Thursday, January 31, 2013

Oil steady ahead of the release of US indicators

BANGKOK (AP) ? Oil prices were nearly flat Wednesday as a recent rally cooled off ahead of the release of more U.S. economic indicators and the conclusion of a meeting of Federal Reserve policymakers.

Benchmark oil for March delivery was down 1 cent to $97.56 a barrel at midday Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.13, or 1.2 percent, to close at $97.57 on Tuesday after being pushed higher by a report about rising U.S. home prices. Energy prices can rise when investors feel good about the economy, since it's needed to power manufacturing and other economic activity.

But traders became slightly more cautious ahead of the release of other U.S. economic indicators, including economic growth on Wednesday and weekly jobless claims Thursday. In addition, the Federal Reserve will conclude a two-day meeting later Wednesday with the release of a statement that investors will study for clues about the outlook for the economy and interest rates.

Recent rises in oil prices have been the result of an improving global economy, and positive manufacturing reports from the U.S. and China. But significant gains could be capped by demand constraints and ample supply, analysts said.

"The fundamentals are also likely to deteriorate again later in the year," said analysts at Capital Economics in a report. "Over the longer term, booming energy supply from both conventional and new sources will also add to the downward pressure on prices."

Brent crude, used to price international varieties of oil, rose 1 cents to $114.37 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

In other energy futures trading on Nymex:

? Wholesale gasoline fell 1 cent to $2.966 per gallon.

? Natural gas rose 3.4 cents to $3.292 per 1,000 cubic feet.

? Heating oil rose 0.6 cent to $3.104 a gallon.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/oil-steady-ahead-release-us-indicators-061341324--finance.html

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Oil boom bringing trainloads of crude oil through Washington

TACOMA, Wash. -- An oil boom in the Midwest is laying the tracks for a major transportation hub in Washington. Crude is coming here by rail, pipeline and barge, and state agencies have a hard time keeping up with the pace.

Activists have been worried about what proposed coal terminals would do to rail traffic in Washington state, but little attention has been paid to plans to transport.

Washington State Ecology officials have been planning to publish a map showing increasing oil maps across the state. The problem is the new proposals are popping up so quickly they have to keep updating it. Crude oil is already rolling down rail lines through Tacoma and Seattle and more is on the way.

"All of a sudden, it's just coming on strong," said Dale Jensen, the Department of Ecology's Spills Program Manager.

He said they were all concentrating on the coal train issue when they were surprised to see plans to double pipelines, put oil barges on the Columbia River and start sending long train loads of crude down Washington State Rails.

Jensen said oil companies are pulling so much oil out of the ground in North Dakota and other states east of the Rockies, they have to move it out and Washington state has the ports and refineries they need.

BP, Phillips 66, Tesoro and others have submitted plans to use rails and barges to get the crude to west coast refineries. The state has had limited transport of other refined fuels, but Jensen is concerned what an accident involving crude could to our state's rivers, creeks, ocean bays and Puget Sound.

Rail traffic is already busy. Adding coal and oil to the mix will take it up several notches. More ships are already moving Canadian oil through the Salish Sea and now there are plans to move barges full of crude through the dangerous Columbia River and Grays Harbor bars.

Environmental Consultant Fred Felleman warned we are not ready for that kind of increase and need to get more spill prevention and response equipment in place.

Port officials have expressed confidence they can move the crude safely and the projects will create hundreds of new jobs.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/50647647/ns/local_news-seattle_wa/

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Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Tomorrow's life-saving medications may currently be living at the bottom of the sea

Jan. 29, 2013 ? OHSU researchers, in partnership with scientists from several other institutions, have published two new research papers that signal how the next class of powerful medications may currently reside at the bottom of the ocean. In both cases, the researchers were focused on ocean-based mollusks -- a category of animal that includes snails, clams and squid and their bacterial companions.

Sea life studies aid researchers in several ways, including the development of new medications and biofuels. Because many of these ocean animal species have existed in harmony with their bacteria for millions of years, these benign bacteria have devised molecules that can affect body function without side effects and therefore better fight disease.

To generate these discoveries, a research partnership called the Philippine Mollusk Symbiont International Cooperative Biodiversity Group was formed. As the name suggests, the group specifically focuses on mollusks, a large phylum of invertebrate animals, many of which live under the sea. Margo Haygood, Ph.D., an OHSU marine microbiologist, leads the group, with partners at the University of the Philippines, the University of Utah, The Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia and Ocean Genome Legacy. Both of these newly published papers are the result of the efforts of this research group.

Here are brief summaries of the two studies:

Shipworms: The source of a new antibiotic

The paper focuses on a unique animal called a shipworm, which despite its name is not a worm. Shipworms are mollusks and are clam-like creatures that use their shells as drills and feed on wood by burrowing into the wood fibers. They are best known for affixing themselves to the sides of wooden ships. Over time, their wood feeding causes serious damage to the hull of those ships.

The research team initially focused on shipworms because the animals' creative use of bacteria to convert wood -- a poor food source lacking proteins or nitrogen -- into a suitable food source where the animal can both live and feed.

This research revealed that one form of bacteria utilized by shipworms secretes a powerful antibiotic, which may hold promise for combatting human diseases.

"The reason why this line of research is so critical is because antibiotic resistance is a serious threat to human health," said Margo Haygood, Ph.D., a member of the OHSU Institute of Environmental Health and a professor of science and engineering in the OHSU School of Medicine.

"Antibiotics have helped humans battle infectious diseases for over 70 years. However, the dangerous organisms these medications were designed to protect us against have adapted due to widespread use. Without a new class of improved antibiotics, older medications are becoming less and less effective and we need to locate new antibiotics to keep these diseases at bay. Bacteria that live in harmony with animals are a promising source. "

Cone snails: Another possible yet surprising source for new medicines

A team led by researchers from the University of Utah, and including OHSU and the University of the Philippines researchers, took part in a separate study of cone snails collected in the Philippines. Cone snails are also mollusks. There have been few previous studies to determine if bacteria associated with these snails might assist in drug development. This is because the snails have thick shells and they can also defend themselves through the use of toxic venoms. Because of the existence of these significant defensive measures, it was assumed that the bacteria they carry do not have to produce additional chemical defenses that might also translate into human medications. The latest research shows that this previous assumption is incorrect.

The research demonstrated how bacteria carried by cone snails produce a chemical that is neuroactive, meaning that it impacts the function of nerve cells, called neurons, in the brain. Such chemicals have promise for treatment of pain.

"Mollusks with external shells, like the cone snail, were previously overlooked in the search for new antibiotics and other medications," said, Eric Schmidt, Ph.D., a biochemist at the university of Utah and lead author of the article.

"This discovery tells us that these animals also produce compounds worth studying. It's hoped that these studies may also provide us with valuable knowledge that will help us combat disease."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Oregon Health & Science University.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal References:

  1. S. I. Elshahawi, A. E. Trindade-Silva, A. Hanora, A. W. Han, M. S. Flores, V. Vizzoni, C. G. Schrago, C. A. Soares, G. P. Concepcion, D. L. Distel, E. W. Schmidt, M. G. Haygood. PNAS Plus: Boronated tartrolon antibiotic produced by symbiotic cellulose-degrading bacteria in shipworm gills. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2013; 110 (4): E295 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1213892110
  2. Zhenjian Lin, Joshua?P. Torres, Mary?Anne Ammon, Lenny Marett, Russell?W. Teichert, Christopher?A. Reilly, Jason?C. Kwan, Ronald?W. Hughen, Malem Flores, Ma.?Diarey Tianero, Olivier Peraud, James?E. Cox, Alan?R. Light, Aaron?Joseph?L. Villaraza, Margo?G. Haygood, Gisela?P. Concepcion, Baldomero?M. Olivera, Eric?W. Schmidt. A Bacterial Source for Mollusk Pyrone Polyketides. Chemistry & Biology, 2013; 20 (1): 73 DOI: 10.1016/j.chembiol.2012.10.019

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

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.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/cxOQn7lt-c8/130129130949.htm

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Phillip Walker Sailors, Georgia Man, Accused Of Killing Man Who Mistakenly Pulled Into His Driveway

A Georgia man is accused of killing a man whose GPS system mistakenly led him to the wrong house.

Phillip Walker Sailors, a 69-year-old resident of Lilburn, Ga., was arrested and charged with murder for the death of Rodrigo Abad Diaz, a 22-year-old Cuban immigrant, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

Passengers in Diaz's car say they were on their way to pick up a girl to go ice skating around 10 p.m. when their GPS led them to the wrong address, according to Fox 5. As they waited in the driveway, the owner came out with a gun. He fired two shots: one in the air and one that killed Diaz.

Sailors' lawyer says his client feared for his life.

?He is very distraught over the loss of life from the defense of his home," he told WSB-TV. "This incident happened late in the evening hours when he was home with his wife and he assumed it was a home invasion and he maintains his innocence."

Sailors, a war veteran and former missionary with no known criminal history, is currently being held without bond on charges of malice murder, according to the station.

This is not the first time an armed homeowner has been charged with murder.

In November, Minnesota resident Byron David Smith allegedly shot and killed two unarmed teenagers, whom he reportedly found in his house on Thanksgiving Day. The teenage cousins, ages 18 and 17, were said to be in the midst of a break-in when Smith allegedly shot them multiple times with his Mini 14 rifle and 22-caliber revolver.

According to authorities, Smith admitted to firing "more shots than I needed to" and reportedly was proud of "a good clean finishing shot" that killed one teen, the Associated Press reports. He was charged with two counts of second-degree murder

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/29/phillip-walker-sailors-kills-immigrant-gps-wrong-house_n_2574273.html

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From gulags to dusty donkeys, Google Maps reveals Earth's mysteries

12 hrs.

On Monday, Google officially updated North Korea on Google Maps. Thanks to crowd-sourced data, the area is no longer blank, but instead includes markings for just about everything???right down to the locations of its prison camps. This isn't the first time Google Maps (and its 3-D counterpart, Google Earth) helped reveal previously obscured ??or even unknown ??geography.

In late 2011, Google Maps images called attention to strange patterns etched into the surface of China's Gobi Desert. There were speculations that the patterns were related to weapons-testing sites or even messages from aliens,?but?the?consensus,?according?to?Natalie Wolchover?of?Life's?Little?Mysteries,?was?that?they?were?satellite?calibration?patterns.?

Another pattern found not far from there, a?"Stonehenge-like arrangement of objects radiating outward, with fighter jets parked at its center,"?is?likely?used to test radar from space.

A year later, yet another mysterious pattern was spotted in yet another Chinese desert.?LiveScience's?Tia Ghose?reported?that?these?were?the?result?of?geological surveys for nickel mines.

Google Earth, another aspect of Google's geo project,?has also?helped an?archaeologist discover ancient Egyptian ruins.Much of the excitement over that discovery evaporated though as ? after some initial confusion regarding whether they ruins were previously undiscovered pyramids or other formations ? it turned out that at least some other researchers were already aware of this point of interest.

Thanks to Google Maps' Street View, folks have been exploring areas they may never see in person. For example, thousands of images from Australia's Great Barrier Reef and other coral locales were stitched together into 360-degree panoramas, so that anyone can take a trip from the comfort of his or her own desk.

"This will allow the 99.9 percent of the population who have never been diving to go on a virtual dive for the first time," said Richard Vevers, project director for the Catlin Seaview Survey (which worked in partnership with Google to capture images for these panoramas), told NBC News?when the project was first publicized.

Ancient Mexican monuments such as Teotihuacan, Chichen Itza and Palenque are also included in virtual tours, along with?countless businesses which, as part of an extension to the Google Street View project, allow users to virtually explore building interiors.

Sometimes Google's mapping products can cause controversy. When?a data glitch related to Google Earth's underwater seafloor imagery led to the appearance of a grid-like pattern, some proclaimed it?must indicate the existence of Atlantis. The "evidence" of the mythical city's presence disappeared as soon as Google incorporated fresh data and smoothed over imaging artifacts.

At least one mapping controversy ended with new research, however.?When a Nicaraguan general?alleged that Google Maps displayed erroneous borders between his country and Costa Rica. The secretary general of the Organization of American States was sent in to examine the area and resolve the cartographic drama.

And then there was that time a?Google Street View car ran over a donkey ? or at least appeared to. ?"Over the last 24-hours concerned members of the public and the media have been speculating on the fate of a donkey pictured in Street View in the Kweneng region of Botswana,"?wrote?Google's?Kei?Kawai?in?a?blog?post.?Fortunately?for?Google,?the?car?took?many?photos,?and?a?review?of?them?clearly?showed?the?donkey?moving?aside?safely.?"I'm pleased to confirm the donkey is alive and well."

Google's not above showing us what's behind the curtain in its own data centers, either. Thanks to Street View tours of the interiors of the company's previously unseen buildings, we now know that Stormtroopers and R2 units guard our precious data.

Want more tech news?or interesting?links? You'll get plenty of both if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on?Twitter, subscribing to her?Facebook?posts,?or circling her?on?Google+.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/gulags-dusty-donkeys-google-maps-reveals-earths-mysteries-1B8166498

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Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Spruce Up Your Pay-Per-Click Strategy | Windy City Strategies

With the Internet playing a bigger role in research, pay-per-click advertising proved an increased necessity over the course of 2012. With the success of this strategy and its cost effectiveness, businesses are realizing that online advertising is essential.

Last year businesses saw increased returns from Product Listing Advertising while advertising costs fell. This increased revenue prompted businesses to increase their pay-per-click budgets. Since PPC proves to pay off, more businesses are encouraged to participate in online advertising. As more businesses utilize PLA and PPC, prominence on the Internet is harder to achieve. So businesses must keep their online campaigns fresh to stand out from their competitors.

With this is mind, businesses should prepare to update their online presence. To start 2013 off right, Windy City Strategies offers this advice to keep your business relevant on the web.

1. New Ad Formats

At the beginning of 2013, Yahoo! launched a new ad format called cost-per-lead. This format allows advertisers to start leads directly from the search page. This makes signing up easier and saves customers? time. Increased efficiency starting on the search page makes your business?s website more appealing.

2.?Attention to Psychographics

With the increased use of Google+, Google is collecting more data about the popularity of certain sites. This information will be used for Google?s Remarketing 3.0. Incorporating this information will help Google better direct ads to consumers, so that ads are better matched to their viewers.

3. PPC To Grow in 2013

As online advertising becomes more popular, more businesses are getting on board. Consumers are flooded with business advertisements, so your business needs a creative ad to attract their customers. Incorporating new elements, like catchy content and efficient formats will help set your business apart.

Tags: advertising-on-google, Google, Google AdWords, google-advertising, google-adwords-advertising, google-adwords-marketing, internet-consultant, internet-consulting, internet-marketing, internet-marketing-consulting, Pay Per Click Management, pay-per-click-campaign-management, pay-per-click-marketing, search-engine-marketing-agency, Search-Engine-Optimization, social-media-marketing, website-design, website-marketing, Yahoo

Source: http://www.windycitystrategies.com/blog/spruce-up-your-pay-per-click-strategy-003073

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Video: Senate's Bi-Partisan Immigration Reform Pitch

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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/50619853/

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Employees Buy Luxury Lifestyle Pilfering Printer Cartridges - AOL Jobs

Marque Gumbs theft

NEW YORK - Manhattan hospital clerk Marque Gumbs was doing so well moonlighting as a peddler of stolen property that he drove a BMW, shopped at designer stores like Burberry and vacationed in Las Vegas and Mexico.

But unlike other more common thieves brazenly living beyond their means, his contraband wasn't jewelry or electronics - it was toner for copiers and printers.

The $1.5 million scheme at the prestigious Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center exploited what New York City authorities describe as a largely overlooked, yet lucrative black market for toner cartridges and other office supplies.

Businesses have long endured employees pilfering pens, paper clips and other items for personal use, called "supply-jacking." But schemes like Gumbs' go much further, with the perpetrators using business accounts to place false orders for more costly items such as toner, then reselling them at a steep discount.

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Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, a large law firm in Manhattan's financial district, recently became the scene of another toner caper that ended with grand larceny charges against Adrian Rodriguez, who worked in the duplicating department.

"This defendant didn't just take a box of Post-it Notes out of the office supply closet," District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said in announcing the case.

Prosecutors allege the 38-year-old Rodriguez, who pleaded not guilty this month, ordered more than $376,000 in excess toner from two vendors over a two-year period. He would sell the cartridges - worth $80 to $259 a piece - for as little as $10 "out of the firm's back door ... and using the money to party and otherwise finance his lifestyle," according to court papers.

During a sting operation in late December, undercover investigators went to the law firm and delivered a shipment of cartridges that was marked so it could be tracked. They then watched as Rodriguez stashed the cartridges away before directing an unidentified buyer driving a van to pick them up at a loading dock, the court papers say.

Who buys the stolen toner and the scope of the thievery in the city, and what the victims have done to keep from happening again, is unclear. Authorities declined to discuss an ongoing investigation of the black market and where it's leading, and there was no response to messages left with the Fried Frank law firm and Memorial Sloan-Kettering.

More: Small Town Comptroller, Rita Crundwell, Pleads Guilty To $53 Million Theft

Alicia Ellis, a spokeswoman for the National Office Products Alliance, said the Washington, D.C., trade group has heard many stories about office products dealers getting ripped off by bogus clients using stolen credit cards to order products - primarily toner, but not about employees of legitimate purchasers enriching themselves with inside toner jobs.

Still, there have been isolated cases.

In 2007, two Pennsylvania men were accused of stealing $187,000 worth of ink and toner from their office-supply employer and then selling the goods on the Internet. The same year, an account executive at a New Jersey stationery supply company pleaded guilty to stealing 30,000 toner cartridges valued at $1.75 million.

The con game at Memorial Sloan-Kettering dates to 2007, when one of Gumbs' duties as a receiving clerk paid $37,800 a year was to order supplies from an Office Depot website. Prosecutors accused him of ordering $1.5 million in cartridges - priced at $200 a piece - that didn't fit any of the copiers and printers at the hospital.

Gumbs also short-circuited hospital procedures by having delivery drivers call his cellphone and meet him at the curb outside. He then stashed the toner in a garbage area so he could retrieve it later.

By the time he was done, Gumbs had used his fraudulent profits to rent a luxury apartment in suburban Westchester County, make a $50,500 down payment on a BMW, and pay for shopping sprees at Burberry, Fendi and Gucci stores. Bank and credit card records showed deposits of $150,000, and purchases of airline tickets and hotel rooms in Las Vegas; Cancun, Mexico; and Orlando, Fla.

Gumbs, 34, pleaded guilty last year and was sentenced to 2 1/2 to 7 1/2 years behind bars. He also was ordered to forfeit his BMW, Rolex, laptop computers, four Louis Vuitton bags and other items bought with ill-gotten gains.


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Source: http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2013/01/28/black-market-toner-cartridges/

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Monday, January 28, 2013

Deadly smoke, lone blocked exit: 230 die in Brazil

A woman cries over the coffin of a victim at a gymnasium where bodies were brought for identification in Santa Maria city, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013. Flames raced through a crowded nightclub in southern Brazil early Sunday, killing more than 230 people as panicked partygoers gasped for breath in the smoke-filled air, stampeding toward a single exit partially blocked by those already dead. (AP Photo/Nabor Goulart)

A woman cries over the coffin of a victim at a gymnasium where bodies were brought for identification in Santa Maria city, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013. Flames raced through a crowded nightclub in southern Brazil early Sunday, killing more than 230 people as panicked partygoers gasped for breath in the smoke-filled air, stampeding toward a single exit partially blocked by those already dead. (AP Photo/Nabor Goulart)

A man stands around coffins containing the remains of victims after the bodies were identified at a gymnasium in Santa Maria city, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013. A fast-moving fire roared through the crowded, windowless Kiss nightclub in southern Brazil early Sunday, within seconds filling the space with flames and a thick, toxic smoke that killed more than 230 panicked partygoers who gasped for breath and fought in a stampede to escape.(AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

Relatives and friends mourn on the coffin containing the remains of a fire victim at a gymnasium where bodies were brought for identification in Santa Maria city, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013. A fast-moving fire roared through the crowded, windowless Kiss nightclub in southern Brazil early Sunday, within seconds filling the space with flames and a thick, toxic smoke that killed more than 230 panicked partygoers who gasped for breath and fought in a stampede to escape.(AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

Relatives and friends carry the coffin of a victim out of a gymnasium where bodies where brought for identification in Santa Maria city, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013. A fast-moving fire roared through the crowded, windowless Kiss nightclub in southern Brazil early Sunday, within seconds filling the space with flames and a thick, toxic smoke that killed more than 230 panicked partygoers who gasped for breath and fought in a stampede to escape.(AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

Family members and friends stand around coffins containing the remains of victims after the bodies were identified at a gymnasium in Santa Maria city, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013. Flames raced through a crowded nightclub in southern Brazil early Sunday, as panicked partygoers gasped for breath in the smoke-filled air, stampeding toward a single exit partially blocked by those already dead. Officials counted more than 230 bodies that were brought for identification to the gymnasium in Santa Maria,(AP Photo/Nabor Goulart)

SANTA MARIA, Brazil (AP) ? A fast-moving fire roared through a crowded, windowless nightclub in southern Brazil early Sunday, filling the air in seconds with flames and a thick, toxic smoke that killed more than 230 panicked partygoers, many of whom were caught in a stampede to escape.

Inspectors believe the blaze began when a band's small pyrotechnics show ignited foam sound insulating material on the ceiling, releasing a putrid haze that caused scores of university students to choke to death. Most victims died from smoke inhalation rather than burns in what appeared to be the world's deadliest nightclub fire in more than a decade.

Survivors and the police inspector Marcelo Arigony said security guards briefly tried to block people from exiting the club. Brazilian bars routinely make patrons pay their entire tab at the end of the night before they are allowed to leave.

But Arigony said the guards didn't appear to block fleeing patrons for long. "It was chaotic and it doesn't seem to have been done in bad faith because several security guards also died," he told The Associated Press.

Later, firefighters responding to the blaze initially had trouble getting inside the Kiss nightclub because "there was a barrier of bodies blocking the entrance," Guido Pedroso Melo, commander of the city's fire department, told the O Globo newspaper.

Authorities said band members who were on the stage when the fire broke out later talked with police and confirmed they used pyrotechnics during their show.

Police inspector Sandro Meinerz, who coordinated the investigation at the nightclub, said one band member died after escaping because he returned inside the burning building to save his accordion. The other band members escaped alive because they were the first to notice the fire.

"It was terrible inside ? it was like one of those films of the Holocaust, bodies piled atop one another," said Meinerz. "We had to use trucks to remove them. It took about six hours to take the bodies away."

Television images from Santa Maria, a university city of about 260,000 people, showed black smoke billowing out of the Kiss nightclub as shirtless young men who attended the university party joined firefighters using axes and sledgehammers to pound at the hot-pink exterior walls, trying to reach those trapped inside.

Bodies of the dead and injured were strewn in the street and panicked screams filled the air as medics tried to help. There was little to be done; officials said most of those who died were suffocated by smoke within minutes.

Within hours a community gym was a horror scene, with body after body lined up on the floor, partially covered with black plastic as family members identified kin.

Outside the gym police held up personal objects ? a black purse, a blue high-heeled shoe ? as people seeking information on loved ones crowded around, hoping not to recognize anything being shown them.

Teenagers sprinted from the scene after the fire began, desperately seeking help. Others carried injured and burned friends away in their arms. Many of the victims were under 20 years old, including some minors. About half of those killed were men, about half women.

The party was organized by students from several academic departments from the Federal University of Santa Maria. Such organized university parties are common throughout Brazil.

"There was so much smoke and fire, it was complete panic, and it took a long time for people to get out, there were so many dead," survivor Luana Santos Silva told the Globo TV network.

The fire spread so fast inside the packed club that firefighters and ambulances could do little to stop it, Silva said.

Another survivor, Michele Pereira, told the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper that she was near the stage when members of the band lit some sort of flare that started the conflagration.

"The band that was onstage began to use flares and, suddenly, they stopped the show and pointed them upward," she said. "At that point, the ceiling caught fire. It was really weak, but in a matter of seconds it spread."

Guitarist Rodrigo Martins told Radio Gaucha that the band, Gurizada Fandangueira, started playing at 2:15 a.m. "and we had played around five songs when I looked up and noticed the roof was burning."

"It might have happened because of the Sputnik, the machine we use to create a luminous effect with sparks. It's harmless, we never had any trouble with it," he said. "When the fire started, a guard passed us a fire extinguisher, the singer tried to use it but it wasn't working."

He confirmed that accordion player Danilo Jacques, 28, died, while the five other members made it out safely.

Police Maj. Cleberson Braida Bastianello said by telephone that the toll had risen to 233 with the death of a hospitalized victim. He said earlier that the death toll was likely made worse because the nightclub appeared to have just one exit through which patrons could exit.

Officials earlier counted 232 bodies that had been brought for identification to a gymnasium in Santa Maria, which is located at the southern tip of Brazil, near the borders with Argentina and Uruguay.

Federal Health Minister Alexandre Padhilha told a news conference that most of the 117 people treated in hospitals had been poisoned by gases they breathed during the fire. Only a few suffered serious burns, he said.

Brazil President Dilma Rousseff arrived to visit the injured after cutting short her trip to a Latin American-European summit in Chile.

"It is a tragedy for all of us," Rousseff said.

Most of the dead apparently were asphyxiated, according to Dr. Paulo Afonso Beltrame, a professor at the medical school of the Federal University of Santa Maria who went to the city's Caridade Hospital to help victims.

Beltrame said he was told the club had been filled far beyond its capacity.

Survivors, police and firefighters gave the same account of a band member setting the ceiling's soundproofing ablaze, he said.

"Large amounts of toxic smoke quickly filled the room, and I would say that at least 90 percent of the victims died of asphyxiation," Beltrame told the AP.

"The toxic smoke made people lose their sense of direction so they were unable to find their way to the exit. At least 50 bodies were found inside a bathroom. Apparently they confused the bathroom door with the exit door."

In the hospital, the doctor "saw desperate friends and relatives walking and running down the corridors looking for information," he said, calling it "one of the saddest scenes I have ever witnessed."

Rodrigo Moura, identified by the newspaper Diario de Santa Maria as a security guard at the club, said it was at its maximum capacity of between 1,000 and 2,000, and partygoers were pushing and shoving to escape.

Santa Maria Mayor Cezar Schirmer declared a 30-day mourning period, and Tarso Genro, the governor of the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, said officials were investigating the cause of the disaster.

The blaze was the deadliest in Brazil since at least 1961, when a fire that swept through a circus killed 503 people in Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro.

Sunday's fire also appeared to be the worst at a nightclub since December 2000, when a welding accident reportedly set off a fire at a club in Luoyang, China, killing 309.

In 2004, at least 194 people died in a fire at an overcrowded nightclub in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Seven members of a band were sentenced to prison for starting the flames.

A blaze at the Lame Horse nightclub in Perm, Russia, killed 152 people in December 2009 after an indoor fireworks display ignited a plastic ceiling decorated with branches.

Similar circumstances led to a 2003 nightclub fire that killed 100 people in the United States. Pyrotechnics used as a stage prop by the 1980s rock band Great White set ablaze cheap soundproofing foam on the walls and ceiling of a Rhode Island music venue.

The band performing in Santa Maria, Gurizada Fandangueira, plays a driving mixture of local Brazilian country music styles. Guitarist Martin told Radio Gaucha the musicians are already seeing hostile messages.

"People on the social networks are saying we have to pay for what happened," he said. "I'm afraid there could be retaliation".

___

Sibaja reported from Brasilia. Associated Press writers Stan Lehman and Bradley Brooks contributed to this report from Sao Paulo.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-01-28-Brazil-Nightclub%20Fire/id-ad2ae373fa7f44e99fa70b8bc85d2663

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Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/01/sag-awards-fashion-best-and-worst-dressed/

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Sunday, January 27, 2013

Pay Dirt! Antarctic Drilling Reaches Lake Surface

U.S. scientists successfully drilled into Lake Whillans, a subglacial expanse of water hidden deep beneath the Antarctic ice sheet, they reported on Sunday (Jan. 27).

About a month ago, a similar British attempt to reach subglacial Lake Ellsworth had failed. Drilling operations for the WISSARD project (Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling), which is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation's Office of Polar Programs, started on Jan. 21.

Over the next couple of days, equipment will be lowered down the 2,625-foot (800-meter)-deep hole to carry out measurements and to obtain water samples for further study on board container-based scientific laboratories on the surface. As of Sunday (Jan. 27), the WISSARD team said they may have penetrated the lake surface.

"Sensors on the hot water drill show a water pressure change, indicating that the borehole has connected with the lake," they write on the WISSARD blog. "Verification awaits visual images from a down-borehole camera this evening. We are excited about the latest developments at the lake!" [See Photos of Subglacial Lake Whillans Drilling Site]

The bottom of the world

On Dec. 9, I visited the WISSARD test site on the Ross Ice Shelf, just off the coast of the Antarctic continent and close to McMurdo Station, as a selected member of the NSF Antarctic media visit program. The test site resembled a small factory, with generators, water tanks, labs, workshops, data centers and, of course, the actual drilling platform ? all mounted on giant skis. In the background were the tractors that would pull the whole installation to Lake Whillans, across hundreds of miles of solid ice.

"This is a first go," said Ross Powell of the University of Northern Illinois, one of WISSARD's 13 principal investigators. "Next year we hope to return to drill more holes."

Frank Rack, a geologic oceanographer of the University of Nebraska who leads the WISSARD drill team, explained how a powerful jet of pressurized hot water is used to melt a hole in the ice.

"Our hot water drill is state-of-the-art," Rack said. Part of the system, including two 225-kilowatt generators and the power distribution modules, had previously been used to drill the holes for the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole. The technique is simple in principle, but prone to unexpected problems. "My biggest worry is that something might get stuck," Powell said. With the successful completion of the actual drilling at Lake Whillans, this worry has now been laid to rest.

A big concern for the WISSARD team has been to prevent contamination of samples from the subglacial lake with microorganisms. After all, an important goal of the project is studying the lake's ecosystem, if it exists at all. Even at 195 degrees Fahrenheit (90 degrees Celsius) ? the temperature the pressurized water for drilling is heated to ? water contains a lot of spore-forming bacteria. That?s why the drilling hose is fed through a collar of ultraviolet lamps: the energetic radiation kills 99.9 percent of all microorganisms.

In contrast, the Russian team that drilled into subglacial Lake Vostok last year used kerosene to lubricate the borehole ? a technique significantly less clean than hot-water-drilling.

Microbiologist Jill Mikucki of the University of Tennessee is pretty sure there might be life under the ice: microorganisms that are able to thrive in the cold, dark, isolated subglacial lakes. She doesn't expect to encounter larger organisms, because there's so little energy available at 2,625 feet (800 m) below the icecap, but "microbes are everywhere," Mikucki said. "There's even potential to find new species."

Subglacial microbes could accelerate weathering of rocks, Mikucki explained, releasing silicon and iron that finds its way into the ocean and serves as nutrients for other life forms. "I want to find out how they help to run the planet." [Antarctica Album: Stunning Photos of IceBridge Mission]

Hidden plumbing

Meanwhile, geologists and glaciologists are eager to learn more about water transport and ice dynamics beneath the frozen Antarctic surface. Lake Whillans lies beneath a 66-foot (20-meter) wide ice stream that moves about a meter per day, as opposed to something like a meter per year for the surrounding icecap. Little is known about the possible relation between ice streams on the surface and subglacial river systems, which have only been discovered ? and charted through radar ? over the past couple of decades.

"Lake Whillans is just one of a few hundred interconnected lakes," said Powell, "and radar observations have revealed that it fills and drains in a five-to-10-year cycle. We want to find out what causes these cycles. And knowing more about ice dynamics is important to better understand the effects global warming might have on the Antarctic continent. Thanks to WISSARD, we will be able for the first time to use real field data as input in our glacialogical models."

Even the 66-foot (80-m)-deep test drill through the Ross Ice Shelf, completed in mid-December, was of interest to scientists. An earlier program called ANDRILL (for Antarctic Drilling project), also led by Rack, encountered some unusual life forms beneath the ice, including giant anemones and previously unknown organisms looking like floating spring rolls. "Pretty surprising," Rack said. "I have a museum guy doing the taxonomy right now, and we are writing it up for Science magazine. At the WISSARD test site we could find similar ? or very different ? organisms. We'll have to see.? Results from the test drilling have not yet been released. [Life on Ice: Gallery of Cold-Loving Creatures]

Planetary scientist Britney Schmidt of the University of Texas at Austin has deployed a small, tethered robotic submersible through the test borehole. Known as SCINI (Submersible Capable of under Ice Navigation and Imaging), it is outfitted with a lamp and a camera. "It looks for everything under the ice," Schmidt told me at her temporary office at McMurdo Station. "There's no reason that I could think of why we would not find interesting organisms."

In the future, Schmidt hopes to use similar techniques to search for life in the subglacial ocean of Europa, one of the four large satellites of Jupiter. "I'm not 100 percent sure that there is life on Europa," she said, "but if it?s not there, I'd like to learn why it isn't there." Again, the SCINI results from the test site are not yet published, but it's clear that projects like WISSARD are already firing the imagination of planetary scientists and astrobiologists.

It will be a while before scientists succeed in drilling through the polar ice of Mars, or through the icy crust of Europa, but the success at Lake Whillans gives them a taste of things to come. Meanwhile, WISSARD will provide geochemists and microbiologists alike with a unique picture of an integrated subglacial ecosystem. "Other systems are much easier to study," said Mikucki, "but from Antarctica we only have limited samples so far. Since 10 percent of the Earth's land surface is covered with ice, we really need more data to understand our planet. Antarctica is an important piece of the puzzle."

Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We're also on Facebook?& Google+.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pay-dirt-antarctic-drilling-reaches-lake-surface-213418868.html

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U.S. House budget chief: automatic spending cuts "going to happen"

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Automatic spending cuts postponed at the start of the year will go into effect as scheduled in March but "no one" is talking about allowing a U.S. government shutdown, the Republican House of Representatives Budget Committee chairman said on Sunday.

The automatic spending cuts had been delayed by two months as part of the deal to avoid the "fiscal cliff" of tax hikes and deep spending reductions - known as sequestration - that had loomed at the beginning of this month.

"I think the sequester is going to happen," Representative Paul Ryan, chairman of the House budget panel and the party's 2012 vice presidential nominee, told the NBC program "Meet The Press."

House Republicans, most of whom had strongly opposed any tax rate increases in the "fiscal cliff" debate, have now started to shift their focus away the issue of tax increases and toward the spending cuts.

"We think these sequesters will happen because the Democrats have opposed our efforts to replace those cuts with others and they've offered no alternative," Ryan said.

In the debate over how to get America's fiscal house in order, Democrats have argued for a combination of tax increases and public spending cuts. Republicans have favored spending cuts without higher taxes.

Some Republicans have called for delaying the planned spending cuts in defense while increasing cuts in other areas of the federal government. The Pentagon said on Friday it had begun laying off most of its 46,000 temporary and term employees and cutting maintenance on ships and aircraft in an effort to slow spending before nearly $50 billion in new cuts are due to go into effect on March 1.

Following a showdown over raising the U.S. debt ceiling in 2011, President Barack Obama and Congress agreed that $1.2 trillion in automatic cuts in domestic and military spending over 10 years would begin at the start of this year unless lawmakers took action to rein in spending. That was postponed until the beginning of March in the "fiscal cliff" deal.

Ryan said the automatic cuts would take place as scheduled because Democrats have not offered alternatives to Republican proposals for spending cuts.

STOP-GAP SPENDING

March 27 is the expiration date for a stop-gap government funding measure. If Congress does not authorize a new spending bill by that date, government agencies and programs would have to start shutting down. In such a scenario, military activities could be curtailed and federal employees put on unpaid leave.

While Republicans in the past have threatened similar shutdowns to press for spending cuts, the tactic could backfire. Republican-led government shutdowns in 1995 and 1996 met with strong public disapproval.

Ryan played down a potential fight with Democrats over the stop-gap spending measure.

"No one is talking about shutting the government down," Ryan said.

The House last Wednesday passed a Republican plan to allow the government to keep borrowing money through mid-May, clearing it for quick enactment after the top Senate Democrat and White House endorsed it.

The measure includes a measure requiring the House and Senate to pass a formal budget resolution by April 15. Under the provision, if either chamber fails to meet this deadline, lawmakers' pay would be suspended until they pass a budget.

The Democratic-controlled Senate is expected to pass it unchanged before sending it to the president.

Ryan also signaled little appetite for a renewed debate with Democrats on further tax increases after the "fiscal cliff" deal that included higher tax rates on the wealthiest Americans.

"We already offered that back in the 'fiscal cliff' negotiations," he said. "The president got his additional revenues. So that's behind us."

He said if Democrats keep raising taxes, it would weaken the likelihood Congress could accomplish "decent tax reform."

(Reporting by Margaret Chadbourn; Editing by Will Dunham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-house-budget-chief-automatic-spending-cuts-going-185521841--business.html

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Attention shoppers: Another credit card fee is here

20 hrs.

It could soon cost you more to shop with a credit card at some stores. As of this Sunday, Jan. 27, merchants who accept credit cards issued by Visa and MasterCard will be allowed to add a service charge to the purchase price.

Visa and MasterCard had always prohibited merchants from doing this. They agreed to change the rules and allow the surcharge as part of the settlement of an antitrust suit brought by retailers.

The surcharge is supposed to equal the actual cost of processing the credit card transaction, which is typically 1.5 to 3 percent. Under the agreement, the fee is capped at 4 percent. The surcharge can vary based on the type of card. For example, it could be higher for a rewards card or premier card.

Merchants still cannot add a surcharge to debit card transactions.

The big question is: Will any stores do this? Should you worry about paying a credit card surcharge?

?We have discussed the settlement with many, many merchants, and not a single merchant we have spoken to plans to surcharge,? Craig Sherman, spokesman for the National Retail Federation (NRF), said in a statement. The NRF was not involved in the class action lawsuit.

NBC News contacted some of the country?s largest retailers. Wal-Mart,?Target, Sears and Home Depot said they have no plans to add a credit card surcharge.

Credit card surcharges are banned by law in 10 states: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Oklahoma and Texas.

Visa and MasterCard have rules that require retailers to handle credit cards the same way in all of their stores across the country. That means a chain with stores in any of the 10 states where a surcharge is banned would not be able to have a surcharge at any of its stores.

The National Retail Federation points out that under terms of the settlement, a merchant who adds a surcharge to purchases on a Visa or MasterCard would have to do the same with American Express cards. But AMEX prohibits surcharge fees. So a merchant who accepts American Express as well as Visa/MasterCard would not be able to surcharge any of those cards.

?The bottom line is that very few retailers would be able to surcharge under the settlement, and that the vast majority don?t want to surcharge even if they could,? the NRF?s Sherman said.

Ed Mierzwinski, Director of Consumer Programs at U.S. PIRG agrees.

?In the brick-and-mortar world, no one who does any sort of volume business is going to want to surcharge because it will drive their customer crazy and slow down transactions,? Mierzwinski said.

In fact, most consumer advocates believe that except for some small retailers, a credit card surcharge is a non-issue in the short-term.

But Edgar Dworsky, founder of ConsumerWorld.org, worries that over time surcharges will gain traction.

?It?s predictable what?s going to happen,? he said. ?We?re at the top of the hill and we?re going to start going down that slippery slope.?

Dworsky points out that stores factor in the cost of processing credit cards when they price their merchandise. Charging for that again, he said, would be double-dipping, unless stores rolled back their prices ? which no one expects them to do.

?We shouldn?t have gotten to the point, but unfortunately because of the court settlement we have,? Dworsky told me. ?There?s no one standing up for consumers and saying that this is really bad.?

Dworsky points to Australia, where surcharging credit card use began in 2003. At first, few merchants charged the fee.? His research shows that approximately one-third of the sellers there ? including some hotels, supermarkets, department stores and utilities ? now charge extra to use a credit card.?

What about disclosures??
The advocacy group Consumer Action has published a booklet on credit card checkout fees. It warns shoppers to be on the lookout for these fees and advises them to express their dissatisfaction.?Customers shouldn?t stand for it,? said Ruth Susswein Consumer Action?s deputy director of national priorities. ?Our advice is to tell them you don?t like the fee and this makes you want to take your business elsewhere.?

The new rules from Visa and MasterCard require retailers who apply a credit card surcharge to post a notice at the store?s entrance. The exact percentage of the surcharge does not need to be disclosed until the point of sale. The customer receipt must list the amount of the surcharge.

Online stores with a surcharge will not be required to have a notice on the home page. They only need to alert shoppers about this when they reach the page where credit cards are first mentioned. In most cases, that means the final step of checkout when the purchase is being completed.

Not the end of this story?
The settlement that allows merchants to impose a surcharge is only preliminary. The court has yet to issue its final ruling in this case. That?s expected later this year.?

Once that happens, various retailers and business groups plan to challenge the settlement. That could drag into late 2014.

For now, the possibility that the settlement could be modified will probably keep most businesses of any size from instituting credit card fees.

?We?re not convinced this is going to be an issue,? Consumer Action?s Susswein told me. ?They may never do it, but as individual consumers we need to be aware.?

Herb Weisbaum is The ConsumerMan. Follow him on Facebook and Twitteror visit The ConsumerMan website.?

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/attention-shoppers-another-credit-card-fee-here-1C8086499

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Saturday, January 26, 2013

10 Ways to Get Better Social Marketing Results

Social media can be a great lead generation tool for your small business. Make sure to capitalize on those leads with the help of a simple CRM like Base.

?

If you are trying your best to leverage the many social marketing sites that exist, you?re not alone.? Many businesses of all sizes are doing their best to figure out how to best capitalize on tools like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and others. ?Here are some tips to help you in that regard:

1: Develop a strategy and regularly revisit it.

In order for you to succeed with social marketing you?ll need to gain an understanding of how each tool works and develop a strategy and schedule for orchestrating your strategy.

Furthermore, you?ll need to revisit it often so that you can see what is working well and what is not.? You?re more likely to succeed with implementing a thoughtful and consistent strategy rather than simply creating accounts and trying to make time for them.

2: Make sure you?re social.

Social sites are supposed to be social. If you?re just pushing out links and status updates and not socializing with others, you?re not ?getting? the purposes of social media. That said, remember that what goes on the internet is forever (usually even if it?s deleted) and that appearances mean everything. The right blend of professional and sociable is important.

3: Monitor your accounts.

It?s important to not only use your accounts but to monitor them. By watching what?s happening you?ll be able to see what sorts of results you are getting and you?ll be able to quickly deal with questions or escalations. It has become commonplace for customers to take to tools like Twitter to make complaints about a company. This can be stressful but it presents a good opportunity to show your customers what your customer service skills are made of. Be sure that you or one of your staff members (or even an agency that offers this as a service) is continually monitoring your social marketing accounts.

4: Integrate other activities into social media and vice versa.

One of the great things about social media sites is the fact that they can be integrated into other sites and vice versa. Leveraging this ability can help you get better results as well as save time on your online marketing and strategizing.

You can add social bookmarking tools to your website to help your customers share your content on Twitter, Facebook, and so on. You can encourage sign-ups to sites and applications by enabling people to quickly and easily sign up with their Facebook account. You can set your business blog up to automatically post your updates on your Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other accounts. Conversely, you can add a Facebook or Twitter widget to your blog or add a plug-in for lead generation to your Facebook page that feeds information into your CRM tool.

There are many ways to leverage social media to send traffic to your website and to leverage your website to build up your social media profiles and following.

5: Follow good social marketing etiquette.

It?s not the end of the world if you are a late bloomer in the social marketing space but you don?t want this to be glaringly obvious. Many of your customers and prospects are extremely social media savvy. Learning the socially acceptable etiquette rules is important so that you show customers you are a consummate professional. If you appear to be a newbie on these tools, people probably won?t take you seriously. A bit of research and reading some tips guides for various tools can help you avoid looking unprofessional.

6: Analyze your website traffic reports.

This will help you determine where you are getting results and traffic from. You can use this info to help you tweak a strategy or spend even more time somewhere that is bringing you great results.

7: Leverage great tools to help you.

Social marketing can be time consuming. But there are tools that can help in many ways including helping you save time with automatic posting and extracting valuable analytics for you to use for strategy purposes.

8: Watch your competitors

Competitive analysis is vital in the current day and age and social marketing makes it easier than ever because of the transparent nature of the web. Watching your competitors can help you see what they are doing well and what they aren?t doing so well and this info can help you improve your approach.

9: Listen to your customers and learn about them.

Sites like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and others can help you gain invaluable insight for future reference. Don?t neglect to pay close attention to what sort of reaction you get from various strategies with these tools. They can help you build strong bonds and loyalty with your customers.

10: Make providing value priority #1.

These online communities can be a great place to leverage your expertise and to build a brand. If you strive to provide value in everything you do, including posting helpful updates and sharing useful info (especially if it?s not always self serving) you can leverage social media to help you with your search engine optimization, your reputation, your customer relationship management, and more.

Dana Prince writes for Future Simple?s Growth University. Dana blends her passion for entrepreneurship with experience in software licensing sales, product management, online marketing, and SEO writing to run Dana Prince Writing, a web writing agency that creates optimized content that helps websites succeed.

Source: http://www.futuresimple.com/blog/10-ways-to-get-better-social-marketing-results/

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Photos: Serena Williams' Ballooning Ankle

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/slideshow/photos-medical-marvels-2024849

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8 Commodities You Should Be Investing In - Money Morning

Investing in Commodities: The Outlook for 2013-14

Here's the Morgan Stanley report rundown on eight commodities headed for price gains:

  • Aluminum: Further infrastructure- and construction-related stimulus from China should move prices up in 2013. But the current level of supplies and high production capacity will put a floor on prices in 2014.
  • Aluminum ended 2012 at $2,087/metric ton. The projection for 2013 and 2014 is $2,300/metric ton - a 10.21% increase from the end of 2012.

  • Copper: Growth in the supply of copper will be slow over the next five years and demand should increase, especially from China as the country's infrastructure and auto markets stabilize.
  • Copper ended 2012 at $3.61/pound. The 2013 projection is $3.90/pound, up 8.03% from 2012. The 2014 projection is $3.72/pound, up 3.05% from 2012.

  • Nickel: Nickel remains at mid-2009 lows due to a growing oversupply and weak demand, but should rebound over the next two years.
  • Nickel ended 2012 at $17,448/metric ton. The 2013 projection is $18,300/metric ton, a 4.88% increase from 2012. The 2014 projection is $19,800/metric ton, up 13.48% from 2012.

  • Zinc: A sharp drop in 2012 production in China helped cut into an oversupply of zinc that dates to the financial crisis of 2008-2009. And if China's new leadership supports infrastructure growth, that will boost zinc prices as well.
  • Zinc ended 2012 at $2,040/metric ton. The 2013 projection is $2,200/metric ton, an increase of 7.84% from 2012. The 2014 projection is $2,300/metric ton, up 12.75% from 2012.

  • Gold: The Federal Reserve's QE3, combined with the European Central Bank's unlimited bond-purchasing program, will continue to push the yellow metal higher, but lowered demand could limit prices in 2014.
  • Gold ended 2012 at $1,665/ ounce. The 2013 projection is $1,853/ounce, up 11.29% from 2012. The 2014 projection is $1,800/ounce, up 8.11% from 2012.

  • Silver: Production at mines has stalled since 2011 and demand should continue to increase, especially for use in electronics and jewelry.
  • Silver ended 2012 at $30/ounce. The 2013 and 2014 projection is $35/ounce, an increase of 16.67% from 2012.

  • Platinum: Supply issues in South Africa that eliminated the surplus of platinum, coupled with strong industrial demand, should keep this metal moving higher.
  • Platinum ended 2012 at $1,524/ounce. The 2013 projection is $1,715/ ounce, up 12.53% from 2012. The 2014 projection is $1,785/ounce, up 17.13% from 2012.

  • Sugar: A global surplus of sugar, due to higher-than-expected production from Brazil and India, should prevent major changes in prices for the next two years.
  • Sugar ended 2012 at 19.2 cents/pound. The 2013 projection is 19 cents/pound, down 1.04% from 2012. The 2014 projection is 20 cents/pound, up 4.17% from 2012.

5 Commodities That Could Really Outperform

Krauth agrees with Morgan Stanley's commodities team that gold is the safest and best commodity going forward.

But he expects the highest return from silver prices.

His 2013 price targets are $2,200/ounce for gold, which would be up 32.13% from the end of 2012, and $54/ounce for silver, for an 80% increase.

Both of these increases will be spurred by the inflationary actions of central banks, strong investor demand and decreased supplies. Krauth expects silver to outperform gold because of the added demand from its various industrial uses, and its low price compared with gold.

Krauth also sees higher prices for platinum and palladium.

Increased use of platinum and palladium in automobiles is expected to help drive consumption of the metals up 7% - 8% this year, Krauth said. But ongoing labor problems in Africa, which produces most of the world's platinum and palladium, will reduce supply of the metals, he said.

Krauth predicts the price of platinum will rise to $1,850/ounce in 2013. He foresees palladium, now trading at about $725/ounce, rising to $800 this year.

Copper, Krauth forecasts, will rise above $4/pound this year.

Read more Money Morning coverage of commodities.

Related Articles and News:

Source: http://moneymorning.com/2013/01/25/8-commodities-you-should-be-investing-in/

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Friday, January 25, 2013

Bulls hire Petke, but it's troubling

I?m feeling a little wishy-washy on today?s MLS news maker that Mike Petke is the new sheriff in town around Red Bull Arena. The team named Petke, who has a long history at the club, its newest manager this morning.

I applaud the choice because it checks an important box, the one labeled ?MLS experience.?? I am on the record with my disdain for hiring figures from abroad who couldn?t spell MLS if you spotted them the ?M? and the ?L.?? The league?s peculiarities and unique challenges can be difficult on even the savviest tactician.

So, good on the Red Bulls new upper management for acquiescing on that one, after once appearing determined to land a manager with an accent.

But Petke?s hiring does have me leaving the table a bit hungry. Some questions keep troubling me.

Foremost, if he was their man, why take so long? Why wander through two important player personnel exercises (the MLS combine and the draft) without a solid hierarchy of leadership? Yes, I am aware that Petke was front-and-center in the combine analysis and the draft selections. But to say that he was provided carte blanche to make those choices within a larger, structural vision would seem to be walking back on the reality of the situation. Frankly, I wouldn?t buy it.

A source I trust told me earlier this week the Red Bulls really wanted Portuguese veteran manager Paulo Sousa, and were attempting to work through the visa process. Something clearly derailed that effort.

Does Petke have the experience? There are young, first-year head coaches just north and south in Ben Olsen at D.C. United and Jay Heaps at New England. Jason Kreis, who was a first-time head coach when he took over at Real Salt Lake back in 2007, is yet another contemporary. Olsen has things moving north at RFK, and Kreis? successes cannot be questioned. So this approach clearly can work.

Then again, all three of those scenes were of the re-building variety. New York has certainly reconfigured its roster for 2013, but to call a team with Thierry Henry, Tim Cahill and several other experienced, proven parts a ?re-build? is a massive stretch. Truth is, this is a team that should compete for MLS Cup this year. Those other groups could absorb a learning curve in hiring a first-time head coach; the Red Bulls in 2013 cannot.

Does Petke have the confidence and the gravitas to command? a locker room where King Henry clearly rules? A wise, highly experienced man like former manager Hans Backe had issues in being able to steer the ship where he wished ? so Petke?s challenge in this area seems formidable.

Source: http://prosoccertalk.nbcsports.com/2013/01/24/new-york-red-bulls-name-mike-petke-new-coach/related/

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AP Interview: Ohio's Kasich on 'trade mission'

DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) ? Ohio Gov. John Kasich says his state's economic comeback is generating interest ? and potential new business opportunities ? on the world stage in Switzerland.

The Republican governor told The Associated Press that he was initially reluctant to join other political, business and academic leaders participating in the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. But he decided to go because he realized that "it's like a trade mission."

Kasich said in the interview Friday that most of the 15 CEOs of big companies he has met with in Davos had already heard about Ohio's improved budget and employment picture during the two years he's been governor.

Among the companies he said he had held business discussions with were U.S.-based Dow Chemical Co. and Netherlands-based Royal Philips Electronics.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ap-interview-ohios-kasich-trade-mission-113254322--finance.html

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Professional Parents? Yes!, Part 2 of 2 | Large Families on Purpose

Professional Parents? Yes!, Part 2 of 2 | Large Families on Purpose

Professional Parents? Yes!, Part 2 of 2

One of those comments that we get fairly often is, "Wow, you guys are professional parents."? And my answer is No, and Yes!? I am not professional parents in the sense that those people mean, that I have it all together and I've "arrived" as a parent and "have it all down".? Not at all.? I am learning and growing every day in learning to parent our children and in developing my own character as well as theirs.? Parenting is not something that people can have all the answers to or do well at all of the time ~ we can only do our very best.

However the answer to the professional parents comment is also a Yes!? Because I pursue it as my "profession".? When I think of the aspects of having a career - what that looks like, how people pursue it, how they view it, how they respond to it - then parenting to me is much the same thing.??

This post is part 2 of 2. For part 1, please click HERE.??


In this post I continue exploring what it means to be a professional parent and will cover:

?????????????? 8. Budget our finances

??????? ? ? ?? 9. Study to improve skills and knowledge
?????????????? 10. Requires our whole person
?????????????? 11. Practice team unity
?????????????? 12. Recognize our responsibilities
?????????????? 13. Don't just survive it but embrace it to achieve success


~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

8. Budget our finances
All companies have to work within a budget or they would fail.? Finances need to be carefully allotted to make sure they cover the bills, to have some for savings, to purchase necessary items for future needs.? We need to budget our money for our family as well.? We can't just go along and hope to have enough; we need to work smarter and more responsibly.? Moms can do a great job of shopping frugally for their families.? This can be a huge blessing for our hard working husbands, to not have the wife draining the supplies but rather purchasing what is necessary and saving a lot of money by shopping wisely and not extravagantly.?
?When we worked outside of our homes before becoming wives and mothers we needed to manage the money we earned, or possibly that which a company we worked for earned.? We are able to be good managers of money when it is important to us, or to learn to do so if we need to.? So we should choose to budget for our family as well.?

Here are some posts I've written that go more in to the "practical how-to's" of budgeting our finances for the family:
? ?? * Becoming a Master Used Clothing Shopper!
???? * Large Families on Budgets - Making More Out Of Less, Part 1 of 2


9. Study to improve skills and knowledge
There is so much to be learned about being a wife and mother.? Many moms begin our parenting experience by reading about what to expect during pregnancy, and maybe going to a class or a few on pregnancy, delivery, car seat safety, and how to feed, bathe, and care for a newborn.? Then we learn how to help a baby sleep through the night, how to help a toddler learn to behave, learn how to homeschool.? We can learn about and implement skills in nutrition, science, economics, veterinary care, finances, medicine, law, physical education, sewing, cooking, the list is endless.? But we should pursue and be ON PURPOSE in learning all the time skills to benefit our families.? *smile* (Not reading novels, in my humble opinion.)

When we worked outside of our homes before becoming wives and mothers we were students and then often times employees, and we studied to be successful in school (learning the skills to do so, and proving our ability to do so) and often times studied to become more successful in our work.? We study things that we are interested in or deem valuable such as school and work, and even for hobbies.? We should give even greater value to our families.? *smile*

Here are some posts I've written that go more in to the "practical how-to's" of studying to improve our skills and knowledge in parenting & family:
? ?? * My posts on: Over 27 of our family's favorite recipes, plus healthy eating habits, recipe organization, meal planning and large family grocery shopping.
? ?? * My posts on:? Homeschooling:? Why and how we do it
? ?? * My posts on:? Organization?
? ?? * My posts on:? Schedules & Routines?
? ?? * My posts on:? Time efficiency?
???? * This Large Family Mother's Personal Daily Bible Study - At Home


10. Requires our whole person?
Parenting requires the commitment of our entire person:? physical, emotional, and spiritual.? Not just the physical commitment alone, of carrying and delivering babies, and then the upkeep of one's home.? Not just the emotional commitment alone, where we may go to an outside job all day and drop our children off at day care or public school, but then try to connect with them emotionally when we are home.? And not just the spiritual commitment alone, where we try to teach our children about the Lord after we've been away from them all day and are therefore emotionally disconnected.? We must commit all 3 parts of ourselves together to get the full investment and "fruit" that the Lord would be proud of.

When we worked outside of our homes before becoming wives and mothers... we probably were never actually required to invest all 3 parts of ourselves like this ever before.? *smile*? It is a very new discipline to us when we do become wives and mothers then, and it requires a lot of prayer, reliance on our Heavenly Father, self-sacrifice, trust in the Lord and in His plans for us from His Word (the Bible), patience with ourselves, perseverance, and learning together with our husbands.? But even when it may feel hard and new... we need to do this anyway, because we love our children with all that we are.

Here are some posts I've written that go more in to the "practical how-to's" of applying our whole person to the task at hand:
? ?? * Choosing Thankfulness?
? ?? * Motherhood With Vitality!, Part 1 of 2
? ?? * Large Families on Budgets - Making More Out of Less, Part 1 of 2


11. Practice team unity
It's important that we recognize and understand that we are a team member with our husband and children.? *smile*? We shouldn't try to carry the responsibilities of marriage and family and home life all by ourselves, it burns people out eventually and really cannot be done alone.? And most importantly, the Lord did not intend for us to do everything by our self.? We are to be managers of our homes.? We work together and play together.? We serve one another, connect as friends and companions, work towards goals as a family or as a married couple, learn together, worship together.? People thrive when they can work as a team with others, feeling motivated, valued, needed, and enjoyed.? Our husbands need this, we need this, and our children need this, too.? The world tells us that we should raise our children to be independent; but the Bible tells us that we are to be interdependent, relying upon one another, serving, building one another up, and needing each other.?

When we worked outside of our homes before becoming wives and mothers we most likely worked as a team either in our own families, or in a job or career we held.? We need to consider ourselves part of a team at home as well.

Here are some posts I've written that go more in to the "practical how-to's" of practicing team unity within the home:? ?? * Family Participation:? Chores for Kids?
? ?? * Marriage - Our High Priority?


12. Recognize our responsibilities

Scripture tells us that our children are our own responsibility - not someone else's.? We are to disciple them, protect them, teach them, and nurture them - not drop them off so that others can do these jobs in our place.? Many parents do not want this responsibility, or it feels too hard, so they do not accept it and instead pass it off to others.? They send their children out of the nest for public or private school, day care, Sunday school, youth group, organized sports, boy scouts, or even just frequent baby sitters while mom and dad go off and play or "serve" without their children...? I've heard many parents say that they pray for the protection of their young children while they send them off somewhere, and I'm thinking, He did send protection...it's you... There is much to be learned on this subject, and much to be considered very carefully.? I encourage parents to open their heart up to these truths, consider them carefully, and read further in the other posts I've written that go in to much detail and include much scripture.

When we worked outside of our homes before becoming wives and mothers, we had no idea what it would be like to have little parts of our heart walking around separate from us.? It can feel very scary.? *smile*? When we delivered our babies we thought that nothing and no one would ever take that little person from us.? We would die first.? But still most moms steel themselves against those God-given emotions and prepare to send that little baby off to day care for someone else to raise for 10 hours a day or so - most of that baby's waking hours - so that mom can go back to work in 6 weeks... And for what?? More money?? And moms cry at first, until they get used to it.? So sad, that a mom would let the world convince her that "getting used to it" is the best thing for her to do and that it's something she must endure and get past so that she can be "responsible."? Then she cries again when her child goes off to kindergarten for the first time... and then off to camp for the week... etc.? When really she should be considering the fact that those emotions are telling her something.? She's making the wrong decisions. ?

Bring that baby home.? Hold him close.? We need to raise our children in the safety and the protection of the "green house" of our homes where they are protected from diseases and negative influences that will kill their spirits.? We need to give them time to grow roots that are strong, so that when they're eventually transplanted in to the world they will be able to remain healthy physically, emotionally, and spiritually; to continue to grow on their own, withstand the storms, and not be swayed by the weeds that grow up around them. ?

Here are some posts I've written that go more in to the why's and "practical how-to's" of taking our responsibilities seriously:
? ?? * Homeschooling:? WHY Do We Do It?
? ?? * Organized Sports and Individual Hobbies - Appetites Can Lead to Addictions
? ?? * Large Family Discipleship:? Protecting Our Children's Minds Through Books?
? ?? * "Motherhood is a Calling (And Where Your Children Rank)"?



13. Don't just survive it but embrace it to achieve success
We need to embrace the gift of children.? *smile*? God has honored us with these little lives, and has entrusted them to us.? We need to celebrate that, and let the children know that we celebrate them.? Every one, including children, knows when they're just being tolerated but not enjoyed.? And I can guarantee you... if children do not feel enjoyed and invested in - they will go else where to find someone who does enjoy them and who will invest in them.? A teacher.? A coach.? A youth group leader.? Their peers.? We need to keep our children's hearts and not let them be lost to someone else.? For who ever has our children's hearts disciples them.? And "A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher" (Luke 6:40).

When we worked outside of our homes before becoming wives and mothers I'm sure we had great dreams and visions as to how romantic parenthood would be.? *smile*? We saw only of the sweetness, the tenderness, innocence, and smiles.? And there is so much of that with our children!? But there's that little person's sin nature, too, which can bring out the...well...not the best side of us.? *chuckle*? And that can be so very disheartening for us.? We have our own character that needs developing as we learn to be better parents, and our own faults to face.? But the Lord desires us to have freedom from our own faults!? *smile*? And He can bring freedom as we learn from Him and do the hard work.? But we need to not run away from the difficulties, but rather to hold Jesus' hand and let Him teach us, so that we can teach and disciple our children.? One of my favorite scripture verses is Isaiah 41:13, "For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to, Do not fear; I will help you."

Here are some posts I've written that go more in to the "practical how-to's" of embracing parenting for greater success:
? ?? * Motherhood with Vitality!, Part 1 of 2
? ?? * Homeschooling:? WHY Do We Do It?
? ?? * Organized Sports and Individual Hobbies - Appetites Can Lead to Addictions
? ?? * "Motherhood is a Calling (And Where Your Children Rank)"?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In the mid-1940's, a father was questioned about his decision to spend his daughter to college since she "Would probably just marry and raise a family."? Her father's response:? "Educate a man and you educate an individual; educate a woman and you educate a family." ~ From a letter published in Focus on the Family magazine many years ago.

Blessings on your parenting efforts,

Recommended resources:
Our entire "Recommended Books List" on our blog home page!? *smile*

Source: http://www.largefamiliesonpurpose.com/2013/01/professional-parents-yes-part-2-of-2.html

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