Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Hurricane Sandy Provides Business Opportunities In Queens

JENNIFER PELTZ, Associated Press
TOM HAYS, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) - The effects of the superstorm that flooded parts of the city are lingering into Tuesday and likely will for much longer, with a large swath of the city out of power, subway and vehicle tunnels flooded, and the financial district closed for a second day.

A fire destroyed at least 50 houses overnight in Queens' flooded Rockaway peninsula and forced the rescue of about 25 people from an upstairs apartment. Officials weren't immediately able to pin down the cause of the blaze.

The storm was once Hurricane Sandy but combined with two wintry systems to become a huge hybrid storm whose center smashed ashore late Monday in New Jersey. New York City was perfectly positioned to absorb the worst of its storm surge - a record 13 feet.

"We knew that this was going to be a very dangerous storm, and the storm has met our expectations," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. "This is a once-in-a-long-time storm."

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/30/hurricane-sandy-business-queens_n_2042401.html

German joblessness rises as euro zone crisis bites

BERLIN (Reuters) - German joblessness rose for a seventh month in a row in October, highlighting the vulnerability of Europe's biggest economy to the euro zone crisis.

Economists expect the trend to reverse, however, as growth revives in the new year.

The number of Germans out of a job rose to 2.937 million in October, up 20,000 from the previous month. The consensus forecast in a Reuters poll of 31 economists was for unemployment to rise by 10,000..

Joblessness, however, remains near its lowest level since German reunification more than two decades ago. Labour Office data released on Tuesday showed the unemployment rate steady at 6.9 percent, unchanged from a revised figure for September.

This stands in marked contrast to the chronic joblessness suffered by weaker members of the euro zone such as Spain, where one in every two young people is unemployed.

"The weaker economic situation is having a noticeable impact on the (German) labour market. However, the jobs market overall is proving robust and is in good shape," said Frank-Juergen Weise, head of the Labour Office.

The global slowdown and the euro zone's three-year debt crisis are weighing on companies' readiness to invest and recent surveys have shown business confidence in Europe's powerhouse economy sagging badly, though few economists expect a recession.

"Today's numbers provide further evidence that the labour market is gradually losing steam, indicating the cushioning impact on the economy should peter out in the coming months," said Carsten Brzeski of ING Bank.

"However, the lack of qualified employees and still strong labour demand in domestic sectors should make the current slowdown a very gentle one."

SLOWDOWN

Germany's economy powered through the first two years of the euro zone sovereign debt crisis, racking up growth of 3 percent in 2011, but has slowed steadily this year to 0.5 percent in the first quarter and 0.3 percent in the second.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right coalition, which faces an election next year, expects the German economy to grow by only 0.8 percent overall this year and by 1 percent in 2013.

Economists noted that more companies, especially in the car industry, had reintroduced short-time working and this would have a negative impact on joblessness in the engineering sector.

Engineering association VDMA said German engineering orders rose 11 percent in real terms in September from a year before but it attributed the strong figure to one-off big ticket items from abroad and said domestic orders fell 1 percent in the less volatile three-month comparison.

In other signs of weakness, sports apparel maker Puma said recently it was looking at more cost-cutting measures after third-quarter results came in below expectations, hit by the slowdown in Europe.

German industrial conglomerate Siemens aims to slash production costs and could cut jobs as business this year proves tougher than expected.

However, economists said the recent calming of investor sentiment over the euro zone crisis should start to have a positive impact on Germany's economic performance.

Euro zone economic sentiment fell less than expected in October, data from Brussels showed on Tuesday [ID:nL5E8LU611].

"In the coming months, labour market data will probably be rather weak. Things can only improve once the relative calm currently experienced by financial markets is transferred to the real economy," said Christian Schulz of Berenberg Bank.

"That will probably be at the start of next year, when the economy is growing again. That will then have a delayed effect on the labour market," he added.

(Additional reporting by Madeline Chambers, Writing by Gareth Jones, editing by Jeremy Gaunt)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/german-joblessness-rises-seventh-straight-month-october-090433377--business.html

Honeybees harbor antibiotic-resistance genes

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Bacteria in the guts of honeybees are highly resistant to the antibiotic tetracycline, probably as a result of decades of preventive antibiotic use in domesticated hives. Researchers from Yale University identified eight different tetracycline resistance genes among U.S. honeybees that were exposed to the antibiotic, but the genes were largely absent in bees from countries where such antibiotic use is banned. The study appears on October 30 in mBio?, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

"It [resistance] seems to be everywhere in the U.S.," says Nancy Moran of Yale University, a senior author on the study. "There's a pattern here, where the U.S. has these genes and the others don't."

Honeybees the world over are susceptible to the bacterial disease called "foulbrood", which can wipe out a hive faster than beekeepers can react to the infection. In the U.S., beekeepers have kept the disease at bay with regular preventive applications of the antibiotic oxytetracycline, a compound that closely resembles tetracycline, which is commonly used in humans. Oxytetracycline has been in use among beekeepers since the 1950s, and many genes that confer resistance to oxytetracycline also confer resistance to tetracycline.

Using sensitive molecular techniques, Moran and her colleagues screened honeybees from several locations in the United States and from Switzerland, the Czech Republic, and New Zealand as well as several wild bumblebees from the Czech Republic, for the presence and abundance of tetracycline resistance genes. They found that U.S. honeybees have greater numbers and a more diverse set of tetracycline resistance genes than honeybees from the other countries.

Moran says it is reasonable to expect to see widespread resistance among bees, considering the decades-long use of oxytetracycline in honeybee hives. "It seems likely this reflects a history of using oxytetracycline since the 1950s. It's not terribly surprising. It parallels findings in other domestic animals, like chickens and pigs," says Moran.

Moran notes that beekeepers have long used oxytetracycline to control the bacterium that causes foulbrood, but the pathogen eventually acquired resistance to tetracycline itself. Of the foulbrood pathogens Melissococcus pluton and Paenibacillus larvae, Moran says, "They carry tetL, which is one of the eight resistance genes we found. It's possible that the gene was transferred either from the gut bacteria to the pathogen or from the pathogen to the gut bacteria."

Switzerland, the Czech Republic, and New Zealand do not allow beekeepers to use oxytetracycline in hives, so it is perhaps predictable that honeybees and wild bumblebees from these countries harbored only two or three different resistance genes and only in very low copy numbers, suggesting that the bacteria did not require the genes very frequently.

The authors of the study point out that by encouraging resistance and altering the bacteria that live in honeybee guts, decades of antibiotic applications may have actually been detrimental to honeybee wellbeing. Studies have suggested that the bacterial residents of the honeybee gut play beneficial roles in neutralizing toxins in the bees' diet, nutrition, and in defending the bee against pathogens. By disrupting the honeybee microbiota and reducing its diversity, long-term antibiotic use could weaken honeybee resistance to other diseases. Hence, the treatment that was meant to prevent disease and strengthen the hive may actually weaken its ability to fight off other pathogens.

Moran says while the study is interesting from the perspective of honeybee health and could have implications for how honeybee diseases are managed, the presence of resistance genes in the honeybee gut doesn't pose a direct risk to humans. These gut bacteria, says Moran, "don't actually live in the honey, they live in the bee. We've never actually detected them in the honey. When people are eating honey, they're not eating these bacteria."

###

American Society for Microbiology: http://www.asm.org

Thanks to American Society for Microbiology for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/124898/Honeybees_harbor_antibiotic_resistance_genes_

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Microsoft Releases Windows 8 Companion App For Syncing Media With Windows Phone 8 Devices Ahead Of Big WP8 Reveal

Screen Shot 2012-10-29 at 09.05.46Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 event takes place later today -- where we expect to find out exactly how the integration between WP8, Microsoft's new mobile OS, and its new desktop OS Windows 8 will work. In the meanwhile, the Verge has spotted a companion app that's surfaced on the Windows Store which will allow WP8 users to sync content with a Windows 8 PC.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/G2LR9q3I6mw/

Hurricane Sandy Profiled in New Side-View Image

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Above Politics

Early voters fill out their ballots in Miami, Florida as they cast their vote in the presidential election on the first day of early voting on Saturday.

Early voters in Miami on Saturday

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images.

The Supreme Court on Monday punted on whether to hear a major challenge to part of the Voting Rights Act. They will probably still hear the case this term, but they just have put off saying so. The justices? nondecision decision is perfectly in keeping with the low profile they have managed to keep in the 2012 election. The presidential contest will almost certainly be crucial for the future of the court and the judiciary as a whole. Which means it will be crucial for the shape that American law takes. And yet we?ve barely heard a peep about the courts from Barack Obama or Mitt Romney. How have judges escaped the role of lightning rod (or maybe today I should say hurricane)?

By my count, the court came up exactly once in the debates, when Martha Raddatz asked Vice President Joe Biden and Rep. Paul Ryan about their views on abortion. Ryan said, ?We don?t think that unelected judges should make this decision??an answer as meaningless as it is bland, because the constitutionality of legalized abortion has been in the hands of the courts for almost 40 years. Biden called Ryan on it. ?The next president will get one or two Supreme Court nominees,? he said. ?That?s how close Roe v. Wade is.?

Yes, that?s true. The court is a bevy of septuagenarians, and while they are proving how hale and hearty they are today by keeping the court in session while the rest of Washington shuts down, the chances are that the next president will get to replace one or more of them. The age count: In March, Ruth Bader Ginsburg will turn 80 and Antonin Scalia will turn 77. Anthony Kennedy is 76. Stephen Breyer is 74. If Obama gets to replace Scalia or Kennedy, the balance of power on the court will tip, and the same is true if Romney gets to replace Ginsburg or Breyer.

In all likelihood, an Obama nominee would be a relative moderate. They don?t make liberal lion judges like they used to, and if they did, the president has shown little appetite for pushing hard to confirm them. A Romney nominee, on the other hand, would be a hard-core conservative. Make no mistake about this: The court is far too important to the Republican base for its activists to let this chance slip through their fingers?they are still having Never Again nightmares about George H.W. Bush?s selection of retired Justice David Souter. The Romney campaign?s website says, ?As president, Mitt will nominate judges in the mold of Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Scalia, Thomas, and Alito.? Kennedy doesn?t make the list. Never mind his votes producing a conservative majority in Bush v. Gore, Citizens United, upholding the federal ban on so-called ?partial-birth? abortion, and plenty of other cases. He is unloved by the right for his perfidy in reaffirming the core of Roe v. Wade 20 years ago, in a famous triumvirate opinion with Souter and retired Justice Sandra Day O?Connor.

Given how easy it is to see that the Supreme Court is in play (not to mention the federal appeals courts and district courts), why aren?t Romney and Obama talking about it? The obvious answer is that they?ve each concluded it?s not to their political advantage. For years, conservative have been better at motivating voters by talking about the Supreme Court. Trying to overturn Roe v. Wade is just more exciting than maintaining the status quo. So liberal and moderates have tended to be more content with the existing balance and less driven to treat the court as a priority for voting. At his 2010 State of the Union, Obama was willing to call the court out over the flood of campaign money unleashed by Citizens United and its progeny. But he got blowback for politicizing the court, and we haven?t heard any fighting words lately: For the president, stressing his future judicial picks must either turn off swing voters or leave them cold.

For Romney, the truck is to reassure his base that he means what he says about picking a justice in the unswervingly conservative mold without doing so loudly enough to scare the mushy middle. Along with this website statement about the current justices he sees as models, Romney signaled to his base with his selection of Robert Bork as a legal adviser. If you?re a member of the Federalist Society, that?s all the reassurance you need, since Bork still stands for a full-on assault on liberal-leaning constitutional interpretation. It?s also a perfect signal because no one other than Federalist Society types is paying attention to it. On abortion, Romney has been careful to distance himself from the extreme of eliminating the rape exception, which polls badly. And maybe that?s all he has to do, even though his party has embraced exactly this extreme in its own platform and at least a dozen of its own candidates for senate endorse this view.

Most memorably, of course, we?ve heard about outlawing the right to abortion for rape victims from Missouri Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin and Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock. And Obama does talk about women?s health care on the stump, including funding for Planned Parenthood. He just doesn?t connect the dots to the Supreme Court. For that, the best place to go is the ?You Don?t Own Me? video, released last week that revives Lesley Gore?s 1964 song.

If the ideological composition of the court shifts, abortion is the biggest flower in a bouquet of changes that would be ripe for the picking. There?s the future of campaign finance reform?whether to forge ahead with allowing more and more money into American politics, a la Citizens United. There?s the separation of church and state, gay marriage, and the scope of the death penalty and the rights of criminal defendants. But the court has deftly kept most of this off its docket so far this term. It?s entirely likely that the justices will hear a challenge to the Voting Rights Act before April is out, along with one to the Defense of Marriage Act. But putting off the decisions to hear these cases so far has helped to keep the court clear of the campaign?s line of fire. The same is true of the 5-4 ruling last June preserving Obamacare. That decision led to widespread speculation about the political instincts of Chief Justice John Roberts when he unexpectedly cast the fifth vote to uphold the health care law. If Roberts is indeed playing the long game, nothing will help him win more than a Romney-Ryan victory and the new allies on the bench it would bring him.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=374ffea2cf480b7e97588631becc7a69

Monday, October 29, 2012

How to encourage innovation | ***** - SelfImprovement.ch | betiragrie

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Source: http://vince68.typepad.com/blog/2012/10/how-to-encourage-innovation-selfimprovementch-betiragrie.html

Neurotransmitters linked to mating behavior are shared by mammals and worms

ScienceDaily (Oct. 29, 2012) ? When it comes to sex, animals of all shapes and sizes tend behave in predictable ways. There may be a chemical reason for that. New research from Rockefeller University has shown that chemicals in the brain -- neuropeptides known as vasopressin and oxytocin -- play a role in coordinating mating and reproductive behavior in animals ranging from humans to fish to invertebrates.

"Our research shows that molecules similar to vasopressin and oxytocin have an ancient and evolutionarily conserved role in controlling a critical social behavior, mating," says Cori Bargmann, Torsten N. Wiesel Professor and head of the Lulu and Anthony Wang Laboratory of Neural Circuits and Behavior. "This work suggests that these molecules encode the same kind of information in the brains of very different animals."

Bargmann, whose laboratory studies the relationship between genes, neural circuits and behavior in the C. elegans roundworm, says vasopressin and oxytocin have been implicated in a variety of reproductive and social behaviors in humans and other mammals, including pair bonding, maternal bonding and aggressive and affiliative behaviors. Mice that lack oxytocin may develop social amnesia, and humans who sniff oxytocin through an inhaler change their cooperative behavior in computer games, behaving as though they "trust" other players more.

Bargmann's team, led by postdoc Jennifer Garrison, identified a peptide and two receptors in C. elegans worms that were similar to the mammalian oxytocin/vasopressin signaling system. Male worms that were engineered to lack this peptide, dubbed nematocin, were clumsy sexual partners.

"Although they could perform the motor aspects of mating, their sequences were inefficient, disorganized and repetitious," says Garrison. "Only a fraction of males lacking the peptide were able to complete mating by transferring sperm within five minutes of first contacting a partner, a time in which normal worms are usually successful."

Males lacking nemotocin or its receptors also spent less time looking for mates, as though they were less motivated to find partners.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Rockefeller University.

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

Journal Reference:

  1. J. L. Garrison, E. Z. Macosko, S. Bernstein, N. Pokala, D. R. Albrecht, C. I. Bargmann. Oxytocin/Vasopressin-Related Peptides Have an Ancient Role in Reproductive Behavior. Science, 2012; 338 (6106): 540 DOI: 10.1126/science.1226201

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/most_popular/~3/ahYezHOdMe0/121029100630.htm

European team calls off Iran visit

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) ? A delegation from the European Parliament has called off plans to visit Iran after being refused guarantees they could visit two jailed activists awarded freedom prizes, officials said Sunday.

The trip, scheduled for its first full day on Sunday, had brought criticism from some conservative European politicians, claiming it sent mixed messages as the European Union tightens sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program. A senior Iranian lawmaker, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, was quoted by the semiofficial Mehr news agency as blaming Israeli pressure for the cancellation.

But Martin Schulz, the president of the European Parliament, said the decision was made after Iranian authorities said the five-member delegation could not visit with jailed Iranian dissidents Nasrin Sotoudeh and Jafar Panahi.

The European Parliament awarded the 2012 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to Soutedeh, a human rights lawyer, and Panahi, a filmmaker who won the Camera d'Or at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival. Both were charged with roles in supporting the opposition in post-election unrest in 2009.

The European delegates hoped to personally deliver invitations for the award ceremony in Strasbourg in December.

Tarja Cronberg, a Finn who chairs the European Parliament delegation for relations with Iran, was told by the Iranian ambassador to the European Union on Saturday that it was impossible to guarantee a visit to Tehran's Evin prison "at such short notice." Cronberg then decided to cancel the trip, which has been scheduled to run to Nov. 2 and include meetings with Iranian lawmakers and representatives from civil society groups.

"I deeply regret that permission to meet the Sakharov laureates was withheld," Schulz said. "The European Parliament is nevertheless determined to continue its support for and involvement with the Iranian civil society."

The Iranian lawmaker Boroujerdi was quoted as saying that the visit was cancelled after Iran rejected preconditions. He heads the parliament's Committee on National Security.

Meanwhile, a German parliamentary committee arrived in Tehran for a six-day visit on Sunday, Mehr reported.

Mehr quoted Hossein Sheikholeslam, an adviser to Iran's parliamentary speaker, that the German group has already arrived in the country and are on the visit to central Iranian city of Isfahan.

The group will meet several Iranian top lawmakers as well as the director of the human rights committee of the Iranian Foreign Ministry. They also are scheduled to visit Qom, the center of Shiite religious study about 130 kilometers (80 miles) south of Tehran.

The trip by the group has been scheduled within the Iran-Germany parliamentary friendship group, headed by Iranian-born Bijan Jirsarai, a member of Germany's parliament. Before tighter EU sanctions, Germany was a major trading partner with Iran.

___

Associated Press writer Don Melvin in Brussels contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/european-team-calls-off-iran-visit-105141977.html

Sunday, October 28, 2012

The Only Spam Filter You Need is Free | Dangerous Common Sense

You think you get spam?

Gmail's spam filter in action

My GMAIL Spam Folder

My email accounts have gotten over 10,000 pieces of spam in the past 30 days.

Unfortunately, most methods of spam protection fail.

  • The built-in spam protection that comes with the email accounts from your web hosting service marks too many legitimate messages as spam.? The spam algorithms, such as SpamAssassin, ?are too aggressive in my experience. You?ll miss many messages you want to see if you rely on them.
  • The built-in spam protection of Outlook, the Microsoft email program, is both too weak and too aggressive. You?ll still see lots of sleazy messages in your in-box, and, in my experience, you?ll also have to read your spam folder to make sure real messages haven?t been filed there.

For many years, my solution was to rely on Spamarrest. ?Spamarrest sends a challenge message to anyone who sends you mail, when that person?s email address isn?t in your list of contacts. ?This approach was very effective. ?I have received only a trickle of unwanted emails, most of those were from salespeople who manually responded to the challenge message and clicked to get their spam to me. I dealt with those exceptions by completely blocking that user or the whole offending domain.

Spamarrest is a cheap (about $50/year) paid service. ?It lets you send and receive mail from a web page, too, so you can access your mail while traveling.

The downside of Spamarrest is that a fair percentage of real people either don?t see or don?t understand the challenge message that Spamarrest sends to them. ?As a result, I have missed some business and personal messages, including some that were time-critical. ?Still, Spamarrest has been the only effective spam fighter I?ve tried.

Until this month.

Over the summer I ?tracked the spam-catching ability of the Gmail account I use to connect with Google services. ?Though Gmail did not filter messages through Spamarrest, I never received any spam. ?The messages in its spam folder were, indeed, spam. ?All of them. ?Google, alone, seems to be able to separate spam from wanted messages.

So, at the start of October I stopped Spamarrest from emptying my galen@ozdachs.biz and other email accounts. ?Instead, I had Google connect to the accounts and get the messages in real time. ?It?s worked.

I have received very ?few spam messages. ?When I have checked the spam folder, all the messages I?ve seen have looked sleazy. Better, no one has told me that they sent me a message that I didn?t see.

I?m sold. I?m recommending Gmail as a spam filter for your mail. ?Get a Gmail account and have Gmail empty the?mailboxes?of your other email accounts.

Note: I am?not recommending that you use an Gmail address as the published address for your personal or business life. Gmail is free, and Google has no obligation to you to keep that free service going. There are scary stories of people who relied on Google and Gmail, only to have Google suddenly block their accounts. ?I do?not want you to trust Google with anything that is critical to you.

Instead, use Gmail as an email concentrator. ?Read your messages in Gmail online or else download them to your computer. You?ll like the spam protection. ?And, if Google ever decides to stop Gmail or to ban you, you can still access your email through Spamarrest, Outlook, or whatever other method you?re using now.

Give Gmail a shot!

Source: http://www.dangerouscommonsense.com/2012/10/gmail-as-spam-filter/

Obama balancing storm response with campaigning (The Arizona Republic)

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The 10 most common legal mistakes made by human resources ...

The Human Resources department has a host of responsibilities.? Juggling them is often overwhelming, to say the least.? One small misstep could cost the company hundreds, thousands, and even millions of dollars.? Knowing in which areas of HR's numerous responsibilities the most common pitfalls lurk goes a long way to ensuring that you don't fall into those traps.?

Robert G. Brody, the founding member of Brody and Associates, LLC, a labor and employment law firm that represents management, provides specific tips on what you can do to avoid making the same mistakes.

#1: Advertisements, interviews and offer letters

Choose your words carefully, whether they are written or spoken.

Mistake: improper language in job advertisements. Too many employers still use inappropriate terms ? such as "girl," "boy," or "young" ? in their job advertisements.? This is particularly true when managers, rather than HR, write the ads, said...(register to read more)

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Source: http://www.businessmanagementdaily.com/20029/the-10-most-common-legal-mistakes-made-by-human-resources

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Surface tablet buzz starts, but Windows 8 excitement muted

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Neo Geo X hands-on

dnp Neo Geo X handson

When the Neo Geo AES hit the scene 20 years ago, it was one of the largest, most powerful and most expensive game consoles the market had to offer, ringing in at a steep $650. Used AES machines aren't much cheaper, and modernized slim variations don't cost a penny less than the original hardware, either. A full home console might be a bit outside of the average gamer's budget, but SNK's 20th anniversary Neo Geo X hits a little closer to home: $200 for a portable handheld, 20 pre-loaded games, a faithful recreation of the original console arcade stick and an AES-shaped charging / controller dock that pipes video and audio out to a proper television. The end result? A handheld dressed up in a home console's skin. This is something we needed to see -- we spent some time with the setup to give it a once over.

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Neo Geo X hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Oct 2012 10:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/26/neo-geo-x-hands-on/

Toque Magazine's 2nd Annual Food App Awards Announces 19 ...

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Huntington Beach, CA, October 27, 2012 ?(PR.com)? Food and drink app developers and owners now have until November 9, 2012 to enter Toque Magazine?s annual Food App Awards. A panel of 19 judges representing all facets of the food, digital, mobile design, research and marketing industries is in place to evaluate the finalists.

?We decided this year we would pull out all the stops and get the best mobile media users, experts and thinkers we could for our judges panel,? says Erika Kotite, owner and editor of Toque. ?Their evaluations and comments will provide invaluable information to app owners regardless of their final standing.? All finalists can request their scores and judges? comments after the awards event on Thursday, December 6, 2012.

The judges? panel includes:

? Aaron Watkins (CEO of Appency, the first app PR/marketing firm)
? Amy Sherman (cookbook author, recipe developer, Cooking with Amy blog)
? Sara Bittorf (Chief Branding Officer, Boston Market)
? Heather Way (senior analyst for advanced advertising technologies and platforms, Parks Associates)
? Rick Boyce (VP digital media sales, monster.com)
? Kyle Bishop (director of digital strategy & creative services, 360PR)
? Chuck Martin (CEO of the Mobile Future Institute)
? Editors at Food52
? Margaret Kavanagh and Erin Lang Masercola (editor and editorial director, Beckett Guide to Phone Apps)
? Alex Kim (president of Createch Group)
? Anne Maxfield (food blogger and app reviewer, The Accidental Locavore)
? Gordon Plutsky (CMO, King Fish Media)
? Charlotte Abrams, Megan Greenburg, Assunta Swier (co-founders of The Three Kitcheneers)
? Amanda Kooser (technology writer, app and gadget reviewer, CNET)
? Carmen Hughes (partner in high-tech firm Ignite Public Relations)
? Chuck Fuller (director of business development, AdKnowledge)

Toque?s 2012 Food App Awards, which takes place December 6, 2012, will bestow a Best Overall Food App award, as well as 15 additional awards in categories including Best Value, Best Design, Best Cooking and Best Social. Apps can be entered directly on the toquemag.com site. Cost to enter a single app is Free; $75 per app thereafter.

Submissions are welcome from developers, as well as restaurants, chefs or business owners. Apps must be available in the U.S. and must be in English (or have an English version). Both free apps and paid apps are eligible. Apps should be in their most current version and can run on any standard mobile platform.

Deadline for entries has been extended to November 9, 2012. Finalists will be announced on Tuesday, November 13. The winning apps will be announced during a Twitter event on December 6.

For more information or to enter, visit http://www.toquemag.com/2012-food-app-awards

Toque (www.toquemag.com) is an online magazine featuring original articles on food trends, culture, politics, history and preparation. It is read by professional chefs, restaurant professionals, and passionate cooks congregate looking for news, articles, business advice, food app information, jobs and events.

Contact Information:
Toque Magazine
Erika Kotite
714-846-6430
Contact via Email
toquemag.com

Click here to read the full story: Toque Magazine's 2nd Annual Food App Awards Announces 19-Member Judges? Panel, Extended Entry Deadline to November 9

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Source: http://money.rambergmedia.com/toque-magazines-2nd-annual-food-app-awards-announces-19-member-judges-panel-extended-entry-deadline-to-november-9/

Friday, October 26, 2012

Rolling Stones announce $20 Paris show

Philippe Wojazer / Reuters

A fan shows off his Rolling Stones tickets, purchased for a small Paris show.

By Mike Collett-White, Reuters

The Rolling Stones will perform a short warm-up gig in Paris later on Thursday for a few hundred fans and announced on Twitter that they were selling tickets for 15 euros ($19.45) each at a music store in the center of the city.

Fans queued from the early hours of the morning at the Virgin Megastore on the Champs Elysees after the British band said that 350 tickets would be available there from noon.?

"Mobile phones, cameras, video equipment and recording devices are strictly prohibited," the band tweeted ahead of the gig, which queuing fans said would be held at the Trabendo, a 700-capacity venue in northern Paris.?

The Paris music scene has been awash with rumors that the Stones would also play to a crowd of bankers invited by Paris-based investment house Carmignac Gestion at the Mogador Theatre in the heart of Paris on Monday.?

In recent years, Carmignac has recruited former Velvet Underground frontman Lou Reed and British rocker Rod Stewart to play similar gigs, usually to an exclusive audience.?

Speculation that Carmignac had managed to lure the Stones mounted after it sent mystery invitations giving out the date and location of what it called "the biggest secret event of the year" without identifying the performer.?

The investment house has declined to comment.?

Earlier this month, the band announced they would perform four concerts -- two in London and two near New York -- to celebrate their 50th anniversary.?

The announcement has been overshadowed by fan complaints about high ticket prices, which ranged from 95 pounds ($150) to as much as 950 pounds for a "VIP hospitality" seat.?

Tickets have been offered online for several thousands pounds each, British media has reported.?

Those queuing for Thursday's gig lined up patiently with numbers marked on their hands in red by organizers. Some had driven to Paris from as far away as Hamburg in Germany.?

Sebastian Baaske said he set off in his car from Hanover, Germany on Wednesday afternoon in hopes of securing a ticket.

"My girlfriend said I'd regret it if I didn't.... It's all worth it," the 35-year-old Baaske said.?

The Rolling Stones, one of rock and roll's most successful acts, will play the O2 Arena in the British capital on Nov. 25 and 29 before crossing the Atlantic to perform at the Prudential Center, Newark, on Dec. 13 and 15.?

Guitarists Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood, lead singer Mick Jagger and drummer Charlie Watts will perform on a stage designed around the band's trademark tongue and lips logo, and organizers have promised a high-tech live experience.?

Jagger has already hinted that the four concerts would be a prelude for a longer tour.?

The band's last world tour was "A Bigger Bang," which went on for two years and culminated at the O2 Arena in August 2007. It earned around $558 million, making it the second highest grossing tour in history behind U2's "360 Tour."

The band behind a string of hits including "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", "Honky Tonk Women" and "Angie", started out on July 12, 1962 at the Marquee Club in London's Oxford Street.?

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Source: http://entertainment.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/25/14693012-rolling-stones-announce-20-paris-show?lite

NOAA to East: Beware of coming 'Frankenstorm'

WASHINGTON (AP) ? An unusual nasty mix of a hurricane and a winter storm that forecasters are now calling "Frankenstorm" is likely to blast most of the East Coast next week, focusing the worst of its weather mayhem around New York City and New Jersey.

Government forecasters on Thursday upped the odds of a major weather mess, now saying there's a 90 percent chance that the East will get steady gale-force winds, heavy rain, flooding and maybe snow starting Sunday and stretching past Halloween on Wednesday.

Meteorologists say it is likely to cause $1 billion in damage.

The storm is a combination of Hurricane Sandy, now in the Caribbean, an early winter storm in the West, and a blast of arctic air from the North. They're predicted to collide and park over the country's most populous coastal corridor and reach as far inland as Ohio.

The hurricane part of the storm is likely to come ashore somewhere in New Jersey on Tuesday morning, said National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecaster Jim Cisco. But this is a storm that will affect a far wider area, so people all along the East have to be wary, Cisco said.

Coastal areas from Florida to Maine will feel some effects, mostly from the hurricane part, he said, and the other parts of the storm will reach inland from North Carolina northward.

Once the hurricane part of the storm hits, "it will get broader. It won't be as intense, but its effects will be spread over a very large area," the National Hurricane Center's chief hurricane specialist, James Franklin, said Thursday.

One of the more messy aspects of the expected storm is that it just won't leave. The worst of it should peak early Tuesday, but it will stretch into midweek, forecasters say. Weather may start clearing in the mid-Atlantic the day after Halloween and Nov. 2 in the Northeast, Cisco said.

"It's almost a weeklong, five-day, six-day event," Cisco said Thursday from NOAA's northern storm forecast center in College Park, Md. "It's going to be a widespread serious storm."

With every hour, meteorologists are getting more confident that this storm is going to be bad and they're able to focus their forecasts more.

The New York area could see around 5 inches of rain during the storm, while there could be snow southwest of where it comes inland, Cisco said. That could mean snow in eastern Ohio, southwestern Pennsylvania, western Virginia, and the Shenandoah Mountains, he said.

Both private and federal meteorologists are calling this a storm that will likely go down in the history books.

"We don't have many modern precedents for what the models are suggesting," Cisco said.

It is likely to hit during a full moon when tides are near their highest, increasing coastal flooding potential, NOAA forecasts warn. And with some trees still leafy and the potential for snow, power outages could last to Election Day, some meteorologists fear.

Some have compared it to the so-called Perfect Storm that struck off the coast of New England in 1991, but Cisco said that one didn't hit as populated an area and is not comparable to what the East Coast may be facing. Nor is it like last year's Halloween storm, which was merely an early snowstorm in the Northeast.

"The Perfect Storm only did $200 million of damage and I'm thinking a billion," said Jeff Masters, meteorology director of the private service Weather Underground. "Yeah, it will be worse."

But this is several days in advance, when weather forecasts are usually far less accurate. The National Hurricane Center only predicts five days in advance, and each long-range forecast moves Sandy's track closer to the coast early next week. The latest has the storm just off central New Jersey's shore at 8 a.m. on Tuesday.

As forecasts became more focused Thursday, the chance of the storm bypassing much of the coast and coming ashore in Maine faded, Cisco said.

The hurricane center's Franklin called it "a big mess for an awful lot of people in the early part of next week."

___

Associated Press writer Tony Winton contributed to this report from Miami.

___

Online:

NOAA's Hydrometeorological Prediction Center: http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/index.shtml

National Hurricane Center: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

___

Seth Borenstein can be followed at http://twitter.com/borenbears

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/noaa-east-beware-coming-frankenstorm-171317994.html

Anti-Alcoholism Drug Helps Fight Deadly Brain Tumor - Medical Daily

A drug that stops people from drinking alcohol can be used to treat a deadly type of brain tumor, says a new study.

Researchers from University of Wolverhampton have shown that the drug disulfiram can be used to treat glioblastoma. Lab studies have shown that disulfiram is effective in destroying cancer cells, especially if coupled with standard cancer-fighting drug gemcitabine. Researchers say that both dislfiram and gemcitabine cross the blood brain barrier and so are effective in killing the cancer cells.

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Glioblastoma multiforme?is one of the tumors that can grow really fast, usually the patient lives for just 15 months after cancer diagnosis. According to estimates, in the year 2010, more than 22,000 adults in the U.S. were diagnosed and 13,140 died from brain and other nervous system cancers. Around 15 percent of all brain-cancer patients between 45 and 70 years have glioblastoma multiforme.

Chemotherapy with drugs like gemcitabine helps fight the tumor cells, but some people develop resistance to the drug.

Since disulfiram is already used to treat alcoholics for more than half century, researchers say that next phase of drug trial can begin early.

"We've been studying the cancer-fighting properties of disulfiram for over a decade, so it's very exciting to have reached a stage where clinical trials may be possible," said Dr. Weiguang Wang, from the University of Wolverhampton, and lead author of the study.

Dr. Wang?said that the drug probably works by increasing levels of copper in the cancer cells that eventually generate free radicals that kill the cells. The drug doesn't affect normal tissue because cancer cells are known to have higher levels of copper than healthy cells, so additional copper in the cell kills them but not the normal cells.

"One of the big challenges in cancer treatment is how to successfully kill tumour cells without harming the surrounding tissues. Drugs like this one, which can both penetrate the blood brain barrier and increase the sensitivity of cancer cells to chemotherapy, could play an important role in overcoming the problem of resistance to help improve the outlook for people with brain tumours," said Dr. Julie Sharp, Cancer Research UK's senior science information manager.

The study is published in the?British Journal of Cancer.

Source: http://www.medicaldaily.com/articles/12877/20121025/anti-alcoholism-drug-helps-fight-brain-tumor.htm

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Paul Wellstone's Legacy, 10 Years Later (Atlantic Politics Channel)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/258220168?client_source=feed&format=rss

Lavish lifestyle enmeshes taxpayer in tax ... - Department of Finance

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) today filed a criminal complaint with the Department of Justice against ELVINARIO A. VALENZUELA (VALENZUELA) for willful attempt to evade or defeat payment of tax and for willful failure to file his Income Tax Returns (ITR) for Taxable Years (TY) 2009 and 2010, in violation of Section 254 and Section 255 of the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997, as amended (Tax Code).

Respondent VALENZUELA, is a registered taxpayer of Revenue District Office No. 33, Ermita-Malate-Port Area with address at No. 1227 Ma. Orosa St., Brgy. 670, Zone 072, Ermita, Manila.

In 2009, investigators of the BIR discovered that VALENZUELA spent?P1.19 million and?P0.41 million for the purchase of a Toyota Hi-Ace Grandia 2007 and a Nissan Patrol 1994, respectively. In 2010, his expenditures included the acquisition of a Hummer H2 2003 and a Toyota Dyna Fire Truck 2010 worth?P3.15 million and?P0.8 million, respectively, purchase of a?P3.2 million Grandview Condominium with Parking Slot, investment in Stocks worth?P62,500.00, capital investment in Elvinario?s Restaurant valued at?P0.5 million and payments of rentals based on a contract of lease amounting to?P0.3 million.

Using the expenditure method of investigation, VALENZUELA?s taxable income for TY 2009 was determined at?P1.6 million and?P8.01 million for 2010. Investigators, however, discovered that VALENZUELA failed to file his ITRs for TY 2009 and 2010 despite receiving income for the said taxable years.

The expenditure method proceeds from the theory that where the amount of money which a taxpayer spends during a given year exceeds his reported income, and the source of such money is otherwise unexplained, it may be inferred that such expenditures represent unreported income. The expenditure method is often used on a taxpayer who spends his income on lavish living and has little, if any, networth.

For his acts and omissions in violation of the Tax Code, VALENZUELA was sued for a total income tax liability for taxable years 2009 and 2010 amounting to?P5.77 million, inclusive of surcharges and interests, broken down as follows: 2009 ??P0.97 million; and 2010 -?P4.8 million.

The case?against ELVINARIO A. VALENZUELA is the 132nd?filed under the Run After Tax Evaders (RATE) program of the BIR under the leadership of Commissioner Kim S. Jacinto-Henares. (reytdlc)

Source: http://www.dof.gov.ph/?p=4973

Video: Fossil hunters descend on the Mississippi

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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nbc-news/49530114/

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Internet Marketing Success ? Do More in Less Time | Information

Every Internet marketer has one primary goal: to get their business as much on auto pilot as possible so that they don?t have to work as much but can still get real results. If you are still starting out and just setting up your web business you will see that things aren?t quite as easy as they appear because you need to take care of every little thing by yourself. This is when you require effective time management the most because when you get more done in less time, you?ll save time to work on your strategizing and planning.

Each and every step that you take toward getting this right can help you get the rest of your approach right too. Here are a few tips that you can use right now to help you get more accomplished without having to put in lots of hours.

You have to have heard the phrase ?Keep it simple stupid?? The phrase is famous for real reasons and it applies to your work as well. When you?re dealing with a specific task, try to find methods for keeping it super simple instead of spending a lot of time making it complex. Most of us will, as we work to keep things very simple, make them a lot more complicated; do not do this. Get a bird?s view of the task and see it at a broader level; divide it into three main segments and start working on them. Making something hard is pretty senseless especially when there are easier routes to get there.

When you have a bunch of routine things to do that take up lots of time but that aren?t fun or exciting, you should start outsourcing or automating them. As an Internet marketer you need to focus more on increasing your profits and not on getting stuck doing things that can just as easily be taken care of by someone else or an automatic service of some sort.

The more you focus on this, the more growth you can achieve and the faster you will be able to move.

Make sure your computer has no distractions because these will just slow you down. The worst part about virtual distractions is that they can make you feel like you?re actually working and then at the end of the day, you have absolutely nothing done. So shut down all of your distractions: no instant messaging, no RSS reader, no e-mail client; these can all get in the way of your accomplishing anything real; focus on the things that can keep you moving forward.

So make sure that you have identified and gotten rid of (at least for now) those things that get in the way of your success or slow it down.

Every Internet marketer dreams of having a six figure income and of creating a business that runs on auto-pilot. But in order to take your online business to reach that stage, you need to first work on managing your time perfectly. This will allow you to reach more of your goals in far less time. Even though you have all sorts of things getting in the way of your productivity, when you use the tips in this article things will start to fall into place and save you quite a lot of time. teach english abroad

Source: http://gosselinfiat.com/advertising/internet-marketing-success-do-more-in-less-time-3/

Why Didn't Justin Timberlake Invite His *NSYNC Bandmates To His Wedding?

  • Justin Timberlake

    Justin Timberlake of the pop music group 'N Sync performs in concert during the group's 2000 world tour.

  • Justin Timberlake

    'N Sync band member Justin Timberlake talks to the media during a press conference July 28, 2000 at New York City's Planet Hollywood to announce the band's second annual Challenge for Children II charity basketball game.

  • Justin Timberlake

    Pop band 'N Sync and the MSN network of internet services pose at the L''Ermitage hotel to announced their new co-branded internet access service November 28, 2000 in Los Angeles, Calif.

  • Justin Timberlake

    'N Sync's Justin Timberlake at The 43rd Annual Grammy Awards at The Staples Center, Los Angeles, CA., Feb. 21, 2001.

  • Justin Timberlake

    Justin Timberlake of 'N Sync takes aim at a 3-pointer during the pop band''s 'Challenge for the Children III' charity event at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas July 28, 2001.

  • Justin Timberlake

    Justin Timberlake of 'N Sync attends the 29th Annual American Music Awards at the Shrine Auditorium January 9, 2002 in Los Angeles, CA.

  • Justin Timberlake & Britney Spears

    US singer/actress Britney Spears arrives at the premiere of her film 'Crossroads,' with her boyfriend, singer Justin Timberlake of the group *NSYNC, in Los Angeles, CA, 11 February 2002.

  • Janet Jackson & Justin Timberlake

    Singers Janet Jackson and surprise guest Justin Timberlake perform during the halftime show at Super Bowl XXXVIII between the New England Patriots and the Carolina Panthers at Reliant Stadium on February 1, 2004 in Houston, Texas. At the end of the performance, Timberlake tore away a piece of Jackson's outfit.

  • Justin Timberlake

    Singer Justin Timberlake poses with his Grammys poses backstage in the Pressroom at the 46th Annual Grammy Awards held on February 8, 2004 at the Staples Center, in Los Angeles, California.

  • Justin Timberlake

    Singer Justin Timberlake on stage at the 'Brit Awards 2004' at Earls Court 2 on February 17, 2004 in London.

  • Justin Timberlake

    Singer Justin Timberlake attends the 'Vanity Fair Amped' pre-Oscar party to benefit the Justin Timberlake Foundation, February 26, 2004 at the Continental Hyatt House in Los Angeles, California.

  • Justin Timberlake

    Justin Timberlake answers questions at a press conference for his new movie 'Edison' on September 17, 2005 in Toronto, Canada.

  • Justin Timberlake

    Singer Justin Timberlake attends the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards at Radio City Music Hall August 31, 2006 in New York City.

  • Justin Timberlake

    Singer Justin Timberlake appears onstage during MTV's Total Request Live at the MTV Times Square Studios on September 12, 2006 in New York City.

  • Justin Timberlake

    Justin Timberlake performs on stage at the 13th annual MTV Europe Music Awards 2006 at the Bella Center on November 2, 2006 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

  • Justin Timberlake

    Singer Justin Timberlake arrives at the 49th Annual Grammy Awards at the Staples Center on February 11, 2007 in Los Angeles, California.

  • Justin Timberlake

    Justin Timberlake arrives to the premiere of 'Shrek The Third' on June 8, 2007 in Berlin, Germany. 'Shrek The Third' will be on German screens on June 21.

  • Justin Timberlake

    Justin Timberlake performs on stage at the closing night of his FutureSex/LoveShow World Tour in the grounds of Emirates Palace Hotel on December 6, 2007 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

  • Justin Timberlake

    Actor/singer Justin Timberlake arrives at the premiere of Paramount Picture's 'The Love Guru' at the Chinese Theater on June 11, 2008 in Los Angeles, California.

  • Justin Timberlake

    Justin Timberlake walks up to the sixth green during the first round of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am at the Spyglass Hill Golf Course on February 12, 2009 in Pebble Beach, California.

  • Justin Timberlake

    Singer Justin Timberlake arrives at the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards held at the Nokia Theatre on September 20, 2009 in Los Angeles, California.

  • Justin Timberlake

    Singer/actor Justin Timberlake poses during the 67th annual Golden Globe Awards nomination announcement held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on December 15, 2009 in Los Angeles , California.

  • Justin Timberlake

    Justin Timberlake presents the Audi A1 during the first press day at the 80th Geneva International Motor Show on March 2, 2010 in Geneva, Switzerland. The show features World and European premieres of cars and will be open to the public from March 4th to 14th.

  • Justin Timberlake

    Justin Timberlake attends the premiere of 'The Social Network' during the 48th New York Film Festival at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center on September 24, 2010 in New York City.

  • Justin Timberlake

    Actor/musician Justin Timberlake attends the premiere of Warner Bros. 'Yogi Bear 3-D' at the Mann Village Theatre on December 11, 2010 in Westwood, California.

  • Justin Timberlake

    Actor/Musician Justin Timberlake arrives at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards held at the Kodak Theatre on February 27, 2011 in Hollywood, California.

  • Justin Timberlake

    Justin Timberlake attends the game between the Dallas Mavericks and the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center on May 2, 2011 in Los Angeles, California.

  • Justin Timberlake

    Actor Justin Timberlake attends the 'Friends with Benefits' premiere at the Ziegfeld Theater on July 18, 2011 in New York City.

  • Premiere Of Regency Enterprises' "In Time" - Arrivals

    Actor/Singer Justin Timberlake arrives at the Premiere of Regency Enterprises' 'In Time' at the Regency Village Theater on October 20, 2011 in Westwood, California.

  • Justin Timberlake

    Justin Timberlake attends the 'Time Out' Photocall at Hotel Bristol on November 4, 2011 in Paris, France.

  • Justin Timberlake

    Justin Timberlake attends the UK Premiere for 'In Time' at The Curzon Mayfair on October 31, 2011 in London, England.

  • Justin Timberlake

    Justin Timberlake attends the UK Premiere for 'In Time' at The Curzon Mayfair on October 31, 2011 in London, England.

  • Justin Timberlake

    Actor Justin Timberlake poses as he arrives for the UK premiere of 'In Time' at the Curzon on October 31, 2011 in London.

  • Justin Timberlake

    Actor Justin Timberlake arrives at the premiere of Regency Enterprises' 'In Time' on October 20, 2011 in Westwood, California.

  • Justin Timberlake

    US actor, Justin Timberlake poses during a photocall as part of the presentation of the movie 'Time out' in which he is starred. 'Time Out', directed by US Andrew Niccol will be released on French screens on november 23, 2011.

  • Justin Timberlake

    Singer Justin Timberlake attends the GQ 'Men of the year' party at the Chateau Marmont, in Hollywood, California, on November 17, 2011.

  • Justin Timberlake

    Recording artist/actor Justin Timberlake appears during a Panasonic press event to announce Myspace TV, a social TV service that will be available on Panasonic connected televisions, at The Venetian for the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) January 9, 2012 in Las Vegas, Nevada. CES, the world's largest annual consumer technology trade show, runs from January 10-13 and is expected to feature 2,700 exhibitors showing off their latest products and services to about 140,000 attendees.

    • Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/23/justin-timberlake-wedding-nsync-not-invited_n_2006503.html

    Keep Maintenance Of The Plumbing Systems | Home Improvement ...

    Many problems would occur if the plumbing systems are not well maintained, said a bathroom planner. For instance the pipes that supply water to your home have to be constantly checked for leaks. Leak detection allows for water pipes to be repaired early before pathogens start to creep into your water supply system. This can easily happen if you have water pipes that pass through your garden or backyard. Any slight leaks can expose the whole water supply system to bacteria and fungi commonly found in the soil that can cause waterborne diseases.

    Drainage systems are meant to flush out waste from your home to the sewer system. If your drainage system becomes faulty there are high chances your home will be infiltrated by effluent. Blocked drains are an ideal environment for bacteria such as streptococci, coliforms and yeasts. If drains remain clogged for long periods of time bacterial and fungal populations multiply to such an extent that infection is inevitable. Drain cleaning is therefore very important for it allows for smooth flow of effluent and does not allow for propagation of harmful bacteria near your home.

    The pipes that lead to water heaters also have to be constantly checked for leaks. This is very important for water heaters can leak and cause formation of algae and if your water heater is located in the ceiling this can pose serious health hazards. Certain molds and algae can be carried into the air and if that happens there will be high chances of getting a respiratory infection. One can always visit http://www.plumbin.co.nz/shop/baths.html for more information.

    All you need to do is to hire the services of a professional plumber. Professional plumbers specialize in installing and maintaining water supply systems and drainage systems. Professional plumbers are capable of reading drawings of your water supply system and determine possible sources of a leak and fix them. Professional plumbers can check and correct your plumbing systems so as to ensure that they meet safety standards stipulated by the law authorities. Getting your plumbing systems fixed will ensure you don?t waste any water. Water leakages can also inflate your water bill, so if you fix your pipes you won?t have to pay lots of money for your water bills. Constantly maintained water heaters are more energy efficient thus you won?t have to use lots of fuel in keeping your water hot.

    Source: http://www.niutranslations.com/keep-maintenance-of-the-plumbing-systems.html

    Tuesday, October 23, 2012

    Beyond Structured Settlements: NASP 2012 Annual Conference - 2

    Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the enactment of IRC 5891, the National Association of Settlement Purchasers (NASP) hosted its 2012 Annual Conference last week in New Orleans.

    The conference featured an ambitious and successful educational program highlighting prior NASP accomplishments and focusing on emerging issues that impact both the primary and secondary structured settlement markets. For the first time in NASP's history, conference attendance was open to primary market participants.

    S2KM previously published an introductory blog post identifying NASP 2012 conference speakers and topics and providing links to S2KM reports from previous NASP conferences. Subsequent S2KM blog posts will recap speaker presentations.

    This blog post offers S2KM's general observations and impressions of some of the broader structured settlement industry issues based upon NASP's 2012 conference.

    Why Has Factoring Flourished?

    Compared with the primary structured settlement market, both NASP and the secondary market appear to be flourishing. What explains this paradoxical success?

    The groundwork for secondary structured settlement market success began in 1997 when NASP launched a strategic lobbying initiative resulting in the enactment of IRC 5891 and NCOIL's Model State Structured Settlement Protection Act (Model Act).

    Although neither legislative development would have been possible without support from the National Structured Settlement Trade Association (NSSTA), the lobbying agendas of the two associations were markedly different. Ultimately NASP prevailed on several critical issues including:

    • "Best interest" standard vs. NSSTA's preferred "financial hardship" standard.
    • Denying annuity owners and providers the right to veto proposed transfers.
    • Eliminating maximum discount rates.

    In addition to NASP's lobbying success, NASP's members have achieved considerable, and controversial, marketing success utilizing aggressive television advertizing and sophisticated Internet techniques. As one measure of this marketing success, the primary market now claims the secondary market has "stolen the structured settlement brand".

    Both the primary and the secondary structured settlement markets were devastated by the 2008 financial crisis which:

    • Temporarily shut down asset-backed securities markets including securities backed by structured settlement payment rights.
    • Created an industry liquidity crisis which resulted in:
      • J.G. Wentworth, the largest secondary market company, entering bankruptcy in 2009.
      • AIG, the largest primary market company, receiving a financial bailout from the U.S. government in 2008 and 2009.
      • Both Wentworth and AIG have subsequently recovered and regained their respective market leadership roles.
    • Reduced interest rates to historic low levels causing a substantial reduction in primary market sales beginning in 2009.

    As of the 2012 second calendar quarter, the secondary structured settlement market appears to have fully recovered from the 2008 financial crisis. The primary market has not yet recovered. Part of the reason is that interest rates, whether high or low, affect the primary and secondary structured settlement markets differently.

    Other reasons, however, also help explain the growing success of the secondary structured settlement market.

    • Structured settlement transfers improve the structured settlement product by addressing a critical need for many structured settlement recipients - a liquidity need that was not properly addressed in the original settlement plan or, alternatively, resulted from unanticipated developments.
    • Continuing strong demand exists among some institutional and individual investors for recycled structured settlement payment rights.

    Linked Markets - Same Customers

    Having failed politically to end structured settlement factoring, NSSTA, and many annuity providers, have adopted alternative strategies which appear to be misguided attempts to create obstacles and impede the growth of the secondary structured settlement market.

    NSSTA's 2006 bylaw amendments represent one such example. As NSSTA explained to its members: "because [the secondary market] activities [prohibited by the amendments] are inconsistent with the membership qualifications, engaging in those activities can lead to suspension or expulsion from membership and to denial of new membership applications." (emphasis added).

    The increasing "administrative fees" annuity providers charge factoring companies, either as a condition to avoid "opposed transfers" or to allow transfers of life contingent payment rights, represents another example. Ultimately, the structured settlement recipients who transfer payment rights pay for those administrative fees which, for some annuity providers, now represent a new profit center.

    How do these types of actions help the structured settlement customer or improve the structured settlement industry?

    Both NSSTA and NASP, and their members, share a common existential interest in IRC 104(a)(2) and 130. Both NSSTA and NASP recognize the anticipated re-writing of the U.S. tax code expected to begin following the 2012 Presidential election represents a threat to those tax sections.

    Arguably, the existence of IRC 5891, which not only links to IRC 104(a)(2) and 130, but also to the 48 state structured settlement protection statutes, has both expanded and strengthened the U.S. structured settlement legislative framework.

    Having collaborated to help enact IRC 5891 and the NCOIL Model Act, shouldn't NSSTA and NASP also collaborate to defend and maintain IRC 104(a)(2) and 130 - and to identify additional shared interests for structured settlement industry improvement and growth?

    Improving Industry Education

    In his opening comments at the NASP 2012 conference, outgoing NASP President Matthew Bracy challenged attendees to make the structured settlement transfer business better: "better in the marketplace, better in the courts, and above all better for the customers who so need the service this industry provides."

    One way NASP "walks the walk" of secondary market improvement is by inviting its critics to speak at NASP conferences. NASP challenges these critics not only to address secondary market problems but also to recommend improvements.

    Critics who have spoken at past NASP conferences include: Jack Meligan, Stephen Harris, Peter Vodola, John Darer, and Richard Risk. Other critics, including NSSTA leaders, have been invited but have declined to participate.

    Jan Schlichtmann, keynote speaker for the 2012 NASP conference, began by stating: "I don't like your advertizing". He then praised NASP for inviting and encouraging criticism to better itself and the secondary structured settlement market.

    NSSTA also has permitted criticism as part of its educational programs. Examples include: Joseph DiGangi (see: "Settlement Consulting") and Dan Clark (see: "SSP and NSSTA 2010 Annual Meetings"). Whenever NSSTA has addressed strategically important and/or controversial issues (egs. IRC 468B and IRC 5891), however, NSSTA members generally hear only "politically correct" speakers and perspectives.

    Because of the importance of issues such as qualified settlement funds (QSFs) and the secondary market for the future of structured settlements, NSSTA members increasingly must rely upon non-NSSTA educational programs and educational resources to interact with the people and ideas challenging and changing the structured settlement industry.

    During 2012, these educational programs have included: the SSP conference, the ASNP conference, the Risk settlement planning practicum and the QSF symposium.

    Fortunately for NSSTA members, as well as members of the Society of Settlement Planners (SSP), NASP has now opened an entirely new educational forum to challenge and expand their understanding of structured settlements.

    Source: http://s2kmblog.typepad.com/rethinking_structured_set/2012/10/nasp-2012-annual-conference-2.html

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