relator evolution: January 2013

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Union Claims City Turned Down Offer To End School Bus Strike

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As the city's school bus strike enters its third week, the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1181 union says the city turned down an offer that may have ended the walkout. NY1's Vivian Lee filed the following report.

Union leaders with school bus drivers' Local 1181 brought in the big guns Wednesday morning, inviting the president of the union's parent, Amalgamated Transit International, to a news conference.

Was City Hall right to reject the offer from the ATU to end the strike? How is the strike affecting you or your family? Join the conversation on "The Call" at 9 p.m. with NY1's John Schiumo, or email your thoughts.

He urged parents to contact Mayor Michael Bloomberg and pressure him to allow job protection for unionized workers in any new contracts awarded by the city to bus companies.

The mayor refuses to allow job protection in city contracts, pointing to a court ruling two years ago that found the provision illegal in some contracts. But the union says that doesn't apply here.

"We hope that you, the press, will get the story out to the people," said Larry Hanley of Amalgamated Transit Union International.

Mediated talks between the union and a coalition of employers went nowhere earlier this week, and the union suggested a cooling-off period of as many as 90 days. During that time, drivers would go back to work, but only if the city slowed down the bidding process for the bus routes.

"We don't know why that would be rejected," said Michael Cordiello, president of Local 1181. "We think it's a viable way to end the strike."

The union says the cooling off period would allow all sides to take a closer look at administrative costs, the size of the bus fleet and what it calls an inefficient network of bus routes as reasons behind soaring costs.

But a spokeswoman with the mayor's office disagrees.

"Postponing the bids would guarantee that the same billion-dollar contracts we have now stay in place next year," a statement from the mayor's office reads, in part. "The union is irresponsibly holding our students and city hostage."

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, one of the bus companies sent a letter urging striking workers to return. Pioneer Transportation warned that if they don't, they will lose their company health benefits on Friday. And Pioneer said they could soon lose any chance of ever getting back to work, either because other companies take over the bus routes or because permanent replacement workers take over their jobs.

To find updated route information, visit schools.nyc.gov.

Source: http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stories/176203/union-claims-city-turned-down-offer-to-end-school-bus-strike

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Wednesday, January 30, 2013

School shooting drill to include sound of gunfire

By Lisa Balde and Charlie Wojciechowski, NBCChicago.com

A drill this week to prep Cary, Ill., students in the event of a school shooting is getting harsh reviews from parents.

Cary-Grove High School Principal Jay Sargeant sent a letter detailing a 15- to 20-minute "code red simulation" on Wednesday that will include shooting blanks in hallways while students and teachers take cover. Cary is located about 45 miles northwest from downtown Chicago.

"The purpose is not to shock kids and upset parents. Our purpose is to make sure that should something actually happen that we're prepared," said school spokesman Jeff Puma.

He added that it's not the first code red drill the district has conducted in the wake of the Sandy Hook school shootings. The first was done just four days after the Newtown, Conn., tragedy.

"We debated whether we should do it or not and we ended up doing it and it went very well," Puma explained.

Also on NBCChicago.com: Teen girl among 3 dead, 8 wounded in Tuesday shootings

Still, the move made some parents and students uneasy, believing the sound of simulated gunfire was too strong a tactic.

"I think it's a little over the top, like it's too much. I think we understand what could happen. I just think that it's unnecessary," said student Bobbi Breuer.

Administrators stressed that it's important parents speak to their children about the drill before and after it takes place.

Puma said social workers and other staff will be available to talk to students who have a "negative reaction" to the drill.

In the letter to parents, Sargeant said teachers will secure their rooms, draw curtains and keep students from traveling throughout the building.?Cary police will then sweep the building to make sure students are in a secure location during the drill.

"After the simulation, teachers and staff will 'take some time to process what occurred' before returning to their regular schedule,"?he wrote. "These drills help our students and staff to be prepared should a crisis occur."

Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/30/16774770-school-shooting-drill-in-illinois-to-include-sound-of-gunfire?lite

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Biologists use diag trees to help solve gypsy moth mystery

Jan. 30, 2013 ? Working beneath the towering oaks and maples on the University of Michigan's central campus Diag, undergraduate researchers and their faculty adviser helped explain an observation that had puzzled insect ecologists who study voracious leaf-munching gypsy moth caterpillars.

The caterpillars, which defoliate and sometimes kill stands of trees in the Upper Midwest and the Northeast, are especially fond of oaks, but sugar maple trees appear to be relatively resistant to the European pest.

Biologists wondered whether the caterpillars shun sugar maples in part because their leaves are less nutritious than the leaves of other trees. To find out, U-M biochemist Ray Barbehenn and several of his undergraduate research assistants compared the protein quality of red oak and sugar maple leaves from trees on the Diag.

What they found runs counter to conventional wisdom on the topic, which states that protein quality in leaves differs significantly from species to species. Instead, Barbehenn and his students found that the amino acid composition of the proteins in red oak and sugar maple leaves is strikingly similar -- so similar, in fact, that they could not be distinguished during the spring, when gypsy moths do most of their feeding.

However, the researchers found that protein is more abundant in oak leaves than in maple leaves.

"Instead of differences in protein quality, we showed that maple trees have lower quantities of protein than oak, partly explaining why they are less nutritious than oak leaves," said Barbehenn, an associate research scientist in the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. The amount of essential amino acids in oak leaves was 30-42 percent higher than the EAA content of maple leaves in the spring and summer.

"These results help us understand the nutritional reasons why insects perform better or worse on different species of plants. This kind of information is needed in agriculture and forestry to improve the resistance of plants to insect pests," he said. "In the short term, though, this is basic research that is driven by the curiosity of ecologists to understand nature better."

The team's findings will be published in an upcoming edition of the journal Oecologia. Authors of the journal article are Barbehenn and two of his former undergraduate research assistants, Joseph Kochmanski and Julie Niewiadomski. Barbehenn has worked with more than 40 undergraduate research assistants since 2000.

Niewiadomski graduated from U-M with a bachelor's degree in biology in May 2010 and is now studying nutrition in a doctoral program at Cornell University. She said her work studying protein metabolism in gypsy moth caterpillars shaped her decision to pursue a doctorate in nutrition.

"My career in nutrition research began in Ray's lab," she said. "I am looking forward to seeing where it leads me."

Kochmanski is now a master's student at the U-M School of Public Health, focusing on toxicology. He said his time with Barbehenn instilled in him "a strong desire to continue doing research."

"I am currently working in a toxicology laboratory at the School of Public Health, doing research into the human health effects of environmental exposures," he said. "I can trace my interest in this subject back to my time working in Ray's lab."

"Our research involves a true partnership," Barbehenn said. "I teach students to work and think like biologists, and they help me get publication-quality data," he said. "For almost all of them, it's the first time they've had this opportunity and the first publication they've co-authored."

In the gypsy moth study, the students used a long-pole pruner to reach into the crowns of Diag oaks and maples and collect leaves. The field work was done in 2010, with permission from U-M Grounds Services.

In the nearby Natural Sciences Building, the research team used high-performance liquid chromatography to separate and quantify the amino acids that make up proteins. The whole-body essential amino acid composition of gypsy moth caterpillars was measured to estimate their optimum dietary protein composition, which was compared with the EAA compositions of oak and maple leaves.

"The ability to literally walk out the door to work on tree defenses against pests like the gypsy moth, coupled with an abundance of undergraduate talent, makes the U-M campus an ideal location for studies in insect chemical ecology," Barbehenn said.

The protein study showed that gypsy moths would have to devour more maple leaves than oak leaves to achieve the same amount of nourishment. But earlier work by Barbehenn and his students showed that the toxicity of maple leaves may prevent this strategy from working.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Michigan.

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

Journal Reference:

Raymond V. Barbehenn, Julie Niewiadomski, Joseph Kochmanski. Importance of protein quality versus quantity in alternative host plants for a leaf-feeding insect. Oecologia, 2013; DOI: 10.1007/s00442-012-2574-7

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

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/_RPAfv3t0X8/130130111757.htm

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App Store brought in 3.5 times more revenue than Google Play in 2012

App Annie, a service that tracks revenue and growth for both the App Store and Google Play, has released their January 2013 index. Both marketplaces are doing very well and while Google Play saw more growth than the App Store, the App Store still managed to bring in over 3 times more than Google Play.

When comparing both app ecosystems, Google Play has grown tremendously with over 700,000 apps now available to consumers compared to the App Store's 800,000, according to App Annie and Bloomberg.

App Annie wouldn?t disclose specific revenue figures because it sells that information separately to software companies that buy the data and analytics. While Apple has said the App Store has generated more than $7 billion since 2008, Google hasn?t made such information public. Apple has more than 800,000 apps on its store, and Google has more than 700,000.

Apple has reported to average around $333 million a month since June to December, which is over 3 times more than Google Play. Apple also saw an increase in sales of around 20% between October and December which can probably be attributed to the release of the iPhone 5 and iPad mini.

What's interesting though is that Google Play has grown 6 times its size prior to 2012, even though Apple still pulled in higher revenue. Apple's App Store has been around a lot longer than Google Play and has a very established user base but it shows that both ecosystems are doing remarkably well as coming into a brand new year.

Source: Bloomberg

Source: http://www.imore.com/app-store-brought-35-times-more-revenue-google-play-2012

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Big Blue Breaks Into Biotech With Bacteria-Blasting Hydrogel

Researchers from IBM and the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology have developed what they are calling the first antimicrobial hydrogel that is biodegradable, biocompatible and non-toxic. The hydrogel, which can penetrate diseased biofilms and eradicate drug-resistant bacteria upon contact, has applications ranging from antimicrobial cleaners to therapeutic delivery agents to tissue engineering.

Source: http://ectnews.com.feedsportal.com/c/34520/f/632000/s/2805dd02/l/0L0Stechnewsworld0N0Crsstory0C771620Bhtml/story01.htm

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Tuesday, January 29, 2013

CSN: 49ers plan to stay low-key in New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS -- There is no French Quarter in Youngstown, Ohio.

And there certainly are no places in Youngstown to get an adult beverage or hot beignets at 3 a.m.

But the 49ers' week-long stay at the site of Super Bowl XLVII is bringing back memories of the road trips the club has taken the past two years during the regular season.

Yes, there will be a lot more media and hype surrounding the 49ers' game Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens, but it is also a time for the team to focus on football -- just as they've done in Youngstown on week-long trips.

"It's a good thing," 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh said. "We've done this really the last two years, stayed in a hotel, had our meetings in a hotel and go to a facility and practice and get ready for a game.

[RELATED: Seifert retires to role as the 49ers' and Jim Harbaugh's biggest fan]

"But it's the same approach as always, really. Enjoy the moment, enjoy preparations. I think that's what our team enjoys the most is the practice, meetings and, especially, the competition."

In 2011, the 49ers played at Cincinnati and had a game the following week in Philadelphia. Harbaugh decided to keep the team in the Youngstown area to avoid back-to-back flights to the east.

On the back end of that trip, the 49ers rallied from a 20-point third-quarter deficit to pull off a 24-23 victory over the Eagles to springboard the 49ers to a 13-3 regular-season record.

The 49ers had similar success this season, as they followed up a loss at Minnesota with a week in Youngstown to prepare to face the New York Jets. The 49ers installed a game plan in which Colin Kaepernick saw his first action at quarterback, and the 49ers rolled to a 34-0 victory over the Jets.

"We'll be out here for a week, so we have to approach it that way," safety Dashon Goldson said. "We'll get accustomed to a new enviroment and practice in a different facility. We'll have to adapt to it. We've been in that situation before."

The 49ers will begin practice later this week at the practice facility of the New Orleans Saints in Metairie, La.

[RELATED: Next stop New Orleans]

Defensive tackle Justin Smith said he does not mind the time away, as the focus is typically on nothing but football.

"Once you get done with today tomorrow, the media day stuff, I think it'll be a regular work week," Smith said. "It's what we'd do normally on the road. We've already done it once with Youngstown. I don't think it'll be that much difference."

The 49ers, who arrived at their team hotel on Sunday evening, have film rooms set up at their hotel. Players can get to the film room early in the morning or late at night without any kind of commute involved.

The goal for Harbaugh and the 49ers is to keep the week as normal as possible. And that's why the experience of Youngstown can be beneficial.

"We'll still have the same body of work that we'd have if we were back home, the same kind of work we had in Youngstown," linebacker Patrick Willis said. "The only difference got to do a whole lot of media.

"And this is not Youngstown."

Source: http://www.csnbayarea.com/blog/matt-maiocco/49ers-treat-new-orleans-if-its-youngstown

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Advances in Speech Therapy for Aphasia 01/28 by Lingraphica ...

Tune in to listen to Season 2, Episode 4 of Verses and Flow with spoken word by Andrew Tyree, Marcus Omari and Carvens Lissaint. Brought to you by Lexus

Bob Burg, bestselling author of Endless Referrals, Go-Givers and Go-Givers Sell More is on Small Business Roundtable. Bob will share his philosophy of Giving vs. Getting and the great rewards. He will also share his 5 Stratospheric Laws for Success and more.

NASCAR driver Sam Hornish Jr. is welcomed to the show to talk about the 2013 season. There have been some key changes made to his team in the off season that could make him a championship threat, we'll address these changes and delve into what could possibly happen.

The foods we eat (or don?t eat) play a major role in all aspects of health, including the health of your eyes. Before you make your grocery shopping list, tune into the latest edition of Healthy Vision? with Dr. Val Jones, where Dr. Val and guests explore the role of nutrition and its impact on vision and eye health.

The Inside Dish Hosts, Actor/Director Shaun PIccinino, 2x Mr. Austrailia Guy Grundy, Martial Artist Steve Pisa & Radio Personality Tymeless in studio w/ Celebrity Guests, MTV Host Travis Wong & Director of "Bigger Stronger Faster" Chris Bell + More Give Aways!

January Jones welcomes Jeremy Jason, the Senior Portfolio Manager at Lear Capitol, Inc., discussing his new social network called The AtomicMe! It is a new social networking experience that gives it's users the opportunity to monetize through advertising.

Our guest this morning is Anita Mathis, Founder, AMA Unified Communications. Anita is an entrepreneur, workshop facilitator and speaker with a focus on business, technology and personal readiness. Find out how this Atlanta-Based entrepreneur can help you.

The Best Ever You Show is extremely honored to welcome the CEO of RE, Tom Morse. one of his most notable successes was taking 5 Hour Energy from concept to multi-millions in sales in the blink of an eye; he has repeated this success with brand after brand.

eFitFamily with guest Pamela Post-Ferrante will talk about her cancer journey and trials she encountered during her treatment.

Harvard Medical School?s Dr. Jeff Brown and author of Chicken Soup of the Soul: Think Positive for Great Health, shares inspirational stories and seven common sense approach to a greater health in 2013 with host Johnny Tan on FMMK Talk Radio.

Tune in and listen to Season 2, Episode 6 of Verses and Flow with Grammy Award winning Chrisette Michele, and spoken word by Poetri, Queen Sheba and Prentice Powell. Brought to you by Lexus.

Tonight PD RADIO brings you the best two hours of throwback music and comedy clips of Kevin Hart, Katt Williams and many more to get your laugh on and your two step popping so tune in and join your hosts Ms. PD & Black and allow us to entertain you.

Silvio welcomes Leslie Eastman and Barry Jacobsen as they will review the big battles and even bigger personalities of the Second and Third Crusades. We will be discussing the Battle of Hattin, Richard the Lionheart, Saladin, Eleanor and much

V.R.O. Welcomes back Paul Roger Amos 'Vex' from SyFy's hit series ' Lost Girl'. The last time we spoke with Paul, his character Vex was just introduced to viewers. Since then Vex's popularity and his screen-time has grown exponentially.

Big Blend Radio kicks off their Annual Super Bowl Party with award-winning singer-songwriter Dilana Roubichaux who starred in & wrote/performed 9 songs for the rock drama Angel Camouflaged. She's performed with Tommy Lee, Mick Mars, Dave Navarro, Gilby Clark.

GOOD GOSSIP! Shawne Duperon is a six-time EMMY? Award winning producer, PBS host, networking guru & media expert, and also founder of worldwide movement Project Forgive seen on CNN, FOX, ABC, NBC & CBS, joins Deb Scott to talk about Good Gossip in biz markeing

Source: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/lingraphica/2013/01/28/advances-in-speech-therapy-for-aphasia

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Monday, January 28, 2013

Sprint announces the rugged Kyocera Torque

Sprint Kyocera Torque

Sprint this morning announced the Kyocera Torque, a ruggedized Android smartphone that sports LTE data as well as Sprint's Direct Connect push-to-talk service. The Torque sports a 4-inch display at 480x800 resolution, a 2,500 mAh battery and is running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. It's powered by a 1.2GHz Qualcomm MSM8960 dual-core processor, has 4GB of storage and 1GB of RAM, and can rock a microSD card as well. It's also got NFC, Wifi b/g/n, a 5MP rear camera and a 1.3MP shooter out front. The whole thing's built to 810G MilSpec standards, meaning it'll probably survive in hostile conditions longer than you would.

No word yet on pricing or when it will be available.

Source: Sprint

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/5JcG0sswtwk/story01.htm

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Monte Paschi seeks new investor as scandal deepens

ROME/MILAN (Reuters) - Monte dei Paschi di Siena said on Sunday it was seeking a financial investor as the political storm over a derivatives scandal at the ailing bank intensified ahead of next month's Italian election.

Italy's third-biggest lender, which needs state loans to stay afloat, this week revealed opaque derivatives trades, conducted between 2006 and 2009, that could cost it some 720 million euros.

The scandal has turned the spotlight on Monte Paschi's close political ties with the center left and on possible oversight failings by the Bank of Italy (BOI), then led by current European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi.

"I would like to have a long-term financial investor," Monte Paschi Chairman Alessandro Profumo told Italian business daily Il Sole 24 Ore on Sunday. "Nationality is not a problem. The important thing is that it believes in our project".

Profumo was appointed head of a new management team last year to try to turn around the world's oldest bank.

At the root of Monte Paschi's problems is the acquisition in 2007 of smaller rival Antonveneta for a massive 9 billion euros in cash, stretching its finances to the limit just months before the global financial crisis hit.

Siena prosecutors are investigating why the bank paid such an inflated price for Antonveneta shortly after Spain's Santander had purchased it from ABN Amro for just 6.6 bln euros.

After an all-day board meeting on Saturday, the Bank of Italy gave approval to Monte Paschi's request for 3.9 billion euros ($5.3 bln) of state loans, to be issued by end-February, though one leading politician said they should now be blocked.

The Tuscan bank was forced to seek state aid last year for the second time since 2009 after becoming one of just four European lenders that failed to meet tougher capital requirements set by regulators.

Under the loan scheme Monte Paschi will issue 3.9 billion euros of bonds to the Treasury, with just under half of these replacing 1.9 bln euros of loans made under a previous plan.

Profumo on Sunday rejected suggestions the bank will be nationalized and said he was confident it would be able to pay back the loans and interest in cash over the next five years.

"We believe in this. The objective is to return to profits already during the course of this year," he said.

However the scandal surrounding Monte Paschi is dominating the Italian media and has shot to the head of the campaign for the Feb 24-25 election.

"NO LONGER SUSTAINABLE"

Corriere della Sera daily on Sunday published excerpts from the minutes of Monte Paschi meetings in 2011 showing several board members expressing concern about the bank's portfolio, overladen with long-term Italian government bonds.

"The situation is no longer sustainable, we must take steps to reduce these positions," said former vice chairman Francesco Caltagirone in September 2011 as Italian government bond yields soared during the apex of the euro zone debt crisis.

Among complex instruments used to finance the Antonveneta deal were convertible loans known by the acronym FRESH (Floating Rate Equity-Linked Subordinated Hybrid Preferred Securities).

Advisory group Rothschild on Sunday denied a press report that it had assisted with the operation.

Monte Paschi's new management have said the main loss-making derivatives it uncovered involved Japanese bank Nomura and Deutsche Bank .

Center-right politicians are seeking maximum political capital from the bank's close ties to the Democratic Party (PD), which has a shrinking but still comfortable lead in the polls.

Siena has been a left-wing stronghold for decades and the bank's biggest shareholder is a charitable foundation controlled by PD politicians accustomed to using dividends from the bank for local initiatives to bolster their support.

"The PD can't even run a bank, so how can we trust them to run the country," said center-right leader Silvio Berlusconi on Saturday.

PD leader Pier Luigi Bersani threatened to "tear apart" anyone who suggested his party was responsible for wrongdoing at Monte Paschi but Angelino Alfano, a top official in Berlusconi's People of Freedom party said the PD was "in it up to its neck."

Roberto Maroni, head of the pro-devolution Northern League, attacked Prime Minister Mario Monti, who is heading a centrist alliance at the vote, and said state loans to Monte Paschi must be blocked until criminal investigations were concluded.

"If the bank has done things against the law it can't receive public money, that is so simple and obvious that even the prime minister should understand it."

(Edited by Jason Webb)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/scandal-hit-monte-paschi-seeks-investor-revive-bank-122442622--finance.html

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Ryan: Obama doesn't actually think 'we have a fiscal crisis?

Ryan (NBC)

Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan lashed out at President Barack Obama on Sunday, saying the commander in chief does not have a full grasp of the budget problems facing the U.S. economy.

"I don't think that the president actually thinks we have a fiscal crisis," Ryan told NBC's David Gregory on "Meet The Press" in his first live interview since the 2012 presidential campaign, when he was Mitt Romney's running mate.

Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman, said that while Democrats may have gotten higher taxes on the wealthy as part of the New Year's deal to avoid the fiscal cliff, that's all they'll get.

'"The president got his additional revenues," Ryan said. "So that's behind us."

"Are we for raising revenues? No we're not," he continued. "If you keep raising revenues, you're not going to get decent tax reform."

The former vice presidential candidate also addressed a pair politically-divisive issues: immigration reform and gun control. Via NBC:

Ryan, who has praised a bipartisan set of immigration reforms offered by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, said he was cautiously optimistic about the prospects for immigration reform this year. But Ryan said that Democratic and Republican lawmakers alike would closely watch Obama's speech on Tuesday in Nevada on that topic.

And of the president's gun control measures, Ryan suggested openness to embracing some measures--like requiring universal background checks on gun sales--while expressing skittishness toward other elements of the plan, like the ban on assault weapons.

And as far as his political aspirations for 2016 are concerned, Ryan said it's too early for him to talk about.

"I think it's just premature. I've got an important job to do," Ryan said. "I'll decide later about that."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/paul-ryan-meet-press-obama-fiscal-crisis-170944283--election.html

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Sunday, January 27, 2013

Learn The Best Ways To Achieve Online Marketing Success ...

If you want a career in online marketing, you can find some suggestions here. In the following paragraphs are some points that you can apply towards success in affiliate endeavors.

There should always be honesty in affiliate marketing. Describe to your users the purpose of your site and reveal all affiliations. If visitors sense dishonesty about your affiliations with the retailer of the product they wish to purchase, they will just pass you up and purchase directly from the merchant.

TIP! You should always disclose to your readers that you earn money if they make a purchase from an affiliate link. Your readers can tell how affiliate links look like and hiding this fact will cause them to lose their trust in you.

Use every appropriate strategy and medium to advertise your product or services. A part of your customer base will prefer searching the web for deals. Some may prefer brochures or fliers. Other customers might respond better to coupons and discounts. If you advertise in several ways, your audience will grow.

Put out feelers with a lot of different affiliates to start out. Using several related sites for you affiliate marketing program offers your customers a wide range of links from which to choose.

TIP! When you are selecting an affiliate company to work with, pick one who supports their affiliates and provides help to sell the product. Affiliate companies are smart, at least most of them are.

If you want to be the most successful affiliate possible, you must keep up with the best marketing methods. It?s tempting to simply grab the first free affiliate marketing campaign that comes along. While free always sounds good, you need to do some research to find options that will be affective in your particular market.

Optimize your marketing success by paying for professional ads. Make sure your ads are directed at specific keywords in order to produce revenue for you. Ads are a great way to draw in new customers and increase awareness of your products.

TIP! If someone visits your sport-themed website, you can be sure that they have one thing on their mind: sports. Only a sports-related link would benefit your affiliate site.

Set goals for yourself that will allow you to improve your current internet marketing strategy. Motivation remains as long as there are unfinished tasks visible in the task bar.

Choosing the hottest products to promote as an affiliate may mean thinner profits. While quality is always a major concern, it does not necessarily translate into popularity. Popularity also means over-saturation and an abundance of competition. This may not result in profits for you.

TIP! Affiliates should use text services to enhance their potential in earning commissions. While this is a little new still, there are lots of affiliates that use this to promote their products, share affiliate offers and keep all of their customers in the know.

Online Marketing

You should always research any company you plan on affiliating with. It doesn?t matter if the affiliate site has one of the highest earnings in its industry. You must ensure that you will have the ability to easily market it with no problems.

TIP! Affiliate marketing is great for businesses that have a strategy. You needdc to have your blog or site as high in search rankings as possible.

An online marketing program will help you achieve great results when promoting your business on the Internet. Online marketing programs are more effective than other advertising approaches, like banner ads or contextual networks. When looking at affiliate programs, pay attention to things like the directory?s popularity, ease of use and the payment you will receive for referrals.

It takes time to figure out which affiliate ads appeal the most to your audience?s demographic group. Some demographics like big advertisements with sound and video; others will prefer simple text. Your target audience should always be the driving force when you decide which products you wish to sell.

TIP! Increase your Google Plus follower count to keep ahead of your competitors. Intertwine your Google Plus, Twitter, and Facebook marketing, creating a combination of social media networking success.

Create your own e-book and post it on websites where documents can be shared freely. This can show that you know what you are talking about, and it can draw targeted visitors to your website. Make sure your article links back to your website.

You should consider giving your customers the opportunity to also market your product. Offer your customers that chance to be your affiliate upon purchasing your products. You can make a single sale into thousands if you have a client that wants to become an affiliate. It?s an easy way to drive more sales.

TIP! Useful advice for those who have only recently succeeded at affiliate marketing is to avoid resting on their laurels and continue to work hard. You should always strive for bigger and better things.

It is important to select a company with high sales conversion rates in order to have a successful affiliate program. Consider using a one percent conversion ratio as a benchmark.

By watching the statistics of your affiliates, you can see which links are performing well. Test each affiliate link in different locations on the page and compare your results. Be sure to use the same text for this test, and only change the link position within your article.

TIP! Write a note by hand, scan it, then put it up on your site. Handwritten content adds a touch of something that people feel is more personal.

Consider the peripherals when you are establishing affiliate links on the pages of your website. How about a water bottle with a strap so they can bring it out, too?

Every single affiliate you choose should be in your site?s niche. This will increase traffic to your website and also assist you in truly understanding the needs and wants of your customer base.

TIP! One solid piece of advice for potential affiliate marketers is to seek out companies with successful, long-term products. A diverse company gives you many ways to earn money.

Consider entering a niche market to increase your profits through affiliate promotion. It might be harder to find an audience when you are associated with a variety of products rather than focusing on a smaller, specific group of products.

Try to stay up to date in your industry. If you are behind the times in comparison to your competitors, people are more likely to patronize your competitors.

TIP! Try making a website just for your affiliate partners to improve your sales. Other affiliates may agree to work with you if you don?t hide that you use this marketing strategy.

It is critical that you do this, particularly if your target audience is the older generation. Make your font just a little bigger so people will notice it.

You will want to consider what products you are linking to. Once you have your affiliate links arranged properly, you should be earning more profits.

TIP! Use affiliations to market your online business more effectively. Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular ways of advertising, because of the number of people who click links.

Keep your intended audience in mind as you decide which affiliates to join. You should make sure that your affiliates are promoting products and services that are compatible or complementary to what your website offers. Visitors to your site are there because they want shoes, so try to sell them shoes and shoe related products. Choose ads that best cater to your demographic and take advantage of your customer information.

Try choosing an affiliate company who has higher sales conversion ratios. You should aim for about a 1% conversion rate.

TIP! One good marketing technique is to limit the purchase window for an affiliate product. When customers see they may not be able to get their hands on a product later, they might just jump on it.

Many affiliate marketers overdo it. They put their energy in too many places, they choose too many products, and they have too many promotions going at once to stay effectively competitive at any one thing. It is good to note there is no limit when it comes to what can be achieved. You just need time, creative thinking, determination and a willingness to learn in order to be successful in web marketing.

Learn new methods and share tips with other companies by joining a community for online affiliate marketers. You can find multiple outlets online where you can discuss best SEO practices, share codes, give advice, find and give leads on new affiliate programs, and get practical advice from other people doing what you do. Join different groups and forums to further your learning about affiliate marketing.

One highly effective internet marketing tactic is to put deadline stipulations on purchases. If visitors see that there is only a small amount of time left to purchase the product, they might feel an extra push to go ahead and purchase it. People love to feel as though they are getting a deal.

If you require access to your money in a timely fashion, choose an affiliate company that offers more than one payment option. While some companies only pay by check when you reach a predetermined amount, others allow you to send money directly to your bank account or to online payment accounts like AlertPay and Paypal.

Web Marketing

As previously mentioned, you can better promote your services and products through web marketing. Following these tips leads you on the road to becoming an expert in web marketing.

For more tips on Affiliate Marketing and to see the platform I use, go to: http://www.financialreboot.com.com

Source: http://www.samuellevitz.com/learn-the-best-ways-to-achieve-online-marketing-success

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Digital age, social media change the business landscape ...

Posted on January 27, 2013, Sunday

Gracie Geikie, UCSI Communications Sdn Bhd managing director

The fast growth in the tech?nology sector is changing the face of industries, even more so in the event manage?ment sector as a major platform for communications in business activities such as marketing, advertising and networking.

UCSI Communications Sdn Bhd managing director Gracie Geikie in an interview with BizHive Weekly said that the digital age had radically im?proved ? rather than changed the way events were organised these days.

?It has radically improved events because the speed of get?ting information is faster and the speed of doing things is faster.

?Nonetheless, old age values of courtesy and good ground training are still needed. Dig?ital technology advancement has helped us to improve or will help to improve us.

Giving a ?clear example?, she pointed out that people sitting at home could now just go online and buy literally anything, mak?ing the shopping experience very convenient.

Thus, the same thing could ap?ply in the meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE), where someone in the US looking at conferences online could register, book and arrange flights and accommodations with mere clicks of the mouse.

A transaction could be done within an hour, compared with 15 years ago when booking involved the client and the organiser or tour operator writing and fax?ing back and forth along with the transfer of funds involving a telegraphic transfer.

?It easily took a month. So look at the difference now: one hour and one month. That?s how fast it is so I think it has radically improved.

Silas Michael Martin, TRUevents managing director and chief eventor

?It has not changed. We have to change. We need to equip our?selves to cater for that. The digital age has forced us to become better and if you do not want to change, you will fall behind.

?We can now improve faster because of the digital age im?provement. It?s just a matter of whether we want it or not,? she highlighted.

Part of the entire process

Gracie opined that with so much information available in this digital age, ?too much infor?mation sometimes kills?; infor?mation overkill would confuse the market so one must make use of digital technology in a very strategic manner.

?Some people think they don?t need to do advertising or market?ing because there is free online stuff like Twitter and Facebook. It doesn?t work that way just because Facebook is available and free.

?It?s not just about putting it on Facebook and then you?re done with your marketing.

?I?m not saying these are not valid. You can save a lot of money with advertising if you know how to use your online tools ef?fectively. Marketing is a totally different and integrated process and Facebook is just but one very minute part of this process,? she emphasised.

Interactive avenues

Silas Michael Martin, the man?aging director and chief eventor of local events management company Borneo TRUevents Sdn Bhd (TRUevents) believed that new technology and trends such as social media has evolved the sector to an extent.

?Social media is interesting. It became a norm a few years ago, it has become somewhat compul?sory in the events industry,? he outlined to BizHive Weekly in a recent interview.

?Having presence online is crucial. For example, we have our website and out Facebook account.

?The website is more for of?ficial purposes ? putting us out there, letting people know we are here but our Facebook page serves more of an interactive purpose.

?Through Facebook, we were able to engage more people to at least be aware of the events we are running and also of the fact that we are an events manage?ment house.

?From a regional and global perspective, they get to know that we are here in Kuching. And I think the Internet has helped us to grow a whole lot easier.?

With the introduction of new technologies into its mix, TRUevents is also stepping up its game by innovating the way it run its events and thus providing more offerings in the mix.

INNOVATING SYSTEMS: Photo shows Sungha Jung performing onstage at ?Sungha Jung Live in Borneo? in Kuching last year. TRUevents has invested in new technologies such as an online ticketing system as well as barcode readers to innovate its events.

For example, via its recently-held event ?Sungha Jung Live in Borneo?, the group created a new platform in the manner of an online ticketing system which allowed customers to purchase tickets and make pay?ment online.

This differed from convention?al events whereby one needs to purchase tickets physically.

?You pay online ? with credit cards or online debit system ? and you will then receive the pass by email,? highlighted TRUevents general manager, Terence Lim.

?We don?t print tickets. The participants print them and bring it and we use barcode scan?ners to accept. These are the sort of new things that we?ve tried.?

Silas further added that these were part of the investments into research and development on its part to innovate itself and stay ahead of the competitive curve.

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Source: http://www.theborneopost.com/2013/01/27/digital-age-social-media-change-the-business-landscape/

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Poor sleep in old age prevents the brain from storing memories

Jan. 27, 2013 ? The connection between poor sleep, memory loss and brain deterioration as we grow older has been elusive. But for the first time, scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have found a link between these hallmark maladies of old age. Their discovery opens the door to boosting the quality of sleep in elderly people to improve memory.

Postdoctoral fellow, Bryce Mander, demonstrates how the sleep study was conducted.

UC Berkeley neuroscientists have found that the slow brain waves generated during the deep, restorative sleep we typically experience in youth play a key role in transporting memories from the hippocampus -- which provides short-term storage for memories -- to the prefrontal cortex's longer term "hard drive."

However, in older adults, memories may be getting stuck in the hippocampus due to the poor quality of deep 'slow wave' sleep, and are then overwritten by new memories, the findings suggest.

"What we have discovered is a dysfunctional pathway that helps explain the relationship between brain deterioration, sleep disruption and memory loss as we get older -- and with that, a potentially new treatment avenue," said UC Berkeley sleep researcher Matthew Walker, an associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at UC Berkeley and senior author of the study to be published Jan. 27, in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

The findings shed new light on some of the forgetfulness common to the elderly that includes difficulty remembering people's names.

"When we are young, we have deep sleep that helps the brain store and retain new facts and information," Walker said. "But as we get older, the quality of our sleep deteriorates and prevents those memories from being saved by the brain at night."

Healthy adults typically spend one-quarter of the night in deep, non-rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep. Slow waves are generated by the brain's middle frontal lobe. Deterioration of this frontal region of the brain in elderly people is linked to their failure to generate deep sleep, the study found.

The discovery that slow waves in the frontal brain help strengthen memories paves the way for therapeutic treatments for memory loss in the elderly, such as transcranial direct current stimulation or pharmaceutical remedies. For example, in an earlier study, neuroscientists in Germany successfully used electrical stimulation of the brain in young adults to enhance deep sleep and doubled their overnight memory.

UC Berkeley researchers will be conducting a similar sleep-enhancing study in older adults to see if it will improve their overnight memory. "Can you jumpstart slow wave sleep and help people remember their lives and memories better? It's an exciting possibility," said Bryce Mander, a postdoctoral fellow in psychology at UC Berkeley and lead author of this latest study.

For the UC Berkeley study, Mander and fellow researchers tested the memory of 18 healthy young adults (mostly in their 20s) and 15 healthy older adults (mostly in their 70s) after a full night's sleep. Before going to bed, participants learned and were tested on 120 word sets that taxed their memories.

As they slept, an electroencephalographic (EEG) machine measured their brain wave activity. The next morning, they were tested again on the word pairs, but this time while undergoing functional and structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) scans.

In older adults, the results showed a clear link between the degree of brain deterioration in the middle frontal lobe and the severity of impaired "slow wave activity" during sleep. On average, the quality of their deep sleep was 75 percent lower than that of the younger participants, and their memory of the word pairs the next day was 55 percent worse.

Meanwhile, in younger adults, brain scans showed that deep sleep had efficiently helped to shift their memories from the short-term storage of the hippocampus to the long-term storage of the prefrontal cortex.

Co-authors of the study are William Jagust, Vikram Rao, Jared Saletin and John Lindquist of UC Berkeley; Brandon Lu of the California Pacific Medical Center and Sonia Ancoli-Israel of UC San Diego.

The research was funded by the National Institute of Aging of the National Institutes of Health.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California - Berkeley. The original article was written by Yasmin Anwar.

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

Journal Reference:

Bryce A Mander, Vikram Rao, Brandon Lu, Jared M Saletin, John R Lindquist, Sonia Ancoli-Israel, William Jagust, Matthew P Walker. Prefrontal atrophy, disrupted NREM slow waves and impaired hippocampal-dependent memory in aging. Nature Neuroscience, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nn.3324

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/~3/mPkLDBVS1dI/130127134212.htm

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Saturday, January 26, 2013

How Facebook Could Give Its New Search the - Technology Review

Facebook?s new Graph Search?a feature that lets you search through the data shared by your friends?clearly needs some work (see ?Facebook?s New Graph Search: Not Very Good?). It relies solely on the ?likes,? check-ins, and profile data provided by your friends ? signals that may be incomplete or unreliable unless you have friends all over the world who always faithfully check in wherever they go, and like products and brands honestly, not ironically. What?s more, queries must be structured in a way that often makes you feel like you?re talking to a database.

Fortunately for Facebook, help is on its way. The social networking giant has two valuable data stores that it has yet to connect up to its prominent new search box (so large that it displaces the company?s logo). Accessing these data stores could change how people find information online?not to mention the fortunes of arch rival Google.

First, Facebook could analyze the substance of user comments and other text people have added to the site, such as photo captions. That could help Facebook find many more recommendations not logged through check-ins or ?like? button clicks, and to sift out misleading likes.

Second, Facebook?s search tool has yet to move outside the social network?s own borders (and into Google?s territory) by tapping into the Open Graph, a system developed by Facebook in 2010 as a way for it to understand the products, services, or other entities described on Web pages and in mobile apps. Open Graph allows Facebook to understand, for example, the artist, song, and album you are interacting with each time you click a song in a music service such as Spotify. That kind of knowledge could help Facebook search apply to more than just content from your friends.

Both of these improvements were mentioned in a brief note at the end of last week?s launch, but the company has not said how soon they might arrive. But it is possible to predict what they might allow. A mostly overlooked upgrade made by Facebook?s partner Microsoft to its Bing search engine last week, which lets you search the text of friends? Facebook postings, provides a preview of how the first change might make Graph Search more useful. Enter ?Friends who like tequila? into Graph Search today and you?ll find only people who have joined groups dedicated to the drink. Connect your Facebook account to Bing and type ?tequila? into its new ?Friends? photos? search and you?ll find every photo that mentions tequila in a caption or a comment?so you?ll probably see a lot more images of people enjoying the beverage.

Bing?s new ability to access the text of your friends? posts to Facebook is also on display in a sidebar on its main search page. When I searched for ?Virgin Atlantic,? it showed me comments mentioning that airline even when the airline wasn?t tagged explicitly. I could see that search?or one for any brand or product?being much more informative about what friends think or have experienced than anything Graph Search could show me.

A small startup called Trove provides further evidence of the value of searching the full text of Facebook content (see ?A Better Way to Mine Your Facebook Past?). The company originally created a product similar to Graph Search, says cofounder and CEO Seth Blank, but after a poor response from trial users, it refocused on using clues found in comments and other text to answer more free-form queries.

Trove has developed several tricks that underscore how much more useful inputted text can be than just like button clicks. For example, a search for ?puppy photos? might reveal an unlabeled Instagram photo of a dog because the photo elicited a tweet using the word ?dog? and a Facebook comment saying ?adorable!?

More subtle signals like those might provide a better measure of which restaurants, products, and businesses friends really like?and why; far better than just ?likes,? says Blank.

Trove is currently experimenting with a browser plug-in that displays its results when a person searches on shopping sites Amazon and Newegg. ?People buy stuff based on what they find friends like using Trove,? says Blank. Facebook is likely exploring how to encourage similar buying behavior around its own search, with a view to charging for ads that appear alongside search results.

Facebook?s other untapped resource, the Open Graph, could also improve its power to recommend products?and hence offer new opportunities to position ads next to search results, as Google does. Folding it into Graph Search would also be a significant shift for Facebook, and it could change the way we use the Web.

Open Graph is powerful because it?s as much a creation of other websites and apps as it is of Facebook itself. Companies contribute Open Graph metadata to describe the things?products, brands, movies, people, and more?on their pages or in their apps because they want attention from Facebook?s billion users. Those efforts enable Facebook to understand what exactly it is people are interacting with, or are interested in, providing a kind of index of the wider Web and world.

The Open Graph is already big. Last year, entrepreneur Matthew Berk used five billion Web pages provided by the nonprofit Common Crawl (see ?A Free Database of the Entire Web?) to show that the Open Graph describes some 400 million objects (he also found that 22 percent of the Web?s pages link to Facebook in some way). Publishers would likely redouble their efforts to embrace the Open Graph if it were included in Facebook?s search, Berk predicts, making it an even more powerful index of what people care about online. ?People used to go out of their way to make it so that Google would find their content; now they look to Facebook,? he says. ?It?s like a redistribution of wealth.? Berk?s research into the Open Graph led him to found a startup called Lucky Oyster, a service due to launch this year where people can explicitly share and recommend products and content to Facebook friends.

However, Berk predicts that Facebook will face challenges taming ?noise? that pollutes the Open Graph, because contributors don?t describe their content in a consistent way. It?s a problem that also troubles Graph Search, which has made it abundantly clear that on Facebook, ?like? doesn?t always mean you really like something.

All the same, Facebook?s approach to organizing online information and making it searchable seems to make sense?as evidenced by Google?s enthusiastic efforts to build a social network (see ?The Man Building Google?s Social Network?) and a system that understands concepts mentioned on Web pages (see ?Google?s New Brain?).

?The big shift is to information being about things in the world and people, not just Web pages,? says Berk. ?At Google, you can see that social has become number one across the board.?

Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/news/510041/how-facebook-could-give-its-new-search-the-edge/

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BlackBerry Z10 priced at ?480 sim-free by purported Carphone Warehouse database leak (update)

With all the BlackBerry 10 leaks as of late, it seems inevitable that pricing info would get ousted in the lead up to January 30th. Thanks to an anonymous tipster, it appears that the the sim-free version of RIM's Z10 will cost UKers a cool £480 at Carphone Warehouse (for perspective, a 16GB iPhone 5 would run you just roughly £30 more). The leak comes from what's said to be a snapshot of the company's internal database, listing the white variant. The attached BLAZ10WHI model number also syncs up nicely with the previous slip from the retailer. At this rate, not much is going to be left to the imagination when RIM officially unveils its devices come Monday -- who likes surprises anyway, right?

Update: We've updated the post to reflect that the phone was touted to us as "sim-free," specifically.

[Thanks, Anonymous]

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, RIM

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/26/blackberry-z10-carphone-warhouse-price-leak/

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Well-To-Do Real Estate Broker Accused Of Raping Internet Date ...

Gavel (file/credit: CBS 2)

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) ? A well-to-do real estate broker at a high-end Manhattan firm has pleaded not guilty to a rape charge brought from a young woman he met on the Internet.

As WCBS 880?s Irene Cornell reported, Lakhinder Vohra, 47, met the woman through a Web site called SeekingArrangement.com. The woman claimed Vohra attacked her on her first visit to his Wall Street apartment.

Well-To-Do Real Estate Broker Accused Of Raping Internet Date
WCBS 880's Irene Cornell Reports

The Web site caters to men like Vohra, who works for the firm Nest Seekers described as ?sugar daddies with lots of cash.? Vohra used the handle ?Daddylovesarmcandy? on the Web site and claimed to be worth as much as $10 million, according to a New York Post report.

The 26-year-old victim claimed that he threw her face down on the bed, placed his hand on her back, and raped her, the newspaper reported.

Vohra?s attorney compared the situation to that of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the disgraced French politician and former head of the International Monetary Fund who was accused of rape by his maid in 2011. The criminal case against Strauss-Kahn was dismissed, and he has since filed a lawsuit against his accuser, Nafissatou Diallo.

In Vohra?s case, attorney Mike Saint-Pre told the court: ?What we have here is a case of extortion. Even as the woman was leaving the apartment, she was attempting to extort money from Vohra.?

Vohra was ordered held on $10,000 bail on Friday, the newspaper reported.

Please leave your comments below?

Source: http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/01/26/well-to-do-real-estate-broker-accused-of-raping-internet-date/

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