Videos

A year ago, South By Southwest Interactive wasn't even on JJ Aguhob's radar. He was hard at work developing a mobile app idea -- a sort of Instagram for videos -- but was still a month away from launch. A lot has changed. On Monday, Aguhob, Viddy's founder, and his chief marketing officer, Evan White, rolled through the streets of downtown Austin, where thousands of attendees have descended on the city for the annual tech fest, and he heard shouts of recognition along the way. “We were literally driving the pedicab over and people were like, 'Viddy!

Mitt Romney said it himself:  He needs to boost his support among Latinos, or cede the White House to Barack Obama for another four years. Speaking last month at a fundraiser in Palm Beach, Fla., (just within earshot of eavesdropping reporters) the former Massachusetts governor acknowledged the resistance he faces among Latino voters after moving far right during the Republican primaries on immigration and other issues. “If it's not turned around,” said the GOP nominee-to-be, “it spells doom for us.” Romney clearly has some work to do. A new national poll,  conducted for NBC News, the Wall Street Journal and Telemundo, showed him trailing the president 61% to 27% among Latinos.

Vertigo. For most people, the word summons images of Jimmy Stewart dangling from high places in Alfred Hitchcock's classic thriller by the same name. It means something else, however, to hundreds of thousands of people who experience the strange, dizzying affliction. The most common cause of vertigo, known as benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, usually can be treated with one visit to the doctor.

The San Antonio Spurs swept the Clippers in the Western Conference semifinals, but there was no love lost between Tim Duncan and Chris Paul. After the Spurs closed the series, Duncan walked down the hall to say hello to Paul and his 2-year-old son, Chris. Paul prompts little Chris to tell Duncan where he wants to go to college. "To my birthday," little Chris said.  Paul then helps his son out. "Wake Forest," he said.  After little Chris repeated his father's words, Duncan, a Wake Forest alumni, flashed a huge smile.

Staples Center is home to four professional sports franchises, the Lakers, Clippers, Kings and Sparks. Each team has a different set-up on the arena floor. It is up to the crew overseen by the Staples Center operations department to reconfigure the floor for each game. Several times a year they must make the changeover twice or more over one weekend in between games. Last Saturday afternoon, while fans were still heading for the exits after the Clippers' 103-100 loss to the San Antonio Spurs, 65 workers began transforming the arena for the Kings' game against the Calgary Flames that night.

"The Best of John Belushi." Warner. $24.98. Why wade through those "Saturday Night Live" reruns looking for the best Belushi skits? They're here--16 gems from 1975-78. The beefy wildman's skill as an impressionist is evident--his characters include Joe Cocker, Ray Charles, a hip Beethoven, and a Samurai swordsman running a sandwich shop. The last skit, "Don't Look Back in Anger," features Belushi as an old man walking through the graveyard, recalling the deaths of his late "SNL" pals.

Kara Walker's biting, sometimes humorous commentary on race and the antebellum South, as expressed through her art installations and videos, has secured her a place of international prominence. Slavery, exploitation, sexuality and how American history has typically dealt with such themes hold a place in nine of Walker's videos on display at the Hammer. Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. On Sunday, videos will be screened continuously from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and from 3 to 5 p.m. And at 2 p.m., there will be a conversation with Walker and writer Hilton Als. Free.

What's hot: Get video tours of the hostel's living room, computer hub, bunk beds, kitchen and more before you decide which hostel is right for you. The videos help the properties come to life — as opposed to seeing only property photos. Some videos also offer local tips and attractions. Keep your eye out for the Wi-Fi logo if that's important to you. What's not: You have to leave the website to book the hostel after you fall in love with the property on the video. But that does give you the opportunity to book it on a website that you may already know, such as Hostels.

In the opening lines of "Take Care," her duet with Drake on his new CD, Rihanna sings in a mesmerizing low voice, "I know you've been hurt by someone else / I can tell by the way you carry yourself. ... If you let me, I'll take care of you / I've loved and I've lost. " Covering, in snippet form, the blues staple "I'll Take Care of You," she gives one of the best vocal performances of her career. That's not damning with faint praise. Her voice here is world-weary and mournful, bruised and compassionate, qualities that nudge "Take Care" into conversation with both the singer's current No. 1 hit, "We Found Love," and with the darker turn her music took with her last two CDs. (Her latest CD, "Talk That Talk," is available this week.)

Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown has launched an investigation into the brouhaha over videotapes of a conservative group's sting operation against ACORN, the community organizing group credited with helping push Barack Obama to the presidency. Brown's office plans to look into circumstances surrounding both the making of the videos and any possible misdeeds by ACORN employees in California caught on tape. In what has become a staple of TV and radio talk shows in recent weeks, ACORN workers in several states were shown allegedly offering advice on tax evasion, human smuggling and child prostitution.

It's called the fiscal cliff, and Americans are going to drive off it early next year, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has warned. Since it's never too early to worry about the economy plunging back into recession, let's turn away momentarily from Facebook's IPO and other such matters of import to appreciate the complete lack of responsible leadership coming from our elected representatives in Washington.

Dexter Pittman provided perhaps the ugliest moment in what had already been a pretty testy playoff series between the Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers on Tuesday night. With just 19.4 seconds remaining in the Heat's blowout win, the Miami reserve center went across the lane and delivered a forearm blow to the chin area of Indiana's Lance Stephenson.

Ever want to video chat with a few of your closest friends? How about 11 of them at the same time? That's what video chat service ooVoo offers free through Facebook and a new iPad app. The company, whose name represents two sets of eyes looking at each other, lets users access video chat rooms from the iPhone and Android phone over Wi-Fi, 3G and 4G LTE as well as via Web and desktop apps. The desktop apps allow up to 12-way chat, screen sharing and sharing of files up to 25 megabytes.

Amid all the ballyhoo over what a bold visionary Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is, let's pause for a moment to appreciate the work of Eugene Polley, inventor of the TV remote control, who has died at age 96. Think about it. Before Polley's brainstorm, people actually had to get up out of their seats and cross the room to change TV channels. Simply put, there would be no couch potatoes without this man. I don't mean to be snarky.

Video-on-demand services usually come into play toward the end of a film's life span — either to follow a theatrical run or to take a movie straight to video. For the website Prescreen, however, VOD is the launching pad. Prescreen, which debuted in September, offers users a curated selection of independent films, most available for 60 days and many exclusive to the site. A single film is spotlighted in a daily email, and most rentals cost $2 to $8 for a 48-hour viewing window.

The Clippers were eliminated from the playoffs Sunday evening following a 102-99 loss to the San Antonio Spurs in Game 4 of their Western Conference semifinal series. Even though they were swept out of the postseason, many consider the team's season a success, regularly selling out Staples Center , reenergizing their fanbase and making the playoffs for the first time since 2006. Here's a glimpse of what Coach Vinny Del Negro and the players had to say in their post-game interviews.

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman on Tuesday illustrated one of the time-tested adages of politics: When you have nothing left to lose, it is time to take the low road and attack -- but always aim high. In separate videos, Paul, the darling of the libertarian movement, and Republican Huntsman, who is pitching himself as the thinking man's conservative, went after Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, respectively. Perry ranks at the top of most polls, having displaced Romney, who was formerly No. 1 in the race for the GOP nomination to face President Obama.

Good form makes for a better workout, and that's one of the keys to ballet-inspired barre workouts. These exercises also increase flexibility and tone the muscles without adding bulk. Pasadena-based fitness expert, video host and teacher Tracey Mallett (www.traceymallett.com) is the founder of Booty Barre, a technique that combines elements of dance, yoga and Pilates to strengthen and stretch the body. No prior experience in any of those disciplines is necessary. Make sure the spine, neck and head are aligned and the movements are slow and deliberate.

Vice President Joe Biden said he and President Obama are "in the same place" on same-sex marriage, just more than a week after his comments on the issue forced the president to hasten his public declaration of support. In an interview with CBS affiliate WTRF during a stop in southeast Ohio on Thursday, Biden reiterated Obama's position that it would be up to each state to "determine for themselves how they're going to treat the issue of marriage. " At the same time, he said everyone is "entitled to the same exact rights.