Broward Sheriff’s Office.

Read the full story at Sun-Sentinel.com.

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‘Chokers’ wild!

Now they’ve both been acquitted of throttling transsexuals.

Kinky FDNY hunk Taylor Murphy, who successfully fought off felony strangulation charges brought by his jealous, blond, pre-op transsexual ex-girlfriend, is now dating another woman wannabe with a far more serious strangulation on her rap sheet.

Brunette pre-op transsexual Wanda Batista, 32, was all smiling and supportive of Murphy as she walked arm-in-arm with him at Manhattan Supreme Court last week, batting her eyelashes and calling him her “giant teddy bear.”

But in December 2004, the towering Batista was tried on charges she had fatally choked her transsexual pimp — and in a bizarre karmic twist, Batista was acquitted by a Brooklyn jury, just as her beefy fireman would be in Manhattan eight years later.

Steven Hirsch

NICE PAIR: Taylor Murphy, cleared of choking one transsexual lover, leaves court with another, Wanda Batista, who was acquitted of a strangle slay.

“The motive was money,” a law-enforcement source told The Post of the 2004 case. “They went there to rob her and ended up killing her,” the source said of victim Paola Matos, 31, a post-op transsexual who was found dead in the bedroom of her Bay Ridge apartment brothel.

“Police believed she was the killer — just the jury didn’t believe it,” the source said of Batista, who was a 24-year-old admitted prostitute at the time she was charged with choking Matos with her hands in a dispute over $4,000 Batista had allegedly made turning tricks but had failed to turn over to the doomed madam.

Batista — whose first name then was Fernando — fled to Puerto Rico after the killing, but was arrested there and brought back for trial, the source said. Jurors acquitted her of murder but hung on a charge of manslaughter. The case was not retried.

Last week, in the audience at her hunky hose-handler’s own choking trial — he was acquitted of the nonfatal assault against Claudia Charriez, 31 — Batista turned ashen, then waved her hand dismissively when asked by a reporter about her old strangulation rap.

Batista — who, like Charriez, has an active escort ad online, hers under the name Vanity Bucci — declined to comment.

Murphy was acquitted Thursday of choking Charriez in their Midtown hotel-room bed, but convicted of felony criminal contempt for contacting her in more than 1,000 phone calls, texts and e-mails, in violation of an order of protection.

He is due to be sentenced Feb. 20 by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice A. Kirke Bartley, and faces anywhere from no jail time to four years in prison.

dauer@nypost.com

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Five years after the recession, a slow recovery plods on

Five years ago this month, the Great Recession began. Which leads to this question: How much longer until South Florida can erase the damage?

Officially, the recession ended in June 2009. According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the national economy began contracting in December 2007 and did not grow again for 19 months. Using taxable sales figures, it’s probably safe to say South Florida experienced a longer downturn. Overall spending contracted for the first time in South Florida in March 2007 and didn’t post a year-over-year gain until February 2010.

“Miami was at the forefront of the housing boom and bust,’’ said Karl Kuykendall, an economist who follows South Florida for IHS Global Insight. “It’s no surprise Miami was early into the recession and somewhat late coming out.”

But whatever the actual duration of the downturn, it doesn’t take much math to realize the economy still feels shaky. South Florida lost its first net job in more than two years in October, when a tiny decline of 300 payroll slots interrupted 26 months of consistent expansion. The upcoming November report out Friday will show whether the losing streak continues.

And while unemployment is off near-record highs set in April 2010, more than 180,000 South Floridians were listed as officially out of work in the last count. That’s almost 90 percent more than the 98,000 people listed as out of work in the first month of the recession.

Tourism posted an early recovery, particularly in Miami-Dade, where foreign visitors helped hotels shake-off a sharp drop in U.S. vacationers and business travelers. But the recession lingers in Broward’s tourism industry, which is just now retiring past records.

Housing suffered the most dramatic crash throughout the recession and was also the last of the major indicators to begin its recovery. The Case-Shiller real estate index pegs May 2006 as the peak of the bubble in South Florida. Although each neighborhood is different, the average South Florida house worth $200,000 that month would have fallen down to $97,600 by the time the market hit bottom just over a year ago, in November 2011.

Values have recovered 9 percent since then, meaning the same house should be worth just over $105,0000. That’s a loss of 47 percent over six years.

Recovering from that kind of crash takes time, and five years clearly isn’t enough. To give a hint of the progress underway, Business Monday checked into businesses and residents on the frontlines of the recovery. The reports follow:

Housing

After fending off a foreclosure and battling to get out from under an onerous option ARM mortgage, Marie and Wilson Destin recently worked out a loan modification on their 4-bedroom, 2-bathroom house near Miami Lakes.

With the help of Neighborhood Housing Services of South Florida, a nonprofit agency that helps people navigate the Byzantine home financing landscape, the Destins cut their monthly mortgage payment to $1,500 from $1,900 under a new fixed-rate loan.

In 2006, when the housing market was booming, the Haitian-American couple had taken out an option ARM loan on the property, which they had owned for several years.

“Somebody came to the house and approached me with an option ARM loan,’’ said Wilson Destin. “They said I would pay less.’’

The option ARM — which has triggered financial woes for thousands of homeowners during the downturn — allowed for flexible payments and negative amortization, practically encouraging people to defer payments.

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7-year-old in critical condition after accident

Police were investigating an accident involving a 7-year-old who was struck by a vehicle in a Lauderhill neighborhood late Saturday, Lauderhill Police spokesman Rick Rocco said.

The vehicle and its driver, who has not yet been identified, remained on scene after the incident near the intersection of Northwest 27th Court and 56th Avenue.

The child was transported to Broward Health Medical Center in critical condition immediately after the incident, police said.

Details of the accident were not immediately available.

This post will be updated as we receive more information.

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Tumblr Users Flock to Mashable Comment Thread

Tumblr Is Down

When Tumblr went down Wednesday evening, users flocked to Mashable to express their rage and disbelief.

Click here to view this gallery.

[More from Mashable: Mysterious Package Addressed to Indiana Jones Arrives at UChicago]

Where were you the day that Tumblr went down? Whether you were at home, at work or on the move, it’s possible that you somehow ended up on Mashable. That was the case for thousands of Tumblr users, who, desperate for their GIF fix after a Tumblr outage on Wednesday, found themselves commenting on a Mashable story about the glitch.

Frustrated Tumblr frequenters left without a blogging platform transformed the comment thread on Mashable’s story into a makeshift Tumblr dashboard. Users gathered to commiserate, voice their anger and post GIFs to express their feelings. The micro-community that sprung up in the post made these the top comments on Mashable this week.

[More from Mashable: The Top Comments on Mashable This Week]

We recently renovated our commenting system to allow readers to embed video and images, a feature Wednesday’s commenters took full advantage of. By the time Tumblr was again functional, the story had accrued over 4,000 comments. Users traded domain names, discussed their blogs and, above all, bemoaned a lack of access to the site. YouTube user moviepimpdj posted a video of the rapidly moving comment thread.

This week we also saw major changes to Facebook’s privacy settings, with our readers feeling mixed emotions about the shift. The community mused on what 2013 might hold with respect to responsive design.

What were your favorite comments from the Mashable community this week? Get involved with the discussion by signing up for Mashable Follow. You could see your voice in our next weekly roundup!

Image courtesy of Flickr, kurichan+

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Beloved daughter, taken by a monster

Andrea Peyser

IN NEWTON, CONN.

Her eyes. I’ll remember those beautiful eyes as long as I breathe.

Like practically every little girl, Emilie Parker loved pink. She adored rainbows and ribbons and fishing with her daddy in the river running behind their house.

But mostly, she enjoyed doting and fussing over her two little sisters, Samantha and Madeline, who came into the world, improbably, after Emilie’s birth.

Kind and wise beyond her years, with gorgeous, long, blond hair, Emilie was like a little mommy, a close family friend told me. Yet it’s Emilie’s blue eyes, so full of joy and wonder and excitement, that will haunt me until I leave this earth.

AP

TORN APART: Alissa and Robbie Parker with daughters Samantha, Madeline and Emilie (far right).

AP

The grieving parents in shock after the massacre that left Emilie dead.

Those eyes look up at you from the side of her father, Robbie, on a Facebook page created by friends Brad Schultz and Alan Prothero. Those eyes gaze happily on her little sisters.

It’s hard to believe she is gone. For Emilie was among the littlest victims of madman Adam Lanza.

On Friday morning, Lanza, 20, shot his mother in the face, killing her in their house. He drove her car to Sandy Hook Elementary School, arriving as Emilie’s class was just settling down,

Clad in black, Lanza forced his way into the school, State Police Lt. Paul Vance revealed yesterday. He killed the principal and a staffer.

Then he strolled into the little girl’s classroom, taking aim with his mom’s guns at the small, vulnerable pupils.

And he opened fire.

When he was done, 20 children were dead, along with six adults. Plus one crazed gunman.

Before she could enjoy Christmas, or again smell the fish she so loved catching, Emilie died.

She was 6 years old.

Near Emilie’s classroom, another drama was playing out. First-grade teacher Kaitlin Roig heard the gunshots, saw the blood. She knew what was coming.

She stuffed her students into a tiny bathroom and told them to be quiet. Then she said something she’d never before uttered to her young charges.

She told them, “I love you so much.’’

Roig started to cry at the memory.

“I thought we were all going to die,” she told ABC.

“I wanted it to be the last thing they heard — not gunfire in the hall.”

But Roig’s kids didn’t die. Others were not so lucky.

Emilie’s parents, Robbie and Alissa Parker, tried for a long while to have children. “Finally, they were blessed’’ with Emilie, family friend Brooke Prothero told me. Two baby girls followed.

The Parkers had moved to Connecticut from Utah more than a year ago so Robbie could study to be a physician’s assistant.

On the day of the shooting, like so many parents, the Parkers were frantic. They waited all day for word. None came.

Brooke’s husband, Alan, received texts in Utah. “We can’t find her. We still can’t find her.”

Finally, two minutes before 3 p.m., word came. Emilie had died. Her parents already knew.

Yesterday, the Parkers were still waiting. Waiting for Emilie’s tiny remains. Waiting to find out how she died. Please, God, let it have been quick.

They also needed to figure out how to explain to two little sisters that Emilie was never coming home.

“Robbie is a fine man,” said Alan Prothero. “He’s a good father. An educated individual. He believes in God. Right now, he has the weight of the world on his shoulders.”

As for Alissa, “She’s a mom who just lost her baby. There’s not much to say.’’

In Sandy Hook, people wait for healing that may never come.

Parents, hug your children extra tight. The monsters are real.

apeyser@nypost.com

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Miami in spotlight at AVCC, other entrepreneurship events

Entrepreneurs from around the world took the stage during this packed week of entrepreneurship events in Miami: Florida International University’s Americas Venture Capital Conference (known as AVCC), HackDay, Wayra’s Global DemoDay and Endeavor’s International Selection Panel.

The events, all part of the first Innovate MIA week, also put the spotlight on Miami as it continues to try to develop into a technology hub for the Americas.

“While I like art, I absolutely love what is happening today... The time has come to become a tech hub in Miami,” said Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez, who kicked off the venture capital conference on Thursday. He told the audience of 450 investors and entrepreneurs about the county’s $1 million investment in the Launch Pad Tech Accelerator in downtown Miami.

“I have no doubt that this gathering today will produce new ideas and new business ventures that will put our community on a fast track to becoming a center for innovative, tech-driven entrepreneurship,” Gimenez said.

Brad Feld, an early-stage investor and a founder of TechStars, cautioned that won’t happen overnight. Building a startup community can take five, 10, even 15 years, and those leading the effort, who should be entrepreneurs themselves, need to take the long-term view, he told the audience via video. “You can create very powerful entrepreneurial ecosystems in any city... I’ve spent some time in Miami, I think you are off to a great start.”

Throughout the two-day AVCC at the JW Brickell Marriott, as well as the Endeavor and Wayra events, entrepreneurs from around the world pitched their companies, hoping to persuade investors to part with some of their green.

And in some cases, the entrepreneurs could win money, too. During the venture capital conference, 29 companies —including eight from South Florida such as itMD, which connects doctors, patients and imaging facilities to facilitate easy access of records — competed for more than $50,000 in cash and prizes through short “elevator’’ pitches. Each took questions from the judges, then demoed their products or services in the conference “Hot Zone,” a room adjoining the ballroom. Some companies like oLyfe, a platform to organize what people share online, are hoping to raise funds for expansion into Latin America. Others like Ideame, a trilingual crowdfunding platform, were laser focused on pan-Latin American opportunities.

Winning the grand prize of $15,000 in cash and art was Trapezoid Digital Security of Miami, which provides hardware-based security solutions for enterprise and cloud environments. Fotopigeon of Tampa, a photo-sharing and printing service targeting the military and prison niches, scored two prizes.

The conference offered opportunities to hear formal presentations on current trends — among them the surge of start-ups in Brazil; the importance of mobile apps and overheated company valuations — and informal opportunities to connect with fellow entrepreneurs.

Speakers included Gaston Legorburu of SapientNitro, Albert Santalo of CareCloud and Juan Diego Calle of .Co Internet, all South Florida entrepreneurs. Jerry Haar, executive director of FIU’s Pino Global Entrepreneurship Center, which produced the conference with a host of sponsors, said the organizers worked hard to make the conference relevant to both the local and Latin American audience, with panels on funding and recruiting for startups, for instance.

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