MakerBot printing out Robot Petting Zoo for Maker Faire

MakerBot printing out Robot Petting Zoo for Maker Faire

Sure, it's no $500 3D printer, but the folks at MakerBot always have plenty of fun stuff floating around their Brooklyn headquarters. Stuff like, you know, a Robot Petting Zoo. The company's prepping a slew of 3D printed 'bots for display at the upcoming Maker Faire in California. CNET's got shots of the robots, each of which have special functionality like old Button Bot pictured above -- not so great for petting, but he likely knows more tricks that your average sheep. More images at the source link below.

MakerBot printing out Robot Petting Zoo for Maker Faire originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Apr 2012 19:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sustainable building experts move into The Beacon, Llanelli's ...

Melin Consultants is the latest firm to move into The Beacon, the landmark hub for innovative and enterprising businesses in Llanelli.
The consultants made the short hop from their previous home at Llys Aur, Dafen, this week. They now occupy a prime top floor, corner office at The Beacon.?
?It?s a very impressive landmark building and the ideal fit for us as a business,? said Melin director Jamie Best.?
?We watched the developments closely when Carmarthenshire Council took over the management of the former Technium building.?
?We are a go-ahead firm and this is a go-ahead building full of innovative and enterprising businesses, so we were glad to move in and join The Beacon family.??
Melin Consultants is a company totally tuned in to the construction industry buzzwords of ?environment and sustainability?.?
The firm is building a Wales-wide reputation as one of the industry experts on sustainable construction. The business has also recently expanded into England with the opening of a office in Bristol.?
The Beacon building was recently officially opened by the Welsh Minister for Business, Enterprise, Technology and Science Edwina Hart.?
The Minister said at the opening that the Welsh Government and local authorities needed to work together to engineer economic recovery in Wales. Growth and sustainable jobs was the future, she said.?
She said there was a need to build a more enterprising private sector and to increase the number of small firms being created in Wales, highlighting a number of recent initiatives to support entrepreneurs, new start ups and micro businesses.?
She said the Beacon Centre for Enterprise would provide Carmarthenshire County Council with an opportunity to develop a vibrant and sustainable business hub for South West Wales.
Mr Best said he was delighted with the facilities at The Beacon.?
?We consider ourselves innovative and enterprising. We specialise in all the things which people value in the construction industry today ? getting environmental issues right and making sure buildings are as sustainable as possible,? he said.?
?It?s an exciting time for the building and construction industry with everyone appreciating the value of getting it right first time in terms of energy savings and sustainability.?
?We are right up there in the vanguard when it comes to technical expertise in this area. We?re probably not on the radar as far as members of the public are concerned, but our name and reputation is growing day by day.?
?Today, the business has eight employees and our new location in Llanelli provides us with an impressive Carmarthenshire home in an iconic building with good links to the motorway.?
Weblink:?
http://www.melinconsultants.co.uk?
Twitter: @melinconsult?
Facebook: Melin Consultants Ltd?
LinkedIn: Melin Consultants?

??Photos attached of Mel and Jamie Best, directors of Melin Consultants in their new office.

Top, Jamie Best outside The Beacon.?

Melin Energy Consultants has been providing SAP & SBEM calculations for local authorities, architects, builders & developers over a number of years.?
All Melin technicians have a wealth of experience in dealing with individual requirements.?
The company motto is "10% calculation 90% solution".?
As a building consultancy specialising in Part L of the Building Regulations and environmental assessing of new buildings, Melin technicians are qualified and accredited to issue certification in all the following fields BREEAM, Code for Sustainable Homes, EPC, SBEM, SAP, air-tightness testing.?
Current Melin projects include working with WRW Construction and Carmarthenshire Council on the new Ysgol y Ffwrnes (Furnace Primary School) project in Llanelli.?
The firm also works for other South Wales local authorities, including Swansea, Neath-Port Talbot, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire.?
The company has licences to provide advice on sustainable construction. Melin Consultants are also members of the Chartered Institute of Building Service Engineers Low Carbon Consultants scheme.?
Contact details: Melin, The Beacon, Llanelli Gate, Dafen, Llanelli, SA14 8LQ?
t: 0845 094 1593?
m: 07800 634804?
e:?jamie@melinconsultants.co.uk

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The Dictator: Wadiyan Games Makes Murder-Sports Fun!

Just in time for the newest Sacha Baron Cohen film comes?The Dictator: Wadiyan Games, a sports title where you play the dictator of that imaginary nation, who will do incredible violence to anyone who beats him at sports. Yes, it?s very silly, but it?s based on a Cohen movie, so what do you expect? Here?s the official description: Download the @FreeAppADay.com Store App and wish for more top rated apps like The Dictator:...

Published: 2012-04-27 16:11:43 GMT

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JMIR--Design of a Website on Nutrition and Physical Activity for ...

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[view this table]
Table 1. Percentage of responses to commonly reported barriers to healthy eating [25-41] and obtaining physical activity [42-58] from adolescents attending initial focus groups.

Healthy Eating and Physical Activity Calculator

Additional focus groups were conducted to develop an online ?calculator? that would be easy to use, in a format acceptable to this age group, and that provided information requested by the adolescents on what and how much to eat and how much physical activity they needed to do. An existing healthy eating calculator developed for adults was used to prompt discussion.

Program Development

Using information obtained from the focus groups, investigators created the online program components. Interviews were then conducted to review the materials prior to finalizing the program.

Interviews

Interviews (conducted in Houston only) followed a semi-structured script. Probes and prompts were used to expand and clarify responses. Print versions of the teen cartoon characters (ie, online role models) and components of the behavior change program were used to guide the discussion. Two types of interviews were conducted: one set was to review role model scripts and teen characters; the second set of interviews was to review online behavior change program content and structure prior to finalizing the program. Participants for the first set of interviews were recruited from the same locations as the focus group participants using procedures described above. The second set of interviews was promoted only at the Children?s Nutrition Research Center in Texas and interviews were conducted with children, relatives, and/or neighbors of faculty and staff.


Focus Groups

In total, 18 initial focus groups?10 on healthy eating (n = 50 participants) and 8 on physical activity (n = 45 participants)?were conducted (Table 2). Participants stated that there should be an initial log-on page where each person could pick an avatar (ie, an online teen cartoon character to serve as a digital guide in the program) [59] and the log-on page should also provide ready access to all the different Web pages available in the behavior change program. Information on basic nutrition and physical activity concepts was also requested, as was information on what they should eat (ie, what foods were healthy) and how much physical activity they should get each day. They also liked the idea of goal setting and problem solving, as well as having a goal sheet that included a list of goals from which they could choose, a plan of action, and a self-monitoring form. Goal review should appear at subsequent log-ins. A blog was thought to be an important component, but only if entries were prescreened before posting. Teens who participated in the healthy eating focus groups also recommended including healthy recipes for themselves and their parents.

The top barriers to healthy eating and physical activity suggested by the groups are listed in Table 3. These barriers were used to create the role model stories. Online behavior change program components suggested by participants were consistent across focus group type (healthy eating or physical activity) and location (Texas or Indiana).

An additional 8 focus groups (n = 38) were conducted to develop a healthy eating and physical activity ?calculator? to provide tailored information on nutritional needs and physical activity. Participants suggested a graphic ?pie chart? figure that would provide both textual and visual information. They also suggested that users should be able to click on the various ?wedges? of the pie to access additional information about that component. This design would give participants control over how much and what information they accessed.

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[view this table]
Table 3. Top barriers reported in focus groups and the videos created to address each barrier.

Interviews

Role Model Stories and Teen Characters

Using information from the focus groups that addressed common barriers to healthy eating and physical activity and how to overcome them (Table 3), 12 role model stories with 4 teen cartoon characters (ie, online role models) were identified. The scripts of the role model stories were written by a professional writer and reviewed by adolescents (n = 10) in individual interviews prior to finalizing them to ensure youth appeal. Interviews indicated that the youth liked the stories and the teen cartoon characters. An important change suggested during the interviews was that the teen cartoon characters store photos on their cell phones, laptops, or on social networking sites rather than in a photo album as portrayed in one of the role model stories.

Online Behavior Change Program Content

Using information from the focus groups and interviews, program components for the online program were developed. A final set of interviews (n = 5) was conducted to review program components prior to completion. During these one-on-one interviews, adolescents were shown the components and queried about their thoughts regarding relevance, appropriateness, and appeal. The interviews indicated no changes were needed to program content.

Final Online Behavior Change Program Structure and Content

The name selected by participants for the 12-week online behavior change program was ?Teen Choice: Food & Fitness.? The online program contains an initial log-on page where teens enter their unique username and password to log on to the program website that is hosted on a secure server. Once on the website, they can view the 12 role model stories addressing barriers to healthy eating (n = 6) and physical activity (n = 6) (Figure 1) led by 4 teenage cartoon characters (ie, role models) (Figure 2). Figures 3 and 4 show screenshots of the recipes for teens and parents (?Teen Kitchen?) and the nutrition and physical activity information sections (?Did You Know??) created in response to focus group discussions. Figure 5 shows the healthy eating calculator. In addition, teens can access a refereed blog, set goals, make plans to help them attain their goal, track their progress online, report goal attainment, and participate in problem-solving activities.

Control Program Content and Structure

For the randomized controlled trial to test the effectiveness of the online program at improving eating and physical activity behaviors, a control condition was needed. It was constructed by removing the role model stories and the goal setting, planning, self-monitoring, goal review, and problem-solving components from the treatment intervention (ie, the components that promote personal mastery and observational learning, two key components of Social Cognitive Theory [60]).

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Principal Results

This paper reports the results of formative research with adolescents to create an online program promoting healthy eating and physical activity that would appeal to this age group. Their recommendations were used to guide decisions about the online program content and structure. As such, it provides guidance on how to involve the target audience in the development of an online behavior change program.

Comparison With Prior Work

Internet and computer use are high among youth [21], thus offering a potential method for reaching them in a manner that is familiar, appealing, and readily available. The involvement of youth in the creation of online programs aimed at helping them reduce obesity risk, such as those that promote healthy diet and physical activity behaviors, is critical [61,62]. Although emerging evidence suggests online programs may be an effective method for modifying youth health behavior [13,14,16,17,63-66], few programs have been developed specifically for adolescents [14,16,17,65,66]. Thus, this paper offers a model for development of online programs for adolescents that demonstrates how to involve them in the design process.

Online programs provide an engaging venue for achieving behavior change through both personal mastery and observational learning. Personal mastery can be promoted in an online program through inclusion of self-regulatory activities, such as goal setting, planning, self-monitoring, and problem-solving activities; thus, it is important for these activities to be developmentally appropriate and utilize a format that appeals to the target audience [67]. Additionally, it is imperative that the content appeal to youth and reflect their reality. For example, the barriers to healthy eating and physical activity identified by youth reflect those specified in the literature [25-58]; however, it was critical to identify their top barriers and to create role model stories that reflected solutions perceived as realistic by teens. Formative research, such as that reported here, can provide important insights that are critical to achieving this goal.

Observational learning occurs by watching others (ie, role models) perform a particular behavior and receive rewards [60]. This process is facilitated when the role model is perceived to be both competent and similar to the observer [68,69]. In online behavior change programs, teen cartoon characters can function as role models [70]. Therefore, in programs attempting to capitalize on observational learning, engaging adolescents in the design of appealing and believable teen characters is essential to creating an effective program.

Attracting and maintaining attention is an important first step in observational learning because it initiates learning and behavior change processes [60]. Enhancing personal relevance [8,71] of the program components achieves this goal by alerting the participant that ?this is for me.? In the current program, formative research provided an opportunity to identify and understand real and perceived barriers adolescents encounter when attempting to make healthy diet and physical activity choices, as well as solutions that made sense to them. Incorporating these barriers and solutions in role model stories provided a venue for conveying this information to teens in an entertaining, personally relevant manner.

Next Steps

Recruitment for the randomized controlled trial to test the online program began in late 2009 and concluded in October, 2011. Data collection is currently underway.

Recommendations/Suggestions

Design of online programs promoting behavior change should be a collaborative effort between researchers and members of the target audience, such as teens. Suggestions for achieving this are:

1. A realistic timeline is essential. Allow ample time for recruitment, data collection, analysis, interpretation, and application.

2. Participants should represent the target population. This includes gender, socio-economic status, age, and other salient characteristics. If not, it is possible the data may be skewed and may not adequately represent the target group, thus reducing the potential effectiveness of the program. In this program, formative research was conducted in two states in order to ensure the results were not relevant to teens in only one part of the country.

3. Conduct enough focus groups or interviews to achieve theoretical saturation, or the point at which no new information emerges [24]. In the program described in this paper, both focus groups and interviews were conducted to ensure the topics were adequately covered.

4. Although scripts are important for consistency in data collection, they should be semi-structured, allowing ample room for participants to share thoughts and opinions. Discrepant information (ie, data different from those heard from others) may be especially useful. Scripts should contain open-ended, neutral, and non-leading questions. Probes, prompts, and follow-up questions should be generously used to expand and more fully understand responses. The scripts used to guide discussions in the current project were semi-structured, and probes and prompts were used to explore responses and elicit additional information as needed.

5. Member checks are important [72,73]. Member checks help ensure the data are being interpreted correctly. Although there are several ways to conduct member checks, one way that is particularly useful in the design of behavior change programs is to take the results of the analyses back to members of the target audience and ask if the data were correctly interpreted and/or applied. For example, in the current study we asked youth to review the role model stories.

Limitations

Limitations of this research include the use of qualitative research in only two locations, which limits generalizability of the findings. This research does not address desired frequency of user access, program components accessed, or time spent viewing or completing the various components. It also does not address the impact of the program on diet or physical activity behaviors. However, the outcome evaluation, which is currently underway, is collecting information to address these issues. Additional research is needed to understand triggers for participation (ie, why teens enroll in online behavior change programs), whether programs of this type meet their expectations, and long-term health effects in order to develop robust and effective online behavior change programs.

Conclusion

Successful programs that encourage adolescents to adopt healthy diet and physical activity behaviors are needed to reduce obesity risk. Online behavior change programs designed in conjunction with youth may provide an important venue for achieving desired changes in these behaviors. The efficacy of this approach with adolescents is currently being tested and will provide valuable insights that can be used to guide future intervention research.


Acknowledgments

This work is a publication of the United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service (USDA/ARS) Children?s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas. This project was supported by the National Research Initiative of the United States Department of Agriculture Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service, grant number # 2007-55215-17998 (to Dr. Cullen). This project has also been funded in part by federal funds from the USDA/ARS under Cooperative Agreement No. 58-6250-0-008. The contents of this publication do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the USDA and mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations does not imply endorsement by the US Government.

The authors also would like to also acknowledge Archimage, Inc, Houston, Texas for their web design services.


Conflicts of Interest

None declared.


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?

Abbreviations




Edited by G Eysenbach; submitted 18.07.11; peer-reviewed by F Bassetti, A Booth, C Klein; comments to author 18.10.11; revised version received 25.01.12; accepted 14.02.12; published 26.04.12

Please cite as:
Thompson D, Cullen KW, Boushey C, Konzelmann K
Design of a Website on Nutrition and Physical Activity for Adolescents: Results From Formative Research
J Med Internet Res 2012;14(2):e59
URL: http://www.jmir.org/2012/2/e59/
doi: 10.2196/jmir.1889
PMID:

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Copyright

?Debbe Thompson, Karen Weber Cullen, Carol Boushey, Karen Konzelmann. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 26.04.2012.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://www.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.


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Egypt hardliners to back moderate Islamist for top job

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What are the risks of a debt consolidation loan? - Profits Finance Site

Quick and easy to pay rent online and with today?s technology!

A debt consolidation loan can be an excellent solution to the issues that can arise when you?re repaying multiple debts every month. Debt consolidation basically allows you to put all your debts into one. You can ?spread? that debt over a longer repayment period to reduce your monthly payments. You could even find a loan with a lower interest rate.

Spreading a loan?s repayments over a longer period may mean you?ll pay more in the long term. Ask yourself whether it?s that important to save money on your monthly budget now, even if you pay back more overall.

The risks
Perhaps the biggest risk with a debt consolidation loan ? as with any loan ? is not keeping up with the repayments. Payment protection insurance could help if you had a significant change in circumstances that meant you could no longer make the repayments. Only certain circumstances would be covered (such as losing your job, for example).

So before taking on any kind of loan, ask yourself whether you could keep making the repayments for the length of the repayment period. Anyone already in serious financial difficulty shouldn?t borrow to repay a debt.

So if your job is seasonal, if your income varies from month to month, or if you are on a temporary contract at the moment, you could find it difficult to make regular payments.

Another risk is that you if you applied for a debt consolidation loan, but aren?t approved, your credit file would reflect this, and this can go against you when future lenders are deciding whether to lend you money.

To find more information about the advantages and disadvantages of a debt consolidation loan, this article may be useful

Secured and unsecured debt consolidation
If you take out a secured debt consolidation loan, you borrow against equity in your home and use that equity to repay your debts. If you didn?t keep making the repayments, the worst-case scenario is that you could eventually lose your home.

Unsecured debt consolidation loans (loans not secured against your property) carry less risk, but generally have a higher interest rate. That means you could pay more overall, but there is no direct risk of your home being repossessed.

Using willpower when consolidating debts
You are opening yourself up to further risk if you continue to borrow after taking out a debt consolidation loan. If you continue spending on credit cards or taking out loans after you have paid off all your original debts with one loan, you could end up in a debt cycle (having to keep on borrowing money to repay debts).

Having said that, your debt consolidation loan could help you reduce your monthly payments ? so you could find it makes it easier to get by without borrowing any more.

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Protect Our Winters mobilizing skiers, boarders

DENVER (AP) ? Backcountry pro snowboarder Jeremy Jones says he's seen the effects of climate change up close after 18 years of heading to Alaska for deep winter powder.

"Our season ends a week earlier than it used to. The glacier we use to land on, we can't anymore," Jones said.

It's a big part of why Jones formed Protect Our Winters in 2007 to unite snowboarders and skiers to save what they love.

Coming off a shortened ski season with weak snowfall in much of Colorado, Utah and the Northeast, there's a sense of urgency to what Protect Our Winters wants to do next ? get Congress to pay more attention to climate change.

Protect Our Winters has distributed money to groups working on projects like renewable energy and climate education. Last fall, board members, including Olympic snowboarder Gretchen Bleiler, delivered a letter asking U.S. senators to support regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant.

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has proposed stripping carbon dioxide from the list of pollutants included in the Clean Air Act.

Though it was just a letter, it gave the group a taste of its greater goal of building a constituency that can get Congress to act.

"Now people are desperate for a way to engage," Auden Schendler, vice president of sustainability for Aspen Skiing Co., told fellow Protect Our Winters board members at a January meeting.

Protect Our Winters wants to convert people's love of winter sports into political activism. The U.S. has an estimated 21 million snow sports enthusiasts who tend to have higher-than-average incomes, according to the snow gear manufacturers' trade group SnowSports Industries America.

The way pro skier and Protect Our Winters board member Chris Davenport sees it, skiers and snowboarders are a tribe of like-minded people vested in protecting the mountain snows that they spend vast amounts of money to play in.

In January, in a windowless Denver conference room with high ceilings and fluorescent lights, board members brainstormed how best to mobilize the roughly 32,000 people who have "liked" the group's Facebook page ? and not letting let them turn into "slacktivists" who only own a sticker or T-shirt.

The board fantasized about one day becoming as influential as groups such as the National Wildlife Federation, which claims 4 million members.

A few weeks later the nonprofit group, based in Pacific Palisades, Calif., launched what it calls its POW Seven ? seven steps supporters can take to support its mission. They run from reducing emissions by using a clothesline to dry laundry, for instance, to "higher-friction" actions like evangelizing to businesses and politicians.

"There's no worse way to try to ignite a fire than putting out matches," said Matt McClain, who works with Protect Our Winters and the like-minded Surfrider Foundation, which could be a model for Protect Our Winters' growth.

A handful of surfers in Malibu, Calif., started Surfrider in 1984 to protect ocean coastlines. Today, it has about 50,000 members it can mobilize for local campaigns, like urging California counties to consider banning single-use plastic bags.

___

Follow Catherine Tsai at http://www.twitter.com/ctsai_denver

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Redford aims to bring indie U.S. cinema to London

LONDON (Reuters) - Actor-director Robert Redford aims to bring the spirit of independent American cinema to Britain this week with Sundance London, transporting the film festival held annually in Park City, Utah, across the Atlantic for the first time.

The inaugural Sundance London Film and Music Festival will showcase several small budget features and documentaries as a counterweight to Hollywood blockbusters which tend to dominate cinema theatres the world over.

The festival will include the British premieres of 14 feature-length films, discussions, Q&As and musical performances, and will take place at London's O2 music and cinema venue from Thursday to Sunday.

It is the first foreign offshoot of Redford's annual Sundance film festival, and part of his vision of bringing independent cinema to wider audiences.

"I just feel that there's a hunger for other kinds of films as well, and that's what we represent," the 75-year-old "The Sting" star told reporters at a press launch on Thursday.

Redford said that, as a major Hollywood player, he had worked "on both sides of the aisle", and had nothing against big budget action movies. But he added:

"That diversity was not so available in the mainstream film industry because it has scaled down and become more centralized over time and following the youth market.

"So therefore it got narrower and narrower and it was going to be more prone to blockbusters, which is fine ... but not at the expense, I felt, of the humanistic side of cinema."

He took issue with British Prime Minister David Cameron, who caused a stir among film makers and producers recently by urging them to focus on mainstream movies in order to boost the multi-billion pound (dollar) industry.

"That may be why he's in trouble," Redford joked, referring to a tough few weeks for the coalition government which Cameron leads. "That view, I think, is a very narrow one, and doesn't speak to the broad category of film makers and artists."

MUSIC PLAYS "HUGE ROLE"

Music will play a major part at the London event, with the opening night including performances by psychedelic pop band Guillemots and Oscar-winning musician/actor Glen Hansard.

There will also be a performance by Rufus and Martha Wainwright following the world premiere of Lian Lunson's film about the music of their mother, folk singer Kate McGarrigle.

Redford acknowledged that he has not always appreciated the importance of a movie's score.

"A film that I was in, 'Butch Cassidy', the music played a huge role," he said of the 1969 film "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" co-starring Paul Newman.

"I didn't see it at the time, because I thought it was stupid. Suddenly there was a scene where the guy was singing 'Raindrops are falling on my head' and it wasn't even raining. Well, how wrong was I?"

Redford is also expected to join heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles for the premiere of "HARMONY: A New Way of Looking at Our World", a documentary narrated by the prince exploring his environmental campaigning.

Redford voiced reservations about the advance of technology in cinema, particularly the emphasis on 3D.

"I think technology has probably gotten a little too far, too fast," Redford said.

"I'm not a particular fan of 3D at the moment ... but I think it will find its way in or out and the audiences will decide. But my feeling right now is probably things have gone too far, at some great cost by the way."

He hoped Sundance London would prove a success with audiences and allow him to expand the film festival to other parts of the world.

"This is the first step, if it works," he said.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White; editing by Patricia Reaney)

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