We heard about a crazy $99 Xbox/Kinect bundle last week, but we weren’t sure what the catch would be. Now we do: You need to sign up for a two-year $15 per month Xbox Live Gold contract. Not bad! More »

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Heaters aren’t only pricey to buy but also expensive to maintain. The price of installation is generally high. People are forced to pay high electricity bills due to high energy consumption during cold seasons. However , people can install these equipments at low costs because of the availability of heater hire in Perth . Rental services provide folk with cost-effective solutions to warm houses and offices.

The market offers folk with different rental options. Individuals are given big variety of choices to select from. An individual can choose heaters powered with different sorts of fuel like gas, electricity, kerosene or propane. People are recommended to choose electrical heaters to reduce high utility bills. These types of heaters have become popular due to their appealing features. Electric heaters are cost-effective and eco-friendly.

Heater hire in Perth firms provide people with different options. People are offered differing types of heaters to install in houses, hostels, offices and tents. Rental companies provide folk with certified appliances to install in varied places. Companies provide people with heavy duty and transportable appliances. Authorized appliances guarantee folk of quality, safe and reliable services.

The primary reason folks rent heaters is on account of affordability. Renting heaters is cheap compared against the buying price charged in the market. Rental corporations in the region provide folk with cheap and reliable heaters. People are guaranteed of safety and quality when they hire heaters. Safety is the primary concern for heater hire in Perth service suppliers. Service suppliers provide folk with quality services to guarantee safety in outside and indoor places.

There are many advantages to experience when you hire a furnace. Folk are given wide variety of decisions. A person can select a furnace that lives up to the requirements of a home as well as budget. To save cost on energy bills individuals should lease an electrical furnace. Electric furnaces are totally safe to use because they have security features fitted in them. Electrical furnaces have automated power switches and thermostats. These furnaces do not emit smoke which makes them environmentally friendly.

It is always smart to go visit a rental company before winter seasons starts. Hiring a furnace ahead is more economical. You will be able to enjoy paying cheap prices for rental service. There are various factors that one should consider before renting a furnace. A person should search for trustworthy and reputable service providers. Remember that service providers should be authorized to rent furnaces. Licensed service suppliers don’t only offer excellent deals to different clients, they offer top quality and trustworthy services.

Look for firms with well informed personnel to help you choose a suitable furnace. Choose a furnace that provides effective services to make sure you receive heat in your home or working place. You need to decide the scale of your room to extend chances of choosing the right furnace. Heaters provide effective results dependent on the size of the room. Ask for help from professionals so as to make the correct choice during your hunt for heater hire in Perth.

Barry Connop, manager of Perthrentalshire.com.au has been hiring heaters and other household apparatus to Western Australian folk for over 20 years. ?We carry one of the largest ranges and the latest apparatus asserts Barry combined with a warranted 24 hour delivery in metro areas?.

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Why not turn Hubble directly towards Venus as it does its transit? Is there just too much light for Hubble to get a good spectrographic reading by doing it directly? if so, how will this help us when looking at exoplanet atmospheres, since we will be directly looking at their atmospheres as they have transits in front of bright stars as well?

There is way too much light to look directly at it, since the Hubble would have to be pointed at the sun to do this. Other stars and other planets are much further away, so their light will be dim enough to be safe to point at.

If you want to see the transit of Venus from Earth, you’ll need to be wearing special solar glasses that blot out everything but the sun itself. Unless we put a big solar filter on the Hubble, we can’t point it at the sun.

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A customer service failure, simply defined, is customer service performance that fails to meet an individual?s expectations. Typically, when a service failure occurs, a customer will expect to be compensated for the inconvenience in the form of any combination of refunds, credits, discounts or apologies.

The success of such customer service recovery efforts is determined by the individual?s expectations and perceptions of the organization. Two key elements impact any effort to restore customer satisfaction: the strength of customer relationships and the severity of service failure.

Service failure: Service performance that fails to meet expectations

The strength of the customer relationship with the organization prior to a customer service failure has a buffering effect in the event of failure. Research suggests that customers who expect the relationship to continue actually have lower service recovery expectations, and in turn, are more satisfied with customer service performance after recovery.

While this may seem counterintuitive at first glance, consider the expectations of customers with a stronger relationship with the organization. A customer who does not have much commitment to the organization tends to be more transaction-focused and expects immediate service recovery when a particular transaction fails to meet expectations.

Conversely, a customer with strong commitment may demand less immediate compensations with the expectation that strong future interactions may correct the customer service failure over time. Such findings suggest that service providers not only have measures in place to identify the strength of customer relationships but also the ability to react to customer service failures.

The severity of the customer service failure moderates the relationship between customer satisfaction and commitment. Even with strong service recovery, research indicates that customers may still be upset, engage in negative word-of-mouth, and be less likely to develop trust with and commitment to the organization, if the original customer service failure was really bad.

In these cases, managers may need to do more to mend the strength of customer relationships and restore commitment. To identify such cases, service organizations need to track and identify occurrences of customer service failure as well as the severity of each.

The data available at the point of any customer service failure, most notably the information provided by the customer at the time of the complaint, should be viewed as critical marketing research data necessary not only for immediate service recovery but for improvement of future performance.

Remember, a customer service failure is defined as a failure to meet customer expectations and the success of any recovery effort is measured by each individual customer against his/her own expectations. Therefore, managers would be well served to conduct a post-recovery assessment of customer expectations and perceptions of recovery performance against those expectations.

Classic customer service failure: serving cold

The impact of service failure recovery on customer satisfaction can be easily illustrated with a familiar example. Consider the case of a restaurant patron complaining about his meal being served cold. In all likelihood, this is not a severe customer service failure if managed properly.

If the customer?s server fails to offer a sufficient apology and brings back a reheated meal after a 20-minute wait, a first-time customer may be immediately deterred and never return. If this is a long-time customer who has always received excellent service, he may or may not write this failure off, but either way will expect this sub-par service to be countered with excellent service in the future.

While you may expect the customer with a long history of having received excellent service to be more demanding in the case of such a failure, in reality the new customer has the higher expectations. His perceptions of the restaurant are impacted by only this one experience where customer service performance failed to meet his expectations. Without a formal apology from a supervisor, a refund, and perhaps a future credit, this new customer may allow this experience to so alter his expectations of customer service performance at this restaurant as to prevent him from returning.

The long-time customer has his expectations set by a long history of excellent dining experiences and may be easier to satisfy in the immediate wake of a customer service failure.
In either case, the restaurant manager must immediately begin to turn his focus on ensuring future service delivery levels and enhancing the strength of customer relationships with each of these patrons.

Brian Backer is a project manager with Polaris Marketing Research. The Atlanta marketing research firm specializes in consumer and business customer service satisfaction, including service satisfaction tracking and service quality measurement. Polaris? state-of-the-art marketing research also includes customer satisfaction and loyalty measurement programs, including personalized project management. Backer can be reached by phone at 866-217-7014 during normal business hours.

Author: Brian Backer
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Digital economy, mobile technology

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ScienceDaily (May 7, 2012) ? Are you a social media enthusiast or simply a Facebook addict? Researchers from Norway have developed a new instrument to measure Facebook addiction, the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale.

“The use of Facebook has increased rapidly. We are dealing with a subdivision of Internet addiction connected to social media,” Doctor of Psychology Cecilie Schou Andreassen says about the study, which is the first of its kind worldwide.

Andreassen heads the research project ?Facebook Addiction? at the University of Bergen (UiB). An article about the results has just been published in the renowned journal Psychological Reports. She has clear views as to why some people develop Facebook dependency.

“It occurs more regularly among younger than older users. We have also found that people who are anxious and socially insecure use Facebook more than those with lower scores on those traits, probably because those who are anxious find it easier to communicate via social media than face-to-face,” Andreassen says.

People who are organised and more ambitious tend to be less at risk from Facebook addiction. They will often use social media as an integral part of work and networking.

“Our research also indicates that women are more at risk of developing Facebook addiction, probably due to the social nature of Facebook,” Andreassen says.

According to Andreassen, the research also shows that Facebook addiction was related to extraversion. People with high scores on the new scale further tend to have a somewhat delayed sleep-wake rhythm.

Six warning signs

As Facebook has become as ubiquitous as television in our everyday lives, it is becoming increasingly difficult for many people to know if they are addicted to social media. Andreassen?s study shows that the symptoms of Facebook addiction resemble those of drug addiction, alcohol addiction, and chemical substance addiction.

The Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale is based on six basic criteria, where all items are scored on the following scale: (1) Very rarely, (2) Rarely, (3) Sometimes, (4) Often, and (5) Very often:

• You spend a lot of time thinking about Facebook or plan use of Facebook.
• You feel an urge to use Facebook more and more.
• You use Facebook in order to forget about personal problems.
• You have tried to cut down on the use of Facebook without success.
• You become restless or troubled if you are prohibited from using Facebook.
• You use Facebook so much that it has had a negative impact on your job/studies.

Andreassen?s study shows that scoring ?often? or ?always? on at least four of the seven items may suggest that you are addicted to Facebook.

About the Scale

In January 2011, 423 students ? 227 women and 196 men ? participated in tests for the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale. The scale can facilitate treatment research, clinical assessment and can be used for the estimation of Facebook addiction prevalence in the general population worldwide.

The Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale has been developed at the Faculty of Psychology, University of Bergen in collaboration with the Bergen Clinics Foundation, Norway. The researchers involved are also working with instruments measuring other addictions, such as the recently introduced Bergen Work Addiction Scale.

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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

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In this film image released by Disney, Chris Hemsworth portrays Thor, left, and and Chris Evans portrays Captain America in a scene from “The Avengers,” expected to be released on May 4, 2012. (AP Photo/Disney, Zade Rosenthal)

In this film image released by Disney, Chris Hemsworth portrays Thor, left, and and Chris Evans portrays Captain America in a scene from “The Avengers,” expected to be released on May 4, 2012. (AP Photo/Disney, Zade Rosenthal)

In this film image released by Disney, Samuel L. Jackson portrays Nick Fury in a scene from Marvel’s “The Avengers.” The film will be released on May 4. (AP Photo/Disney, Zade Rosenthal)

In this film image released by Disney, Chris Evans, portraying Captain America, left, and Robert Downey Jr., portraying Tony Stark, are shown in a scene from “Marvel’s The Avengers” (AP Photo/Disney, Zade Rosethal)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Hulk, smash.

That’s what Captain America tells the Incredible Hulk to do in “The Avengers,” and that’s what the Marvel Comics superhero mash-up did at the box office, smashing the domestic revenue record with a $200.3 million debut.

It’s by far the biggest opening ever, shooting past the previous record of $169.2 million for the debut of last year’s “Harry Potter” finale.

“The Avengers” added $151.5 million overseas over the weekend to bring its total to $441.5 million since it began opening internationally a week earlier.

That raised the film’s worldwide haul to $641.8 million in barely a week and a half, more than its Marvel superhero forerunners “Iron Man,” ”Iron Man 2,” ”Thor” and “Captain America” took in during their entire runs.

If distributor Disney’s domestic estimate Sunday holds when the final weekend count is released Monday, “The Avengers” would be the first movie ever to haul in $200 million in a single weekend.

While the number could dip below $200 million come Monday, Disney spent the weekend revising its forecasts upward as business kept growing.

“There aren’t even words, to be honest. I’m running low on double takes. Every time we looked at a number, it just got bigger than what we could have hoped for in the best-case assumption,” said Dave Hollis, Disney’s head of distribution. “With this film, this weekend, anything is possible.”

“The Avengers” started with solid midnight crowds Friday, though nowhere near a record. Then it did $80.5 million for the full day Friday, second only to the “Harry Potter” finale’s $91.1 million first day.

Revenues held up much better than expected with $69.7 million Saturday, and Disney estimated that the film would bring in $50.1 million more on Sunday.

The record weekend was the culmination of years of careful planning by Marvel Studios, which has included teasers for an “Avengers” dream team collaboration in its solo superhero adventures.

Directed by Joss Whedon (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”), “The Avengers” features Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Chris Evans as Captain America, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury.

A $200 million total for every movie in release is considered a great weekend for the business as a whole, so “The Avengers” redefines the standards for a blockbuster debut.

“If ‘The Avengers’ is any indication, we’re going to see a leap rather than a gentle little nudge into new territory, and the lineup is there to justify it going forward,” said Greg Foster, chairman and president of the huge-screen IMAX cinema chain.

Crowds were so anxious to see the film on IMAX’s giant screens that Foster said the company had only one problem: it ran out of seats to sell.

Overall domestic revenues came in at $248 million, climbing 49 percent compared to the same weekend last year, when “Thor” opened with $65.7 million, according to box-office tracker Hollywood.com. “The Avengers” accounted for four-fifths of the weekend’s domestic receipts.

Hollywood launched a potentially record-shattering summer with a vengeance, “The Avengers” landing as just the first of three huge superhero tales that highlight a lineup filled with other blockbusters in the making.

“The Amazing Spider-Man” follows on July 3 and “The Dark Knight Rises” wraps up the current Batman series on July 20.

Until the “Harry Potter” finale, 2008′s “The Dark Knight” had held the revenue record with a $158.4 million debut. Before that, the record-holder was 2007′s “Spider-Man 3″ with $151.1 million.

So anticipation for those two films could rival that of “The Avengers.”

As admission prices rise, Hollywood’s record-breakers often take in more money but sell fewer tickets than previous blockbusters. But “The Avengers” took in so much money that it’s the undisputed champ among debuts.

Based on average admission prices the years they were released, “The Dark Knight” and “Spider-Man 3″ had led with about 22 million tickets sold each over opening weekend. Today’s average prices put “The Avengers” tally at around 25.6 million tickets sold.

Along with the superhero films, Hollywood’s summer lineup includes the action tales “Men in Black 3,” ”G.I. Joe: Retaliation,” ”Battleship,” ”Total Recall” and “Prometheus,” director Ridley Scott’s return to the sci-fi territory of his horror hit “Alien.”

Big family fare includes the animated adventures “Brave,” from “Toy Story” creator Pixar Animation, and the sequels “Ice Age: Continental Drift” and “Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted.”

The comedy lineup features Adam Sandler’s “That’s My Boy,” Will Ferrell’s “The Campaign” and Sacha Baron Cohen’s “The Dictator.”

“‘The Avengers’ kicks off what looks to me to be the summer box-office equivalent of the 100-year flood,” said Hollywood.com analyst Paul Dergarabedian. “This is perhaps the most perfect summer lineup in box-office history.”

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. “The Avengers,” $200.3 million ($151.5 million international).

2. “Think Like a Man,” $8 million.

3. “The Hunger Games,” $5.7 million ($4.3 million international).

4. “The Lucky One,” $5.5 million ($5.5 million international).

5. “The Pirates! Band of Misfits,” $5.4 million ($2.6 million international).

6. “The Five-Year Engagement,” $5.1 million ($2.3 million international).

7. “The Raven,” $2.5 million.

8. “Safe,” $2.47 million ($2.2 million international).

9. “Chimpanzee,” $2.4 million.

10. “The Three Stooges,” $1.8 million.

___

Estimated weekend ticket sales at international theaters (excluding the U.S. and Canada) for films distributed overseas by Hollywood studios, according to Rentrak:

1. “The Avengers,” $151.5 million.

2. “American Reunion,” $34 million.

3. “Battleship,” $11 million.

4. “Jannat 2,” $6.1 million.

5. “The Lucky One,” $5.5 million.

6. “The Hunger Games,” $4.3 million.

7. “Titanic” in 3-D, $4.2 million.

8. “Mirror Mirror,” $3.7 million.

9. “As One,” $3.6 million.

10. “Thermae Romae,” $2.9 million.

___

Online:

http://www.hollywood.com

http://www.rentrak.com

___

Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by AMC Networks Inc.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.

Associated Press

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May 7, 2012 Posted by Silverfox

Any person who has ever had problems with acne has definitely tried to use the widely advertised solutions for getting rid of those pimples. Some of them have probably tried domestic remedies too. And only a part of those who struggle with acne breakouts actually go to a doctor in order to receive an adequate treatment for the condition. Still, it really depends on the effectiveness of every measure taken to stop acne for an individual since for some people simple gels will work perfectly while others will only see results after using drugs like Accutane. So let?s take a look at some of the most popular measures for treating acne and analyze their potential effectiveness.

Home remedies

Home remedies for acne start with general hygiene tips such as washing your hands and face regularly to the use of toothpaste and garlic as topical remedies for pimples. While some of these remedies can deliver a certain degree of relief relying solely on them won?t get you any far. In fact over using them, especially when it comes to hygiene can make your problem even worse. So if you?ve tried a range of home remedies and didn?t get any suitable result it?s a clear sign that you should move on further to more serious solutions.

Topical solutions

This kind of accutane is definitely the most widely advertised with lots of new products being delivered to the multibillion market it?s estimated as. Most of the gels, cremes and lotions that have attractive packages and positive slogans tend to deliver a narrow set of effects that are supposed to eliminate acne. First of all they dry out the skin in order to remove the excess of oil, which is beneficial for acne breakouts. And they also usually have certain antibacterial properties in order to eliminate the infection that is causing inflammation in the pores. Such solutions can have a rather high effectiveness rate only for mild to moderate acne breakouts and often required to be used on a regular basis in order to sustain any results.

Antibiotics

If you go to a doctor with the hope to treat acne breakouts he or she will usually prescribe you with a course of general antibiotics administered both externally and internally. Since the main reason for inflammation in acne is the bacterial infection using antibiotics can actually help. However when you end the course it?s likely that new breakouts will take place after some time because of the bacterial development in the pores. This may require repetitive use of antibiotics that can actually help get even better results.

Heavy artillery

For some people all the measures mentioned above won?t deliver any suitable results. That?s when the heavy artillery comes into the scene in the form of Accutane. This drug has received a lot of controversy in the last couple of years due to its potential side effects. But there?s no denying the fact that Accutane really helps getting rid of the most severe forms of acne. This drug should be used only under strict medical supervision and requires regular blood tests and exams to be performed. Yet if used right it can work wonders with acne.

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Los Angeles Kings defenseman Matt Greene trips over St. Louis Blues right wing Chris Stewart during the first period in Game 4 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup second-round playoff series, Sunday, May 6, 2012, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Los Angeles Kings defenseman Matt Greene trips over St. Louis Blues right wing Chris Stewart during the first period in Game 4 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup second-round playoff series, Sunday, May 6, 2012, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

St. Louis Blues goalie Brian Elliott looks back at a goal by Los Angeles Kings center Jordan Nolan during the first period in Game 4 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup second-round playoff series, Sunday, May 6, 2012, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Los Angeles Kings center Jordan Nolan, second from left, celebrates his goal with Drew Doughty, left, and center Colin Fraser as St. Louis Blues defenseman Alex Pietrangelo lies on the ice during the first period in Game 4 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup second-round playoff series, Sunday, May 6, 2012, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Los Angeles Kings right wing Dustin Brown (23) scores on St. Louis Blues goalie Brian Elliott during the first period in Game 4 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup second-round playoff series, Sunday, May 6, 2012, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Dustin Brown scored two goals, Jonathan Quick made 23 saves, and the eighth-seeded Los Angeles Kings finished an improbable four-game sweep of the St. Louis Blues with a 3-1 victory Sunday, advancing to the conference finals for just the second time in club history.

Rookie Jordan Nolan scored an early goal for the Kings, the first team in recent NHL history to eliminate their conference’s top two seeds in the same postseason.

After steamrolling top-seeded Vancouver and second-seeded St. Louis with eight wins in nine games, the Kings will face the winner of Phoenix’s series with Nashville in the Western Conference finals.

Los Angeles won despite its weakest effort of the postseason, clinging to its 2-1 first-period lead through 40 scoreless minutes dominated by St. Louis. The Kings didn’t adapt well to an unusually early start time, yet Quick made a handful of stellar saves before Brown scored his sixth goal of a stellar postseason into an empty net with 25.8 seconds left.

Kevin Shattenkirk scored his first career playoff goal for the Blues, who were outscored 15-6 in the series to end their most successful season in more than a decade. Brian Elliott stopped 17 shots in an improved performance, but the Kings’ momentum couldn’t even be stopped by a bad game.

The Kings made their only previous trip to the conference finals in 1993, when Wayne Gretzky and Luc Robitaille propelled Los Angeles past Toronto and into their only Stanley Cup finals, where they lost to Montreal. The Kings won just one playoff series in the ensuing 17 seasons before routing the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Canucks in five first-round games last month.

Los Angeles’ only previous playoff series sweep happened in 1976 in a best-of-three elimination of Calgary. The Kings failed to sweep Vancouver in the first round, but barely managed to avoid another long trip to St. Louis by winning at Staples Center for just the third time in their past nine home playoff games.

The sellout crowd had barely settled in its seats when Blues defenseman Roman Polak turned over the puck near his own net. Nolan, the 22-year-old son of former Buffalo coach Ted Nolan, jumped on Dustin Penner’s rebound to score his first career playoff goal just 4:36 in.

St. Louis managed just one shot in the first 11 minutes, but evened the score with its second ? a rocket from Shattenkirk, who beat Quick for a rare clean goal against the Kings’ All-Star goalie. Shattenkirk hadn’t scored in the Blues’ past seven playoff games after getting an assist for his first career postseason point in the opener.

Brown put the Kings back ahead late in the period when he used Blues defenseman Alex Pietrangelo as a screen for a sneaky shot to beat Elliott. The Los Angeles captain has been a dominant physical force throughout the postseason, but he hadn’t scored a goal since Game 3 of the first round.

While St. Louis dominated the second period with solid forechecking and desperate offense, the Kings fell into one of their biggest funks of the postseason, managing just one shot in the first 18 minutes of the period. The Blues couldn’t beat Quick, who also wasn’t his usual sharp self.

The Blues again dominated early in the third, and Matt D’Agostini’s deflected shot barely caught Quick’s crossbar early on. During 4-on-4 play a few minutes later, David Perron nearly scored on a rebound before Anze Kopitar slid into the crease and knocked the puck underneath Quick.

NOTES: St. Louis’ Chris Stewart held his finger to his lips to shush the crowd after beating up Nolan in a first-period fight. … Kobe Bryant, Landon Donovan, Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier all appeared on scoreboard videos pumping up the crowd and urging on the Kings. Bryant, who attended a Kings game late in the season with his daughters, wore a white Kings jersey.

Associated Press

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