Limo rides for kids with cancer

Sometimes, we really do entertain angels unaware. Michael Fischer is one. Several years ago he came up with a way to bring a little hope to cancer-stricken children by providing limo rides for those whose parents didn't have a car, when it was time for then to take their cancer treatments. The idea is called Drops of Hope.

Fischer, who not only is the founder of the organization, but is head chauffeur, told me the idea for Drops of Hope came to him after he remembered that as a child, he had a friend who died of cancer.

"I also had relatives who died of cancer," he said. "Giving these kids a ride to the hospital in a kid-friendly limo — with games and snacks — is like a fantasy for them. Some of the children we transport would have to take public transportation if we didn't help out," he said. "And they can't afford to miss a treatment."

Everything was working well with Drops of Hope until last Christmas, when his only limo was stolen. Fischer said he had taken the 14-year-old limo in for repairs and the place he took it went out of business. He later found the limo, stripped, in an alley.

"Now," he said, "I pay limo companies to pick up the kids who need transportation to their treatment. But it's so expensive. It's like $100 for a few hours. And if a child goes for treatment in the morning, sometimes he doesn't finish until the afternoon. We have to wait for them. Many of these sick and terminally ill children, from low- to no-income families, take the bus by themselves to chemotherapy appointments. Drops of Hope provide this free service to and from the treatment sessions for children, who otherwise would miss immediate medical care because of a lack of transportation. We nicknamed our service, 'Hope on the Go,' because when the limo pulls up and you see the smile on the kids' faces, you know these kids really need a day of royal treatment."

Until he can get another limo, Fischer, who does litigation inspections for homeowners, pays the tab to rent limos from other companies. He is looking for a decent, used limo that he can fix up and get it "street safe."

The limo rides are not the only thing that Drops of Hope does for terminally ill children. They also do room makeovers, to help brighten the children's day.

If you know of someone who would like to help Fischer and his volunteers (nobody gets paid; the organization is operated solely by volunteers), you may call him at 954-428-4552.

Rabbi to talk about happiness

The community is invited to hear Rabbi Lazer Brody speak On "Sustenance, Health, Marriage and Children: It's Possible to Have it All," at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 10, at Syklake Synagogue, 1850 NE 183rd St. in North Miami Beach.

The Rabbi also will speak at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 11, at Young Israel of Kendall, 7880 SW 112th St. His topic will be "The Garden of Gratitude: A Life Changing Approach to Happiness."

According to a press release, Brody is the "English voice of Israeli rabbi Rav Shalom Arush, and the English translator of the book, The Garden of Emuna and numerous other Rav Arush's works. Brody is also the host of his own radio show, Lazer Beams aired on Israel National Radio. He is known worldwide as a lecturer and author who travels the globe enlightening others about the life-changing benefits of Emuna.

Both events are free. To make reservations for the Skylake lecture, email: skylakes613@gmail.com. For more information on the lecture at Young Israel, call 305-244-6880 or email: zdevorah@yahoo.com .

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Timeline: From RIM to BlackBerry, a company in transition

(Reuters) – Research In Motion Ltd has launched its new line of re-engineered BlackBerry smartphones, taking the wraps off the long-delayed devices at a series of events around the world on Wednesday.

The company used the occasion to announce that it was changing its name to BlackBerry, hoping a new brand identity will polish its tarnished image and help give it a fresh start.

The company, which has steadily lost ground in the hyper-competitive market to Apple Inc’s iPhone and devices running Google Inc’s Android operating system, is gambling its future on the BlackBerry 10. It sees the new line as make-or-break – its best hope for a comeback in an industry it once dominated.

Here are important milestones in the company’s history:

February 1985 – Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin co-found Research In Motion as an electronics and computer science business based in Waterloo, Ontario, the Canadian university city where Lazaridis studied.

1989 – RIM develops a network gateway later introduced as RIMGate, a predecessor to its BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

1992 – Jim Balsillie joins RIM as co-CEO, mortgaging his house and investing $ 250,000.

1994 – RIM launches a handheld point-of-sale card reader, which verifies debit and credit transactions directly to a bank.

1995 – RIM builds its own radio modem for wireless email.

1997 – RIM lists on the Toronto Stock Exchange, raising more than $ 115 million.

January 1999 – RIM launches rebranded BlackBerry email service across North America, offering the first wireless device to synch with corporate email systems. Sales jump 80 percent to $ 85 million. The next year revenue reaches $ 221 million.

Late 1999 – The company lists its shares on Nasdaq, raising another $ 250 million. RIM introduces BlackBerry 850 Wireless Handheld, combining email, wireless data networks and a traditional “Qwerty” keyboard. Demand explodes.

Sept 11, 2001 – People trapped in New York’s World Trade Center use their BlackBerrys to communicate after cellular networks collapse.

November 2001 – NTP sues RIM for patent infringement, the start of a five-year legal tussle. Late in the battle, the U.S. Justice Department says a threatened BlackBerry shutdown would damage the public interest due to the government’s reliance on the system.

2002 – RIM adds voice transmission to the BlackBerry.

2004 – RIM’s subscriber base surpasses 1 million BlackBerry users.

March 2006 – RIM pays $ 612 million to settle NTP dispute.

January 2007 – Apple Inc’s Steve Jobs unveils first iPhone, and the company launches the BlackBerry competitor in June. Time magazine honors the phone as Invention of the Year.

October 2007 – RIM passes 10 million subscribers. News of a China distribution deal boosts shares, making it for a time the most valuable company in Canada by market capitalization.

November 2007 – Google’s open source Android platform is unveiled. It launches in October 2008.

May 2008 – RIM introduces the Bold, a major redesign and still one of its top-tier products. The new model matches the resolution, but not size, of Apple’s iPhone screen.

July 2008 – Apple opens App Store in 22 countries and releases iPhone 3G, preloaded with App Store support.

November 2008 – RIM launches BlackBerry Storm, its first touchscreen and keyboard-less device. The screen uses a tactile feedback technology known as haptics, allowing a user to click down to select actions. The model bombs.

April 2009 – RIM’s App World goes live.

June 2009 – Apple announces and releases iPhone 3GS.

June 2010 – RIM pays C$ 200 million for QNX Software Systems, getting an industrial-strength operating system used in massive Internet routers, nuclear power plants and car infotainment systems. In same month Apple launches iPhone 4.

August 2010 – RIM launches BlackBerry Torch, a touchscreen phone with slide-out keyboard and improved web browser.

Sept 27, 2010 – RIM announces the PlayBook tablet, running on a version of the QNX system.

December 2010 – RIM acquires user interface company The Astonishing Tribe.

February 2011 – Nokia, the world’s largest smartphone vendor by volume, abandons its Symbian operating system to form alliance with Microsoft Corp.

March 2, 2011 – Apple unveils iPad 2 and ships it later in the same month.

April 19, 2011 – RIM launches PlayBook in United States and Canada. Early reviews pan the tablet for lacking core BlackBerry functions such as email and organizer functions. The company says it plans to add them in February 2012.

April 28, 2011 – RIM slashes an already dismal financial forecast for current quarter but maintains a full-year earnings outlook of $ 7.50 a share.

June 16, 2011 – RIM misses its lowered quarterly revenue target, gives more limp forecasts and resets the full-year outlook to between $ 5.25 and $ 6 a share. It says it will slash more than 10 percent of its workforce and buy back stock.

July 12, 2011 – Executives deflect criticism at annual general meeting after an activist shareholder withdrew a motion to force co-CEOs Lazaridis and Balsillie to relinquish their other shared role as board chairmen.

Sept 6, 2011 – A second activist shareholder asks the board to wrest control from Lazaridis and Balsillie and consider RIM putting itself up for sale or spinning off units.

Sept 15, 2011 – RIM reports another poor quarter including a sharp drop in phone and tablet shipments. It points to the low end of latest full year earnings outlook.

Oct 10-13, 2011 – Millions of BlackBerry users on five continents are left without email, Internet and instant messaging service by a massive failure of RIM’s infrastructure.

Nov 29, 2011 – In an acknowledgement of its slipping grip on the corporate sector, RIM offers to manage rival devices including Apple’s iPhone and iPad.

Dec 2, 2011 – The company books a huge writedown on PlayBook inventory, which it is discounting heavily to provoke sales.

Dec 15, 2011 – RIM delays its QNX-based BlackBerry 10 phones until late 2012 and gives tepid short-term outlook. The co-CEOs agree to an immediate pay cut to $ 1 each.

Jan 22, 2012 – RIM says Lazaridis and Balsillie are stepping down from their shared roles as chief executives and chairmen roles they share. The company appoints Thorstein Heins as CEO and Barbara Stymiest as chair of the board.

March 29, 2012 – Heins promises a strategic overhaul as RIM reports a slump in BlackBerry shipments and says RIM will no longer issue financial forecasts.

May 29, 2012 – RIM says it has hired bankers to assist with a strategic review and warns that it will likely report a fiscal first-quarter operating loss.

June 28, 2012 – RIM delays BlackBerry 10 again, putting off the launch to early 2013.

Sept 24, 2012 – RIM’s Toronto-listed stock touches C$ 6.10, its lowest level in nearly a decade.

Sept 27, 2012 – RIM surprises investors with a narrower-than-expected loss and boosts its cash reserves, sparking a rally that will extend into late December.

Nov 12, 2012 – RIM says it will launch BlackBerry 10 on January 30.

Dec 21, 2012 – RIM shares plunge more than 20 percent on fears that a new fee structure for its high-margin services segment could put pressure on a business that has set the company apart from its competitors.

Jan 30, 2013 – Heins formally unveils the BlackBerry 10 at a glitzy launch event in New York, with simultaneous gatherings in other cities around the world.

In conjunction with the launch, Heins announces that the company is changing its name to BlackBerry.

(Reporting by Alastair Sharp and Allison Martell; Editing by Peter Galloway)

Linux/Open Source News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Josh Groban Talks Dating Katy Perry, Being Madly in Love with January Jones

Josh Groban isn't one to open up much about his personal life, but in a rare moment, the singer breaks his silence on high-profile exes Katy Perry and January Jones.

"We were madly in love," Groban tells Details magazine of Jones, whom he began dating in 2003 for a period of two-and-a-half years. "It was definitely my longest relationship."

Unfortunately, the twosome couldn't make it work, but Groban says he still longs to find his special someone.

Pics: They Dated?! Surprising Celebrity Hookups

"I'd love to get into another serious relationship," he says. "I am a real romantic at heart."

When asked about all those rumors he and Katy Perry had a fling, Groban was hesitant (at first) to admit they'd ever been involved.

"We're very good friends," he explains. "We met before her first album was even released, and we hit it off because we're both goofballs."

Video: Josh Groban Turns Kanye West Tweets Into Song Lyrics

When pushed, Groban divulges that he and the superstar had a brief connection, although it never became serious.

"We might have skated on the line of dating," he concedes.

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‘Shear’ bravery beats guns: feds

WASHINGTON — Is your workplace getting shot up by a crazed gunman?

No problem — just grab a pair of scissors and fight back!

That’s some of the helpful advice in a new instructional video from the Department of Homeland Security that was posted on the agency’s Web site just a month after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

“If you are caught out in the open and cannot conceal yourself or take cover, you might consider trying to overpower the shooter with whatever means are available,” says the narrator in the video, which shows an office worker pulling scissors out of a desk drawer.

The video, titled “Options for Consideration,” also advises that people who get caught in an “active shooter” situation should run away, hide under a desk or take cover out of the line of fire.

The nearly four-minute-long video opens with chilling scenes from the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre, the 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood in Texas, and the 2011 attempted assassination of Gabrielle Giffords.

But the video quickly shifts to hokey footage of office workers scampering under desks, crouching in corners and racing into closets to hide from a rampaging gunman on the loose.

“To protect your hiding place, lock the door if you can. Block the door with heavy furniture,” recommends the male narrator, speaking in measured, authoritative tones.

Other survival strategies promoted in the video include hiding “behind large items such as cabinets or desks. Remain quiet. Silence your cellphone or pager. Even the vibration setting can give away a hiding position.”

Richard Feldman, president of the Independent Firearm Owners Association, said he has a better option for consideration than a pair of scissors when confronting an armed mass murderer — a legal firearm.

“That’s why I prefer a gun, and I usually do carry a gun when it is lawful to do so,” said Feldman. “Clearly, you use whatever you can” to fight for your life, he said.

So if scissors are all you’ve got, grab them by all means.

The video is part of the Obama administration’s ongoing campaign to reduce firearm violence in the wake of the horrific mass murder last month of 20 children and six teachers in Newtown, Conn., said a Homeland Security official.

Homeland Security has operated an active-shooter preparedness-training program for years, and the “Options for Consideration” video was in production prior to the Dec. 14 shooting in Newtown.

The video was released to coincide with President Obama’s sweeping proposals to curb gun violence in America, said the official.

Obama’s most controversial proposals include a ban on military-style assault rifles and high-capacity ammo clips, as well as expanded background checks for firearm purchases.

Security consultant Andrew Scott called the information in the video “adequate.”

He conceded that Homeland Security was correct in recommending that people use scissors to attack a gunman but only in a “last, worst-case scenario.”

“Just the suggestion [to fight back] is a positive move,” said Scott, a former SWAT commander in North Miami Beach. “You don’t want to be sheep for the slaughter.”

But if you do arm yourself with shears, the narrator warns you to drop them when cops arrive.

“Put down any items. Immediately raise your hands,” is the closing advice.

smiller@nypost.com

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Report: Miami among top cities to snag foreclosed homes

Six Florida cities rank among the best places to buy foreclosures in 2013, according to a report by RealtyTrac.

Topping a list of 20 metropolitan areas is Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, the Irvine, Calif.-based real estate data firm said.

RealtyTrac looked at four criteria in tallying the “best places:” the supply of foreclosure inventory; foreclosure sales as a percentage of all transactions; the average percentage discount on foreclosures; and the annual percentage change in foreclosure activity in 2012 compared with 2011.

Also among the top 20 metro areas for buying foreclosures is Lakeland (No. 5), Tampa (No. 6), Jacksonville (No.7), Orlando (No. 9) and Miami (No. 12), according to the RealtyTrac report.

The No. 12 ranking for the metropolitan area of Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Pompano Beach was based on the area having a 29-month supply of foreclosures, with foreclosures accounting for 28.7 percent of all sales during 2012. The average price discount on a foreclosed home in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach area was 31 percent in 2012, when foreclosure activity rose 36 percent from a year earlier, RealtyTrac said.

“Markets with increasing foreclosure activity in 2012 took the first step in finally purging delayed distress left over from the bursting housing bubble,” Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac, said in a statement. “Meanwhile, the underlying fundamentals in many of those markets are slowly improving, making it an opportune time to absorb additional foreclosure inventory this year — and that is particularly good news for buyers and investors hungry for more inventory to purchase in those markets.”

The greater Miami area ranked fifth among U.S. cities in foreclosure filings in 2012, with 3.71 percent, or one in every 27 housing units, receiving some type of foreclosure filing during 2012. That compares with a national average of 1.39 percent of housing units getting a foreclosure filing during that period.

Anthony Askowitz, a broker with RE/MAX Advance Realty II in Miami, said the reality of the foreclosure market is more nuanced than such statistics suggest.

“The inventory of foreclosures on the market is very low. It’s highly competitive right now for a foreclosure or a property put out as a quote ‘good deal,’’’ Askowitz said. “Multiple offers is the norm.’’

Indeed, while the huge overhang of foreclosures has long been expected to constitute a downward pressure on home prices, robust demand for South Florida housing and a tight inventory of available homes for sale have so far trumped that force.

According to the latest Case-Shiller report released Tuesday , South Florida home prices rose 10 percent in November 2012 from a year earlier. That marked the 12th consecutive gain.

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FBI raids West Palm Beach office of doctor tied to U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez

FBI agents late Tuesday night raided the West Palm Beach business of an eye doctor suspected of providing free trips and even underage Dominican Republic prostitutes to U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J. — who has denied what he calls the “fallacious allegations.”

Agents gathered at the medical-office complex of Dr. Salomon Melgen, a contributor to Menendez and other prominent politicians, to start hauling away potential evidence in several vans.

The investigation is believed to be focusing on Melgen’s finances and the allegations about Menendez’s trips and contact with prostitutes. A spokesman for Menendez could not be reached for comment, nor could Melgen.

Melgen has an outstanding IRS lien of $11.1 million for taxes owed from 2006 to 2009, according to records filed with the Palm Beach County recorder’s office. A previous IRS lien for $6.2 million was released in 2011.

Despite those financial problems, Melgen and his family have contributed at least $357,000 to candidates and committees since 1998, according to Florida and federal campaign records. Of that, the Melgens have contributed about 9 percent to Menendez’s federal campaigns.

Melgen also owns a private CL-600 Challenger plane through one of his West Palm Beach-based companies, and frequently flies between South Florida and Casa de Campo in the Dominican Republic, where he is from.

Menendez has flown on the plane at least once, his office has said, when he was chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee from 2009 to 2011, when the Melgens contributed about $60,400 to the group. A spokeswoman had previously said that Menendez and Melgen are longtime friends and said the senator did nothing improper.

Melgen was first linked to Menendez just before the November elections, when the conservative Daily Caller website interviewed two alleged prostitutes who said they had relations with the New Jersey Democrat at Melgen’s Dominican Republic mansion in Casa de Campo.

After the election, the news died down.

But then, days before Menendez was about to start leading the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as chairman, reporters started receiving a 58-page dossier of emails between a Miami FBI agent and a tipster who claimed that some of the prostitutes had been underage.

“I’m not going to respond to the fallacious allegations of your story,” Menendez told the Daily Caller on Monday when a reporter caught up with him on a train in Washington.

At the time, Menendez had just stepped into the national spotlight along with Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and six other senators who are hammering out a highly watched immigration plan that is the talk of Washington.

Rubio is one of the few big-name Florida politicians who has not received campaign money from the Melgens, who have contributed to Sen. Bill Nelson and Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Joe Garcia, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart, among others.

The FBI would not comment on the emails, and the agent, Regino Chavez, did not return calls or emails. But sources familiar with the investigation told The Miami Herald that the emails are real.

The emails from agent Chavez show that he tried to find out what happened. But the tipster, who went by the name “Peter Williams,” refused to talk to him by telephone or meet him face to face.

Chavez contacted the tipster Aug.1, 2012, after the group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington referred the case to the FBI. The tipster would not meet or speak by phone to CREW or to an investigative reporter, either.

“As far as the information you have provided, we have been unable to confirm most of it,” Chavez wrote on Sept. 12. “We know that you are providing accurate information.”

But it is not clear what that specific information is because Chavez was unable to interview the alleged prostitutes. Over the months, Chavez tried to meet or speak with the tipster, but had no luck.

Then, on Nov. 1, the agent wrote the tipster again and drew attention to the Daily Caller interview with the alleged prostitutes.

“I think we are at the point where you and I need to communicate over the phone so that we can move faster,” he wrote.

No luck.

Amid the suspicious circumstances of the complaints, Democrats have tried to characterize the reports about Menendez and Melgen as a right-wing smear job.

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid refused to comment on the possibility of an FBI investigation when he was asked Tuesday about the case.

Said Reid: “Always consider the source. All anyone here has to look at is the source where this comes from.”

Tuesday night’s raid, however, shows that there is at least an investigation tied to Menendez’s longtime friend and ally.

Miami Herald Staff Writer Luisa Yanez contributed to this report.

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Critical, long-overdue BlackBerry makeover arrives

TORONTO (AP) — BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. will kick off a critical, long-overdue makeover when chief executive Thorsten Heins shows off the first phone with the new BlackBerry 10 system in New York on Wednesday.

Repeated delays have left the once-pioneering BlackBerry an afterthought in the shadow of Apple’s trend-setting iPhone and Google’s Android-driven devices. There has even been talk that the fate of the company that created the BlackBerry in 1999 is no longer certain.

Now, there’s some optimism. Previews of the BlackBerry 10 software have gotten favorable reviews on blogs. Financial analysts are starting to see some slight room for a comeback. RIM‘s stock has more than doubled to $ 15.66 from a nine-year low in September, though it’s still nearly 90 percent below its 2008 peak of $ 147.

RIM redesigned the system to embrace the multimedia, apps and touch-screen experience prevalent today. The company is promising a speedier device, a superb typing experience and the ability to keep work and personal identities separate on the same phone.

Most analysts consider a BlackBerry 10 success to be crucial for the company’s long-term viability. Doubts remain about the ability of BlackBerry 10 to rescue RIM.

“We’ll see if they can reclaim their glory. My sense is that it will be a phone that everyone says good things about but not as many people buy,” BGC Financial analyst Colin Gillis said.

Jefferies analyst Peter Misek called it a “great device” and said RIM does have some momentum just months after the Canadian company was written off for dead.

“Six months ago we talked to developers and carriers, and everybody was just basically saying ‘We’re just waiting for this to go bust,’” Misek said. “It was bad.”

The BlackBerry has been the dominant smartphone for on-the-go business people and crossed over to consumers. But when the iPhone came out in 2007, it showed that phones can do much more than email and phone calls. Suddenly, the BlackBerry looked ancient. In the U.S., according to research firm IDC, shipments of BlackBerry phones plummeted from 46 percent of the market in 2008 to 2 percent in 2012.

RIM promised a new system to catch up, using technology it got through its 2010 purchase of QNX Software Systems. RIM initially said BlackBerry 10 would come by early 2012, but then the company changed that to late 2012. A few months later, that date was pushed further, to early 2013, missing the lucrative holiday season. The holdup helped wipe out more than $ 70 billion in shareholder wealth and 5,000 jobs.

Although executives have been providing a glimpse at some of BlackBerry 10′s new features for months, Heins will finally showcase a complete system at Wednesday’s event. Devices will go on sale soon after that. The exact date and prices are expected Wednesday.

Regardless of BlackBerry 10′s advances, though, the new system will face a key shortcoming: It won’t have as many apps written by outside companies and individuals as the iPhone and Android. RIM has said it plans to launch BlackBerry 10 with more than 70,000 apps, including those developed for RIM’s PlayBook tablet, first released in 2011. Even so, that’s just a tenth of what the iPhone and Android offer. Popular service such as Instagram and Netflix won’t have apps on BlackBerry 10.

Gillis said he’ll be looking to see when RIM releases a keyboard version of the new phone. The first BlackBerry 10 phone will have only a touch screen. RIM has said a physical keyboard version will be released soon after. He said a delay could alienate RIM’s 79 million subscribers.

“The No. 1 feature that they like is the physical keyboard,” Gillis said.

Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Entourage Movie Gets The Green Light From Warner Brothers

The boys are coming back!

Warner Brothers has officially given the go-ahead to the feature film sequel of HBO's hit-series Entourage, Deadline reports.

Pics: TV's 10 Most Divisive Love Triangles

According to the site, the show's creator, Doug Ellin, has already written the screenplay and will direct the movie. The studio is reportedly in the process of making deals with principal cast members Adrian Grenier, Jeremy Piven, Kevin Dillon, Jerry Ferrara and Kevin Connolly.

As of yet, there is no date set for filming to begin.

Video-- Emmy Flashback: Jeremy Piven '07

Entourage ran for eight seasons (2004-2011), earning six Primetime Emmys and one Golden Globe.

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‘Cannibal’ cop XXX-hibit a

Lawyers for an accused cannibal cop want this woman served on a platter . . . for potential jurors.

The twisted photo of the hogtied, nude blonde — lying prone on a serving tray, with an apple stuck in her mouth — is among three shocking images that the defense wants to show would-be panelists for the upcoming trial of Gilberto Valle.

Another pic submitted by lawyers for the deviant cop shows a buxom brunette who is bound, gagged and tied to a spit over an open fire in a wooded clearing.

Off to the side, a man who is shielding his face from the camera appears to be turning the naked woman over the flames.

HOGTIED: Lawyers for accused cannibal-plot cop Gilberto Valle want to show potential jurors this photo and two others to test their nerves.

The third is a cartoon of a nude woman partly submerged inside a clear, bubbling pot of vegetables atop a stove being tended by a mustachioed cook wearing an apron and hunting cap.

“Well Karyn you seem to be cooking up quite nicely . . . Your guests are going to get a very special dinner tonight,” the chef says in a dialogue balloon.

The cartoon woman’s face is obscured by a hot-pink rectangle — because Valle or someone else superimposed the face “of a real victim,” prosecutors alleged in court earlier this week.

The disturbing pics were submitted by Valle’s lawyers as part of a proposed jury questionnaire to help screen out people too squeamish to deal with the testimony and evidence at his upcoming trial.

The defense says potential jurors need to be “especially vetted,” in part because “at trial Mr. Valle will acknowledge that he has unusual, sexual fantasies which involve imagined acts of violence against women — a fetish that will be difficult for most jurors to comprehend.”

According to court papers, the images were given to the defense by prosecutors — after investigators seized them from Valle’s computer following his arrest last year for allegedly scheming online to kidnap, rape, torture, cook and eat women.

They were initially filed under seal, but were made public yesterday after a legal challenge by The Post.

”Because of this prosecution, Mr. Valle has been subjected to a level of embarrassment and mortification that is impossible to articulate,” public defender Julia Gatto wrote Manhattan federal Judge Paul Gardephe, in petitioning for details of a psychological exam to remain sealed.

bruce.golding@nypost.com

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Tablets take their screen tests

Screen quality is critical to a great tablet, and in 2012 we saw the quality of tablet screens advance in leaps and bounds, especially in terms of clarity. Here are our favorites.

Barnes & Noble Nook HD

Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5 (Very good)

The good: A light, comfortable design with a sharp screen and a well-implemented user profiles feature. Books, videos and magazines look great and the microSD slot takes some of the sting out of the lack of internal storage.

The bad: App, movie, TV show and game options are thin and there’s no native music service. It’s missing some typical tablet features and 8GB is low for the price. Fingerprints easily sully the screen.

The cost: $199

The bottom line: The Barnes & Noble Nook HD can’t match competing tablets in media library breadth, but as long as you’re not looking for bells and whistles, its sharp screen and comfortable body make it an ideal tablet choice for books and magazines.

Asus Transformer Pad Infinity TF700

Rating: 4 stars out of 5 (Excellent)

The good: High-resolution screen rivals the new iPad’s display in sharpness and clarity. Also, apps launch quickly, GPS works well and its rear camera is the best we’ve seen on any Android tablet. The tablet’s body has the same great thin and light design as the Prime.

The bad: So far, not enough Android apps take advantage of the TF700’s higher pixel count. Also, its battery life isn’t as good as the Prime’s.

The cost: $479.88 to $590.37

The bottom line: The Asus Transformer Pad Infinity TF700 is one of the fastest Android tablets out there, combining an already proven design with a better camera, a faster processor, and a beautiful screen.

Google Nexus 10

Rating: 4 stars out of 5 (Excellent)

The good: A beautifully sharp screen is light, durable and has the fastest processor of any Android tablet. Photo Sphere is an incredibly cool concept. Google’s content ecosystem is only getting better.

The bad: The included charger isn’t fast enough to power the battery while playing a game; even while idle, it charges painfully slowly. There’s no storage expansion option, and apps that take full advantage of the screen are currently few and far between. Navigation isn’t quite as smooth as on the Nexus 7.

The cost: $399

The bottom line: The Nexus 10’s superior design and swift performance make it one of the best Android tablets to date. We expect post-launch updates from Google to make it even better.

Apple iPad (fourth generation)

Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5 (Outstanding)

The good: A6X processor adds extra system speed and graphics power. Improved worldwide cellular compatibility makes the LTE model a more appealing proposition. And the iOS App Store remains best in class, with the widest selection.

The bad: The fourth-gen iPad is otherwise identical to its recent predecessor — same size, weight and Retina Display screen. It’s heavy to hold in one hand, and most older accessories won’t work without investing in a pricey Lightning adapter.

The cost: $499 to $539.99

The bottom line: The latest iPad adds several tweaks and improvements to secure its position at the top of the tablet heap. It’s better all around, but third-gen owners don’t need to upgrade.

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