If the crashing sound of lightning striking Saturn wasn't enough to excite your inner-meteorologist, then perhaps footage of a raging extraterrestrial hurricane will win you over. After orbiting the ringed planet for nine years, NASA's Cassini probe has managed to snag video of a super storm on the celestial body's north pole. Cloaked by the darkness of winter, the hurricane's eye became visible as Saturn's northern hemisphere transitioned into spring. Unlike the tropical cyclones of Earth (see: Hurricane Katrina, Sandy and Irene), this furious typhoon has been spinning for several years and has winds that flow at speeds exceeding 300MPH. Further differentiating itself from our world's whirlwinds, this alien cyclone is locked to its planet's north pole and is fueled by small amounts of water vapor instead of an actual ocean. Completely in a category of its own, the hurricane's eye measures about 1,250 miles wide and is surrounded by fluffy white clouds the size of Texas. To see this Saturnian fury in all its glory, check out the video after the break and feel free to leave your gratuitous hurricane names in the comments below.
(Reuters) - Riverbed Technology Inc reported quarterly results below analysts' estimates due to weak spending by businesses and the U.S. government, sending its shares down 9 percent.
Federal spending has slowed due to automatic cost cuts that came into effect in March after Congress failed to find an alternative plan to reduce expenses, while enterprises have tightened purse strings amid political and economic uncertainty.
Riverbed gets a little more than 10 percent of its revenue from the government.
The weak government spending and soft economy also led rivals Juniper Networks Inc and F5 Networks Inc to give disappointing revenue outlooks for the current quarter.
Riverbed, a market leader in the wide area network (WAN) business with its flagship Steelhead products that can boost data flow speeds by up to 100 times, had been relatively insulated from spending cuts until now.
The company bought Opnet, which makes software to manage traffic on networks, last year to counter the impact of the slowdown in its business. Riverbed's annual revenue growth has fallen to 15 percent from 40 percent over the last three years.
The company's total operating costs more than doubled to $187.9 million in the first quarter ended March 31. Acquisition-related costs were $4.1 million, compared with $556,000 a year earlier.
Net loss was $8.1 million, or 5 cents per share, compared with a profit of $6.9 million, or 4 cents per share.
Excluding items, the company earned 23 cents per share.
Revenue rose 35 percent to $246 million.
Analysts on average had expected adjusted earnings of 24 cents per share on revenue of $261.2 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Riverbed shares, which have fallen about 26 percent in the last three months, were at $13.45 in extended trading. They closed at $14.85 on the Nasdaq on Monday.
(Reporting by Chandni Doulatramani and Sayantani Ghosh in Bangalore; Editing by Maju Samuel)
SAVAR, Bangladesh (AP) -- The fugitive owner of an illegally constructed building that collapsed and killed at least 377 people was captured Sunday by a commando force as he tried to flee into India. At the disaster site, meanwhile, fire broke out in the wreckage and forced authorities to suspend the search for survivors temporarily.
Mohammed Sohel Rana was arrested in the western Bangladesh border town of Benapole, said Jahangir Kabir Nanak, junior minister for local government. Rana was brought back by helicopter to the capital of Dhaka where he faced charges of negligence.
Rana's capture was announced by loudspeaker at the disaster site, drawing cheers and applause from those awaiting the outcome of a continuing search-and-rescue operation for survivors of Wednesday's collapse.
Many of those killed were workers at clothing factories in the building, known as the Rana Plaza, and the collapse was the deadliest disaster to hit the garment industry in Bangladesh that is worth $20 billion annually and is a mainstay of the economy.
The fire that broke out late Sunday night sent smoke pouring from the piles of shattered concrete and halted some of the rescue efforts ? including a bid to free a woman who was found trapped in the rubble.
The blaze was caused by sparks as rescuers tried to cut through a steel rod to reach the woman, said a volunteer, Syed Al-Amin Roman. At least three rescuers were injured in the fire, he said. It forced them to retreat while firefighters frantically hosed down the flames.
Officials believe the fire is likely to have killed the trapped woman, said army spokesman Shahinul Islam. Rescue workers had delayed the use of heavy equipment for several hours in the hope that she could be extricated from the rubble first. But with the woman presumed dead, they began using heavy equipment around midnight.
An exhausted and disheveled Rana was brought before reporters briefly at the Dhaka headquarters of the commando team, the Rapid Action Battalion.
Wearing a printed shirt, Rana was sweating as two security officers held him by his arms. A security official helped him to drink water after he gestured he was thirsty. He did not speak during the 10-minute appearance, and he is likely to be handed over to police, who will have to charge him and produce him in court within 24 hours.
A small-time politician from the ruling Awami League party, Rana had been on the run since the building collapsed Wednesday. He last appeared in public Tuesday in front of the Rana Plaza after huge cracks appeared in the building. Witnesses said he assured tenants, including five garment factories, that the building was safe.
A bank and some shops on the first floor closed Wednesday after police ordered an evacuation, but managers of the garment factories on the upper floor told workers to continue their shifts.
Hours later, the Rana Plaza was reduced to rubble, crushing most victims under massive blocks of concrete.
Rana's arrest was ordered by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is also the Awami League leader.
On Saturday, police arrested three owners of two factories. Also detained were Rana's wife and two government engineers who were involved in giving approval for the building design. Local TV stations reported that the Bangladesh High Court has frozen the bank accounts of the owners of all five garment factories in the Rana Plaza.
Three floors of the eight-story building apparently were built illegally.
A garment manufacturers' group said the factories in the building employed 3,122 workers, but it was not clear how many were inside when it fell. About 2,500 survivors have been accounted for.
Army Maj. Gen. Chowdhury Hasan Suhrawardy, the coordinator of the rescue operations, said the next phase of the search involved the heavy equipment such as hydraulic cranes that were brought to the disaster site Sunday. Searchers had been manually shifting concrete blocks with the help of light equipment such as pickaxes and shovels, he said.
The work will be carried out carefully so as not to mutilate bodies, he said. "We have engaged many private sector companies which supplied us equipment, even some heavy ones," Suhrawardy said.
In a rare bit of good news, a female worker was pulled out alive Sunday. Rescuer Hasan Akbari said when he tried to extricate a man next to the woman, "he said his body was being torn apart. So I had to let go. But God willing, we will be able to rescue him with more help very soon."
The collapse and previous disasters in garment factories have focused attention on the poor working conditions of workers who toil for as little as $38 a month to produce clothing for top international brands.
The death toll surpassed a fire five months ago that killed 112 people and brought widespread pledges to improve worker-safety standards. But since then, very little has changed in Bangladesh.
Its garment industry was the third-largest in the world in 2011, after China and Italy, having grown rapidly in the past decade.
Among the garment makers in the building were Phantom Apparels, Phantom Tac, Ether Tex, New Wave Style and New Wave Bottoms. Altogether, they produced several million shirts, pants and other garments a year.
The New Wave companies, according to their website, make clothing for several major North American and European retailers.
Britain's Primark acknowledged it was using a factory in Rana Plaza, but many other retailers distanced themselves from the disaster, saying they were not involved with the factories at the time of the collapse or had not recently ordered garments from them.
Wal-Mart said none of its clothing had been authorized to be made in the facility, but it is investigating whether there was any unauthorized production.
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AP writers Farid Hossain and Gillian Wong in Dhaka contributed to this report.
Mika Brzezinski attends the opening of the Milly Madison Avenue boutique in May 2011.
Photo by Thomas Concordia/Getty Images
The female newscaster of today does sexy in a very specific way. It is sleeveless sexy, an age-defying, loose-skin-defying means of telling the world that she worked out this morning and every morning, long before she went to hair and makeup and started broadcasting the nation?s news, long before viewers even considered waking up.
The sleeveless sheath dress, now ubiquitous on cable and local news, and especially beloved by morning news programs, is as much a uniform for TV newswomen as androgyny was in the mid-?90s, when boxy blazers and short hair reigned. Only seven years ago, when Katie Couric took over the CBS Evening News, critics worried whether she might be scandalizing the nation by showing too much leg. Now, legs are the least of it. They?ve been joined by bare arms and dresses so form-fitting that Couric has said many of her colleagues look like they?re going ?clubbing.? The seriousness of the news (OK, seriousness sometimes) has been completely decoupled from the seriousness of the attire of the women presenting it. Only in this precise sartorial moment could Melissa Harris-Perry, the eggheady Tulane professor who has her own show on MSNBC, tackle the angsty politics of black hair in a fitted, halter-neck dress suited to a night out in the meatpacking district.
The sleeveless look is especially jarring this time of year. On Fox News, which has long pushed the sex appeal of its female talent further than other networks, it is typical to see a suited man next to a woman outfitted for lunch on some sunny Roman piazza, as if the colleagues are dressed not only for widely disparate occasions but for different climates as well. On Today, Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb are typically sleeveless, sitting before windows that showcase people bundled up against the Manhattan cold. They also love to get loaded, on-air, well before the lunch hour. They are TV women, after all, observing rules neither of time nor of space.
There?s a reason why the women of TV news have embraced sleevelessness while treading carefully in matters like cleavage (sexy weather reporters aside). Bare arms read as a kind of smart-sexy, a look that women in positions of authority can pull off. Michelle Obama is responsible for this, as are socialites of the Manhattan cocktail circuit, for whom bare arms long ago became a currency of wealth and fitness. MSNBC?s Mika Brzezinski and Chris Jansing are fans of the look, as is CBS?s Gayle King, and CNN?s Brooke Baldwin. Fit arms are about control, a state of poised strength you work at?so much so that supermarket magazines have accused Madonna and Angelina Jolie of pushing their exercise regimes too far, featuring their ropy, veiny biceps right next to close-ups of some other unfortunate?s cellulite. But if cellulite and cleavage can read as sloppy, toned arms are the very opposite; they?re all about intention and control. Which is why newswomen get to show them off. They are appropriate for early risers and Ivy League overachievers?the sexiness of success rather than vulnerability.
And yet. It?s telling that we now expect sexy at all from our TV newswomen. We haven?t always. Beauty, sure. When Diane Sawyer appeared in the ?80s in an off-the-shoulder evening dress on the cover of Vanity Fair, the decision caused such a stir that she was moved to remind a reporter that ?there were no tassels involved.? But if you look back at images of newswomen from the ?80s and ?90s, they were notable for what they didn?t show. When MSNBC launched in 1996, Couric covered everything but her face, wearing a turtleneck under her beige blazer for the virgin broadcast. And women who?ve been on the air for decades tend not to go bare, either because they think it inappropriate to do so at their age or because they were schooled at a time when TV reporters didn?t do such things. In either case, clothing confers dignity. You can?t imagine Christiane Amanpour leveraging her erotic capital on the air.
It does, after all, matter when female voices of authority disrobe. Baring one?s skin, whether it?s d?colletage or arms, remains an indicator of seriousness?are you going to look at me, or are you going to listen to what I?m saying? Because, as the Washington Post pointed out last year in a story about the blazer disappearing from newswomen?s wardrobes, male viewers appear unable to do both. A 2010 study found that the sexier the female anchor, the less men retain of what she says. They literally see instead of hear her. Rachel Maddow has said this is why she maintains a ?conveyor belt of gray blazers,? in order to look the same for every broadcast.
?Don?t focus on what I?m wearing,? Maddow says. ?Focus on what?s coming out of my face.?
The more you think about sleevelessness, the more it reads as a fault line in a stressed and fragmented news industry. TV reporters have always straddled the line between news and entertainment?the path from model or actress or pageant queen (Sawyer was one) to TV reporter is a well-trodden one. But for shows desperate not to lose eyeballs, skin becomes a competitive edge. Thus, the form-fitting sleeveless sheath has become a kind of uniform of Fox News women, favored by Megyn Kelly, Gretchen Carlson, Martha MacCallum, Michelle Malkin, and others. And thus, when Kelly, a high-profile Fox News anchor, was asked by GQ in 2010 what she thought of the network?s shots of her behind a glass table, showing off her legs, Kelly replied casually, ?Well, it?s a visual business. People want to see the anchor.? Her logic seemed to echo the wisdom of chairman Roger Ailes, who, as Liza Mundy has written, presides over a network that pushes a heavily made-up look sometimes dubbed ?Fox glam.? Quoting journalist Gabriel Sherman, Mundy suggested that Ailes, a one-time Broadway producer, is especially attuned to the entertainment aspect of television news. ?The colors are brighter, the camera angles faster,? Sherman told her. ?Everything pops on the screen more, every?thing is eye candy.?
I should mention that, for that same GQ story, Kelly posed wearing only a black slip and 4-inch red Louboutins, her bosom erupting from her bra. (Headline: ?She Reports, We Decided She?s Hot.?) No tassels involved, but just barely.
Sleevelessness has become so commonplace, you barely notice it anymore. It?s been adopted even by newswomen who are acutely aware of the symbolism of their clothing, as well as the collapsing distinction between news and entertainment. As co-host of MSNBC?s Morning Joe, Brzezinski has on several occasions struck a blow against the trivialization of the news, most famously refusing to read a news item about Paris Hilton by shredding the script on air. She?s also told the Post how, during her first years on Morning Joe, network execs dressed her in clothing that was ?short, skimpy, tight,? and she had to rebel and find her own look. It is clean, chic, and often sleeveless, generally more country club than nightclub.
Still, just a few months ago, Brzezinski posed for a Vanity Fair image that threw her self-awareness into doubt. In the photo, naughtily reminiscent of Michelle Pfeiffer?s piano-crawling scene from The Fabulous Baker Boys, the journalist wears a black sheath dress and poses provocatively on top of a table with one bare leg extended in the air. She gazes adoringly at Scarborough, who sits in a chair, fully suited, grinning at the camera. The message of her arms, not to mention those legs, is this: First and foremost, I am here to entertain you. Would you like me to sing or to dance?
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) ? A man jumped over several pews at an Albuquerque Catholic church and stabbed several members in the choir area just as Mass was ending Sunday, Albuquerque police said.
According to authorities, Lawrence Capener, 24, walked up to the choir area at St. Jude Thaddeus Catholic Church and stabbed church-goers just as the choir began singing its final hymn. The man continued his attack until other raced to subdue the man until police arrived, police said.
Four church-goers were injured in the attacked and their injuries weren't life-threatening, Albuquerque police spokesman Robert Gibbs aid. Among those stabbed were the church choir director Adam Alvarez, flutist Gerald Madrid and two other parishioners before he was tackled by several other churchgoers, Gibbs said.
All four were being treated at hospitals and listed in stable condition, police said late Sunday.
Three church members also were evaluated by Albuquerque Fire Department on scene and didn't go to the hospital, investigators said.
It was not immediately known what sparked the bizarre attack at the church on the city's Westside. Investigators don't yet know whether Capener had ties to the victims or whether he regularly attended the church, Gibbs said.
After attacking several church members, including an off-duty firefighter and others at the church, held Capener and held him down until police arrived.
Madrid told KOB-TV that he tried to stop Capener by placing him in a bear hug but was stabbed in the neck and back.
Police described the stabbing scene as chaotic as parishioners screamed as the attack unfolded.
The choir's pianist, Brenda Baca King, told KRQE-TV that the attacker was looking at the lead soloist. "I just remember seeing him hurdle over the pews, hurdle over people and run (toward) us and I thought, 'Oh my God, this is not good,'" Baca King said.
Capener was interviewed by police and was expected to face felony charges, Gibbs said.
It's not yet known whether Capener has an attorney.
Archbishop of Santa Fe Michael Sheehan released a statement Sunday afternoon saying he was saddened by the attack.
"This is the first time in my 30 years serving as archbishop in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and as Bishop of Lubbock, that anything like this has occurred," Sheehan said. "I pray for all who have been harmed, their families, the parishioners and that nothing like this will ever happen again," Sheehan said.
The church didn't immediately return calls seeking comment on Sunday afternoon.
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Follow Russell Contreras on Twitter at http://twitter.com/russcontreras
There are so many various elements to internet marketing, from notifications to rotating banner advertisements to display adverts that dominate your screen to social media. Here are a few tips that we?ve collected, on many different online marketing subject areas, which will help you broaden your strategies, but remain focused on your targets.
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visit book of ra deluxe or just jewels or gry hazardowe
All Critics (107) | Top Critics (28) | Fresh (101) | Rotten (7) | DVD (1)
There's enough real evidence supporting the theory that Kubrick was a genius, and that's pretty entertaining all by itself.
It's about the human need for stuff to make sense - especially overpowering emotional experiences - and the tendency for some people to take that sense-making to extremes.
The results can range from enlightening - Kubrick did like to mess with things - to embarrassing. But it's never dull. "Room 237" shines.
You don't have to buy any of the nutty theories in Room 237 to appreciate what director Rodney Ascher has accomplished.
It's nuts, in the best possible way.
Their imaginings are not far removed from the deconstuctionist gobbledygook that has hammerlocked academic film and literary scholarship. But here at least the gobbledygook is entertaining.
You know when "Room 237? starts getting really scary? When the people in the film start making sense.
Kubrick fans and movie geeks will want to check this film out as soon as possible
Kubrick fans will take 'Shining' to 'Room 237.'
The credibility of these theories ranges from faintly plausible to frankly ridiculous, but Ascher isn't interested in judging them; his movie is more about the joys of deconstruction and the special kind of obsession that movies can inspire.
Some of the interpretations seem more of a stretch than others but all are entertainingly presented by director Rodney Ascher. (The movie) serves as a testament to Stanley Kubrick's cinematic mastery.
As fascinating as it is frustrating
It is nice to see a doc that makes you smile instead of making you angry. Anyone who is a fan of Stanley Kubrick will eat this up.
Powered by a deep and abiding affection for both The Shining and Kubrick in general, Room 237 is an amuse-bouche of remix culture.
Room 237 is an extended riff of the "Paul is dead" variety. But, you know what? Sometimes a guy moving a table in the background is just a guy moving a table in the background.
A diverting excursion for lovers of Kubrick's films...even if, at over a hundred minutes, it does go on a bit long.
A fascinating doc that will get both film geeks and conspiracy theorists alike drooling, it all but guarantees you'll never watch The Shining quite the same way again.
Confounding, eye-opening, and often hilarious.
I suspect that Ascher's intention was to dynamize an academic exercise, but these constant, sundry inserts render the tone as corny and glib as a VH1 special.
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The first of Nintendo's planned Wii Ufirmware updates went live just yesterday, bringing a much needed speed boost to software load times. And in that short time since, Nintendo's also made its retro-gaming Virtual Console portal available to users, effectively bypassing the need to boot into the Wii emulator for access. The downside to this new, belated convenience is that users will have to re-download any previously purchased Virtual Console titles, though that additional cost is relatively low at $1.00- $1.50 for NES and SNES games, respectively. Unfortunately, you'll still have to wait a bit longer for those beloved Game Boy Advance and N64 classics to make their way to the VC, as Nintendo plans to include those games sometime "in the future." Still, with band-aid number one out of the way for the ailing console and a host of tried-and-true classics now easily accessible, Wii U owners have a little something to tide them over until that late summer Pikmin 3 launch.
Author: Martie McCabe | Total views: 87 Comments: 0 Word Count: 1167 Date:
Online marketing is essential for any business owner in this day and age. There are a ton of ways in which you can target new customers and drum up business. You can do a lot of these things without spending any money at all. The information here can introduce you to Website marketing, and help you build up your online business to achieve higher profits than you ever expected.
When making your website, try to make it visibly appealing with as much interesting content as possible. You need to give your customers the information they need so that they can make informed decisions about their purchases. Repeat information, fluff and unreliable information should be avoided.
To increase the quality of your internet promotion, start blogging. A blog gives you another way to communicate with your customer base. As you increase the breadth of your site, you will cause more visitors to show up.
It can be a bit overwhelming when you try and decide exactly what type of business you want to create. To start off, you need to narrow down all of your interests until you find the one you enjoy the most. Pick something that you like and know much about. Creating a tangible goal will make it much easier to market your website.
The internet is an effective free resource to help evaluate your market approach since you may not be able to afford a marketing consultant for best business blogs. Consider joining up with an online forum, groups in your hometown, or borrowing books from your local library.
One fun marketing campaign is to have a contest on your website that offers great prizes. For instance, make your site like a scavenger hunt with hidden words scattered around the page. Ask visitors to find them. Offer prizes and discounts for those that find them. When customers are involved in the site, they are more likely to feel comfortable making a purchase from you.
Don't overlook the little details. Place your site's title in the top corner of each page. Also, place a description of your site here. Visitors may get to different pages, depending on their search. If they do not know exactly what your page has to offer, they may simply leave.
The language you use on your site should be rich, creative and descriptive, especially for a niche marketing blog. People like adjectives so make sure that you use plenty of them in any item descriptions. Come up with creative turns-of-phrase, and find ways to amaze people with your writing. Engender a desire to come back to your website, just to see what you might say next.
If you are good at writing, write an article about your business and submit it to magazines that accept submissions. Make sure these articles are signed with your full name and contain information about your business. If you get published in an online magazine, include a link to your site. Ask the editors if they would accept some free products or commission on affiliate work if they will put your articles on their site.
Create a well-designed and interesting website. What your website looks like, as well as the content it contains, will have a huge bearing on your degree of success. Interesting articles and a user friendly design will go a long way in keeping visitors on your site. The design should be engaging enough to grab your audience's attention, making them want to keep looking around.
If you want your site to be successful, it should contain rich, entertaining text. You want the information on your website to appear at the front of search engines, but you also want it to be original enough that you will bring in visitors.
To get a better idea of what is most effective with your customers, test your emails. A/B testings is a great option. Develop your email campaign, then focus on changing only one thing. Choose something to compare. For example, you may want to test a couple of different subject lines or intro paragraphs in your marketing copy. You would then send both types of emails out to two different equal-sized subsets of customers, measuring the results. Whichever methods test as the most successful can become the singular method or format you keep to finish out the campaign.
Put yourself in your customers' shoes. Is your site easy to navigate through? Does it offer enjoyment to the reader? Can orders be placed on your website quickly and easily? You don't want to bring in business only to lose it because of a poorly designed website.
Your URL should be memorable, so that people come back. You will want to incorporate your brand name or your business's name into your site address, if you can. Use an URL that will be easy to remember for your customers. They will be more likely to visit your website if they can remember it.
Try to get inside the brain of your customers when creating your website. If you can provide them with the information or products they are searching for, then sooner or later your marketing efforts will have paid off and result in many sales. Ask visitors for their direct input and objective analysis of your site. Ask friends or family, or even ask for comments from those in a marketing forum. Research well and develop a site that will give people the help they need.
When advertising a deal or product include words that make them feel like they are getting a deal. People shop online because they are tired of what their local stores have to offer. Online consumers seek unique products different from what they are used to seeing. By offering a product that is limited in quantity, it will cause customers to snap them up quickly, so that they don't lose out on something that is different or unusual.
People often do not believe everything they read in ads. For years, advertising has been misleading. This makes it very important to support every claim you make on your site as fully as possible. You can use reviews, before-and-after pictures, test reports, and testimonials. Don't claim that your product or service does something you're not able to prove. Your customers should be treated like they're smart and are informed. You should not take advantage of any person -- ever. Build a trustworthy reputation, and customers will flock to your business.
As has been revealed earlier, web marketing is an amazing way to reach out to customers and to bring attention to your business and products. The opportunities are endless and the benefits are immense. By utilizing the information in the article, you can build your customer base and bring new recognition to your company.
Martie McCabe is an internet marketer.. My articles focuses on developing strategies and tips on promoting your blog. Learn more about promoting your blog and blog names. For more articles go to my blog at http://www.empowernetwork.com/10k/best-business-blogs/
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1: Article Marketing Strategy: Putting Together a "Class Schedule" For Your Article Topics
Businesses go to so much trouble when there is one sure-fire, simple, very inexpensive way to attract new clients to a business: Teach a free class. That is what article marketing is like. Your articles are just like free classes. You teach your target readers something helpful in your article. Your resource box then says, "If you enjoyed this article you can visit my website and apply what you have learned."
2: Why You Need To Build Multiple Streams of Income For Yourself
Being an entrepreneur and earning multiple streams of income is a dream that many have, but in reality it does take some initial hard work to achieve this. Earning multiple streams of income is the wave of the future, and here are some tips and advice for you when you are looking for ways in which to do this for yourself.
3: Understanding Online Business Success
Starting a home based business to earn income online takes a significant amount of time and energy upfront to get things going. Not seeing results immediately can be discouraging and cause people to give up too early. In this article, we look at the process of starting a home based business and working through the frustrations to be there when the sales come flowing in.
4: What is Cyber Marketing And Why It Is So Important For The Success Of Your Website
Cyber marketing has now become an indispensable segment of e-commerce as well as the internet and World Wide Web related topics. Cyber marketing simply refers to a technique of attracting potential customers by advertising your products or services through such means as websites, emails, and banners.
5: The Best Way To Optimise Your Website SEO For Google Panda
If you want your SEO to work you now need to concentrate on appeasing Google Panda, and to do this you need to know what Google Panda's spiders/bots will be looking for. Find out here how to search engine optimise your website for the latest Google Panda algorithm, and achieve the success you deserve.
Cli-fi, or 'climate fiction,' describes a dystopian present, as opposed to a dystopian future. And don't call it 'science fiction.' Cli-fi is literary fiction.
By Husna Haq,?Correspondent / April 26, 2013
'Odds Against Tomorrow,' a novel by Nathaniel Rich, is an example of the emerging 'cli-fi' genre.
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Climate change has been cited as the cause behind a raft of recent phenomena, from increasing turbulence on planes to rising rates of malaria, dengue, and even domestic abuse.
And now it?s hit the publishing world.
The next hot trend in books, it turns out isn?t Fifty Shades-esque erotica ? it?s climate change.
That?s according to a fascinating report by NPR, ?Has Climate Change Created a New Literary Genre??
?Over the past decade, more and more writers have begun to set their novels and short stories in worlds, not unlike our own, where the Earth's systems are noticeably off-kilter,? reports Angela Evancie for NPR. ?The genre has come to be called climate fiction ? 'cli-fi,' for short.?
Among the titles in this emerging literary genre is ?Odds Against Tomorrow,? by Nathaniel Rich, a novel about a futurist who calculates worst-case scenarios for corporations, including the very scenario that landed on the book?s cover: the Manhattan skyline, half-submerged in water. (We should note, the book, and cover, were created before Hurricane Sandy.)?
Other books include Michael Crichton?s 2004 novel, ?State of Fear,? about ecoterrorists; Ian McEwan?s ?Solar,? about impending environmental disaster; and Barbara Kingsolver?s ?Flight Behavior,? about a world turned upside down by climate change.
There are two key points to emphasize in this trend. Cli-fi describes a dystopian present, as opposed to a dystopian future, and it isn?t non-fiction or even science fiction: cli-fi is about literary fiction.
As interesting as this new development is, we shouldn?t be too surprised. After all, whether it?s the Industrial Revolution, the Cold War, or the tech bubble, cultural and environmental milestones have historically shaped the world we ? and by extension, the characters we read about ? live in.?
In this case, literature might actually prove to be a surprise secret weapon of sorts, helping scientists convey the issue to disinterested ? or dubious ? audiences.
That?s because ?when novelists tackle climate change in their writing, they reach people in a way that scientists can't,? says NPR.
"You know, scientists and other people are trying to get their message across about various aspects of the climate change issue," Judith Curry, professor and chair of Georgia Institute of Technology's School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, tells NPR. "And it seems like fiction is an untapped way of doing this ? a way of smuggling some serious topics into the consciousness" of readers who may not be following the science.
We?re fascinated by this emerging genre and if one cli-fi writer is on the mark, we?ll be seeing a lot more of it in coming years.
Predicted Daniel Kramb, the cli-fi novelist behind ?From Here,? the 2012 novel about climate change activists, ?I think when [people] look back at this 21st century ... they will definitely see climate change as one of the major themes in literature, if not the major theme.?
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) ? Country singer Billy Currington has been indicted on felony charges in Georgia after a 70-year-old tour boat captain says he was chased by the "People Are Crazy" singer from a waterfront home to a dock where Currington threatened him while shouting profanities.
Authorities said a judge was issuing a warrant for Currington's arrest. A Chatham County grand jury indicted the 39-year-old singer Wednesday on charges of making terroristic threats and abuse of an elderly person. Under Georgia law, each charge is a felony punishable by one to five years in prison.
The singer took to his Twitter account Wednesday thanking fans for their support but sent a message saying he couldn't comment on the matter since it is an ongoing investigation. Lori Christian, a spokeswoman for Universal Music Group, declined to comment Thursday. Universal owns Currington's record label. It was not known if Currington had hired an attorney.
Charles Harvey Ferrelle, who conducts boat tours from Tybee Island east of Savannah, told police he was cruising past Currington's home on Tybee Creek, just west of the island, on April 15 when his two passengers told Ferrelle someone on the property was screaming at them. Ferrelle told police he was floating with the current far from the docks, but throttled up and moved away when he saw the angry man, whom he later identified as Currington.
A police report says Ferrelle told officers that when he passed back by the house on his return trip later in the day, Currington got in his own boat with a camera and chased Ferrelle to where he docks his tour boat. Currington was cursing and threatening to "(expletive) Mr. Ferrelle up," the police report said.
"If I hadn't gotten into my slip fast enough, I believe he would have run me over," Ferrelle told police, according to the incident report.
A woman saying she was the caretaker of an elderly man sharing the same address as Currington also called police to complain a passing boat nearly knocked the man off the home's dock and into the water. The police report said the woman was talking about the events that led to Currington chasing after the tour boat.
"Well what is it we can do to keep people from coming up on our docks or swamping our docks?" said the woman, identified in the police report as Julie Muscleman.
Ferrelle called police again the next day saying he feared for his life because he had another tour scheduled and would have to pass by Currington's property again after being threatened. The incident report said police agreed to have a patrol boat nearby when Ferrelle passed the home.
The tour boat captain told police he had no idea why Currington was so angry. Ferrelle did not return phone messages left Wednesday and Thursday by The Associated Press.
Currington is a native of the Georgia coast. His hits include "Pretty Good At Drinkin' Beer," ''That's How Country Boys Roll" and "People Are Crazy."
On April 17, the singer sent a message to his over 200,900 followers saying "Harrassing (sic) artists often at their home by boat should be illegal. thas all i know."
The address given for Currington in the police report is for a four-bedroom, six-bathroom house on Tybee Creek, which flows past the island's southern tip and joins the Atlantic Ocean. Chatham County property records show a Nashville accounting firm bought the home in April 2011 for $3.5 million.
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Associated Press Writer Phillip Lucas in Atlanta contributed to this report.
Students Judith Lung, Alec Sundly and Erik Elvebak take their positions on the hardwood court as the referee shouts, ?Eyeshades down! Quiet, please! Center! Play!?
A shrill whistle pierces the air and the three teammates ? a blind undergrad who ?never did exercise? as a kid, a 6-foot?varsity soccer player and a 43-year-old who lost most of his vision while playing ice hockey ? begin an intense match.
The sport is goalball. Every Friday for the past semester, a dozen or so people have come to the Recreational Sports Facility to learn and practice the game.
A team sport similar to soccer and originally created for blind war veterans, its ball is equipped with bells, while blindfolds level the playing field for sighted and sight-impaired players.? Without vision to rely on, players must tap into other senses to locate the ball and position themselves in space.
?The sighted have to come into the blind world,? says disability health and fitness analyst Matt Grigorieff, a 2011 Berkeley grad and the driving force behind a new campus program called Fitness for All, of which the goalball class is one part.
There, blind players get a rare opportunity to learn a demanding sport and enhance their health, both physical and mental ? the latter being one of the biggest benefits of exercise, in Grigorieff?s view. ?The brain can recall facts faster if you?re working out. The data is overwhelming,? he says.
Grigorieff has long been keenly interested in health and fitness for people with disabilities, having a chronic hip condition himself. In community college he helped build an inclusive fitness program, to give students and community members with disabilities an affordable means to stay active.
Golf Fore Veterans
Spring semester saw the launch of Golf Fore Veterans, a program for student veterans with disabilities. Undergrad Jessica Adams joined with a number of campus and community partners ? among them Fitness for All, the National Alliance for Accessible Golf,? the U.S. Golf Association and Cal Athletics? women?s golf team ? to create the class, held weekly on the Tilden Golf Course.
In that peaceful environment, 18 young veterans are learning the game, along with stress-reduction techniques. The goal is to help them better cope with disabilities stemming from military service, both the physical variety one can often see and hidden disabilities like post-traumatic stress.
After transferring to Berkeley in 2009, he was surprised to discover that many students with disabilities were seeing their health decline, because they didn?t have access to fitness resources that met their special needs. Eventually, after writing a number of research papers on disability and fitness, he won a Haas Scholars grant, which allowed him to survey fitness offerings on campuses across California.
Today, in his newly created staff position, Grigorieff is using all he?s learned, in and out of class, to work for change at Berkeley. He dreams big ? of everything from new disability-studies courses to universal-access fitness equipment in the Recreational Sports Facility (a dozen such machines were recently installed) and trained professionals to help people with disabilities exercise safely. At RSF, he?d also like to see a small cadre of students with disabilities get jobs (to influence the culture), as well as awareness training for everyone on staff.
The list of campus entities he?s working with is long:?It includes, among others, the RSF, the Disabled Students Program and the Division of Equity and Inclusion.??
?We want to be the leader in the UC system, to really build these types of programs? at Berkeley, he says.
Goalball instruction at RSF?s? ?blue gym? is an optional supplement to Derek Van Rheenen?s academic course ?Education, Sports and Culture,? which looks at sport as a cultural practice that influences how we think about the world. The two-unit goalball class was developed in collaboration with the campus?s American Cultures Engaged Scholarship program and the Bay Area Outreach and Recreation Program, which provides coaching and referees.
Matt Grigorieff, disability health and fitness advocate
Van Rheenen, who directs the campus?s Athletic Study Center, has taught the course for 15 years, but this is the first time he?s included ?the continuum and distinctions around ability and disability within physical education and sports,? he says. Examining ?body privilege? has been both educational and deeply rewarding, he says. ?I don?t think I could ever go back. It?s been a void in my syllabus up to now.?
This semester, for example, his students discussed ?the very intentional and controversial classification system around disability? used in the Paralympic Games. Later in the week, many of them regrouped in the blue gym for coaching, hard play and informal discussion of how theories covered in class relate to their experience playing goalball and navigating the world.
For the sighted, especially, learnings have been impressive. Intercollegiate football, soccer and water polo players, for instance, described a new appreciation for their own position as sighted and exceptionally able-bodied people, as well as the skills needed to navigate without vision. Communication with teammates is ?huge? in goalball, Sundly noted one Friday as the group debriefed between games. ?I?m starting to bring what I?m learning here onto the soccer field,? he said.
The speed with which friendships developed, through goalball, came as a surprise, even to Grigorieff. ?It?s great to see people with different physical abilities and disabilities all getting lunch ? lowering those assumptions and barriers that often surround people with disabilities,? he said. ?With goalball, you?re all equals.?
Related information: ?? With a foothold a Berkeley, ?engaged scholarship? goes where it?s needed (NewsCenter, 2012)
As you may recall, Bretton Woods was the name of the conference, taken from its location, that set up the post World War II international currency arrangement with the US dollar as the reserve currency of the world. It was based on a dollar convertible in gold.
When Nixon arbitrarily shut the 'gold window' in 1971 the world entered a reserve currency system of purely fiat dollars, often called Bretton Woods II.
There are a number of theories that suggest that such a system is not sustainable, for many of the same reasons that the euro is not sustainable.?
And as some have remarked, the control of a currency by a small group of men operating in private is an exorbitant privilege.
But putting that aside, the BRICs in particular are not happy with the existing arrangement which has been slowly falling apart for some time as the Federal Reserve imposes its domestic needs and policy on what is intended to be the rest of the world's currency. It finds itself in much the same position as is Germany in the EU.
I have addressed this many times before, suggesting that the eventual outcome may be a reconstituted SDR-like instrument based upon?a broader basket of currencies and the inclusion of gold and perhaps silver as well.
The Anglo-American banking cartel are fighting this at every turn, because as we know to control the world's currency brings remarkable power. I suspect quite of bit of the hysterical antagonism against gold and silver is tied up in this.? And an ardent desire to 'cover up' some of their past shenanigans.? Germany should put pictures of its gold on milk cartons.
It is possible that they will thwart the objectives of this effort and most likely this conference. And what will happen then is a continuing fragmentation of the world into regional trading zones and spheres of influence.
This may be used as a reason to?propose a one world government, that will be similar in composition to the European Union and controlled by a few elite?politicians and their bureaucrats.?
We are eyewitness to one of the great events of economic history, and if anything it is remarkable how few economists and politicians understand what is happening. They are firmly embedded in their?theory, and too often are willfully blind.?
Let us free markets from regulation, the Banks from restraint of law, and the money creation process from the bindings of oversight and transparency, and we will reach new pinnacles of prosperity.
I find that a well educated layman with a grounding in history and the practical side of finance and business has a better understanding of what is going on than the great bulk of theoreticians whose models are heading quickly towards the dustbin. I just read a strikingly good letter from my friend Hugo Salinas-Price, that proposes a?basic model for regulating international trade.
And I told him it would get nowhere, even though it was probably directionally correct, and about as good a start as many I have seen. The status quo and their hounds would rise up against it, because they are not ready to accept change.
They will produce many weighty and learned papers that 'prove' that it is wrong. And they will twist and torture the data to serve their ends no matter what the data may actually say.??The Rogoff-Reinhart?scandal is not an?outlier in what is a generally?disgraced profession.? But these are signs of?the times, where there is little downside and enormous profits for deceit in?the obsessive pursuit of money and power, at least for the exorbitantly privileged.
Money is power, and those?who love?power above all seek to control any and all changes to its structure, for their own ends.
Global Finance in Transition conference to take place in Istanbul
On May 7-8, 2013, Istanbul (Turkey) will host the Global Finance in Transition conference. The event is organized by the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey jointly with the Reinventing Bretton Woods Committee and the Russian Ministry of Finance.
Representatives of G20 finance ministries and central banks, international organizations, research institutions and businesses will take part in the conference. Head of Turkey's Central Bank Erdem Basci, Deputy Minister of Finance of Russia Sergei Storchak and Executive Director for the Reinventing Bretton Woods Committee Marc Uzan will give the opening remarks at the conference.
Five panel discussions are planned as part of the event. They will cover the international financial architecture, in particular, changes in the flow of global investments, local bond markets and growth in emerging economies, incentives and determinants of investment and other issues.
In addition it is expected that new instruments and incentives for making the global financial system safer will be suggested during the forum.
You may visit the conference web site by clicking here.
Related:
Currency Wars Part II Currency Wars Russia Stockpiling Gold Likely For a New Trading Currency Devaluing the Dollar, Against What? What Will the World Reserve Currency Become?
This is the lesser known entry in the private contest that spurred Shelley to write his famous Ozymandias.
"In Egypt's sandy silence, all alone, Stands a gigantic Leg, which far off throws The only shadow that the Desert knows: I am great Ozymandias, saith the stone, The King of Kings; this mighty City shows The wonders of my hand. ? The City's gone, Nought but the Leg remaining to disclose The site of this forgotten Babylon.
We wonder, and some hunter may express Wonder like ours, when through the wilderness Where London stood, holding the wolf in chase, He meets some fragment huge, and stops to guess What powerful but unrecorded race, Once dwelt in that annihilated place."
One of the more unique features of Google's web browser for Chromebooks has been the ability to open and view Microsoft Office files directly in the browser (as opposed to pushing them to Drive), but that's so far remained confined to those devices. Google's decided to change that today, though, releasing a new extension for Chrome Beta that allows the same functionality in the browser for Windows and Mac. There's no indication yet as to when it will make it to the stable release of Chrome, but beta users can install the extension now at the source link below.
BRUSSELS (AP) ? Eight years after winning Europe's top human rights prize, members of a Cuban opposition group on Tuesday finally picked it up after securing permission to travel abroad.
Cuba's Ladies in White won the European Union's Sakharov Prize in 2005 for their fight for democracy and human rights, but they weren't granted permission to leave the country at that time.
"No dictatorship in the world will be able to stop democracy in the long run," European Parliament President Martin Schulz said at the award ceremony in Brussels. "No people can be oppressed forever."
Berta Soler, a co-founder of the group and one of several members at Tuesday's ceremony, said the work in their country was far from over.
"We need a Cuba where there is proper freedom and human rights," she said, urging "real reforms, not just cosmetic change."
The Ladies in White formed in 2003 to demand freedom for their loved ones, 75 government opponents who had been jailed that spring in a crackdown on dissidents.
Wives and mothers of those jailed began marching each Sunday in Havana, dressed in white and holding aloft white gladiolas. In a Communist country that brooks little dissent, the weekly marches became a unique act of defiance.
Cuba responded by ignoring the protests or sending pro-government crowds to shout the women down in a so-called "act of repudiation." The women have sometimes been arrested, but have usually been released to their homes within hours.
The government considers all dissidents to be mercenaries paid by Washington to stir up trouble.
But the women's protests ultimately worked: The last of the 75 political prisoners was freed in 2011. The majority of the prisoners accepted exile in Spain along with their families.
Since the releases, the Ladies have struggled to find a new direction. But a small core of the original Ladies in White led by Soler still march nearly every Sunday, alongside women who have joined in the years since the 2003 crackdown.
The Sakharov Prize, named after the late Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, is considered the EU's top rights award and comes with a 50,000-euro ($65,000) honorarium. Previous winners include Nobel Peace Prize laureates Aung San Suu Kyi and Nelson Mandela.
Cuban dissidents say harassment and brief detentions have increased under the leadership of Raul Castro, the younger brother of the island's retired longtime leader Fidel Castro, but they acknowledge that the country's jails are now free of nearly all political prisoners.
Raul Castro has also instituted a series of reforms, most recently eliminating travel restrictions that kept many Cubans from ever leaving the country. The government has allowed several prominent dissidents to travel, most notably blogger Yoani Sanchez, who is on an 80-day world tour and is due back in Havana in May.
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Associated Press writer Paul Haven reported from Havana, Cuba.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - At least 23 people were killed when Iraqi security forces stormed a Sunni Muslim protest camp near Kirkuk on Tuesday, triggering a gun battle between troops and protesters and intensifying the country's sectarian tensions.
The clashes were the worst since thousands of Sunni Muslims started staging protests in December to demand an end to perceived marginalization of their sect by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shi'ite-led government.
Iraq's Education Minister Mohammed Tamim, a Sunni Muslim, offered his resignation on Tuesday in protest at the raid, the deputy prime minister's office said in a statement.
Iraq's defense ministry said troops opened fire after coming under attack from gunmen in the makeshift camp in a public square in Hawija, near Kirkuk, 170 km (100 miles) north of the capital Baghdad.
"When the armed forces started... to enforce the law using units of riot control forces, they were confronted with heavy fire," the defense ministry said in a statement.
The defense ministry and military sources said troops found rocket-propelled grenades, sniper rifles, AK-47 guns and other weapons at the camp.
But protest leaders said they were unarmed when security forces stormed in and started shooting early in the morning. They did not give specific figures for casualties other than to say dozens had been killed in the clashes.
"When special forces raided the square, we were not prepared and we had no weapons. They crushed some of us in their vehicles," said Ahmed Hawija, a student.
The defense ministry said 20 gunmen were killed at the camp along with three of its officers. But three military sources said twenty people at the camp and six soldiers died.
A health official said three hospitals in the Kirkuk area had received 15 dead, including one soldier, and 50 wounded including 15 members of the security forces. All those who died were killed by gunshot wounds, the source said.
Hours after the raid, Sunni tribal members attacked and briefly seized control of three checkpoints in villages around Hawija before armed forces backed by helicopter gunships took them back, military sources and tribal leaders said.
By midday local time, the situation around Hawija was calm and security forces imposed a curfew in the surrounding province of Salahuddin. After the raid, troops burned protesters' tents and cleared the square.
At least another seven people were killed when two roadside bombs exploded outside a Sunni mosque in a southern district of the Iraqi capital on Tuesday morning, police officials said.
CAUGHT UP IN CRISIS
Violence in Iraq has eased since tens of thousands died in fighting between Sunni insurgents and Shi'ite militants in 2006-2007.
But Sunni Islamist militants are still capable of major attacks. Al Qaeda's local wing has stepped up its campaign of bombings and suicide blasts since the start of the year in an attempt to provoke widespread sectarian confrontation.
Since the last U.S. troops left in December 2011, Iraq's government has also been mired in crisis over how to share power among the Shi'ite, Sunni and ethnic Kurdish parties. Maliki's critics accuse him of amassing power at their expense.
Many Iraqi Sunnis say they have been sidelined after the U.S.-led 2003 invasion that ousted Sunni strongman Saddam Hussein and allowed the country's Shi'ite majority to gain power through elections.
Sunni protests erupted in December after security forces arrested the bodyguards of the country's Sunni finance minister as part of a counter-terrorism operation, which Sunni leaders dismissed as part of a political crackdown on Maliki's foes.
Maliki tried to ease protests by offering some concessions on reforming tough anti-terrorism laws and a law targeting former members of Saddam's outlawed Baathist party - both of which Sunnis fear were used unfairly to target them.
(Additional reporting by Kareem Raheem in Baghdad and Gazwan Hassan in Samarra; Writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
Mika Brzezinski attends the opening of the Milly Madison Avenue boutique in May 2011.
Spring semester saw the launch of Golf Fore Veterans, a program for student veterans with disabilities. Undergrad Jessica Adams joined with a number of campus and community partners ? among them Fitness for All, the National Alliance for Accessible Golf,? the U.S. Golf Association and Cal Athletics? women?s golf team ? to create the class, held weekly on the Tilden Golf Course.
