Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/295783365?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Sunday, March 31, 2013
President Obama Sends Easter and Passover Message
President Obama dedicated his weekly address to the celebration of two religious holidays this week - Easter and Passover - and urged Americans to engage in prayer and reflection over the weekend.
"For millions of Americans, this is a special and sacred time of year," President Obama said. "This week, Jewish families gathered around the Seder table commemorating the Exodus from Egypt and the triumph of faith over oppression. And this weekend, Michelle, Malia, Sasha and I will join Christians around the world to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and the hopeful promise of Easter.
"In the midst of all of our busy and noisy lives, these holy days afford us the precious opportunity to slow down and spend some q
obama uiet moments in prayer and reflection," he added.
PHOTOS: President Obama's First Term Captured In Photos
The president will be in Washington, D.C., over Easter weekend. And on Monday, the first family will welcome Americans to the White House for the annual Easter egg roll festivities.
"This weekend, I hope we're all able to take a moment to pause and reflect, to embrace our loved ones, to give thanks for our blessings, to rededicate ourselves to interests larger than our own," he said. "And to all the Christian families who are celebrating the Resurrection, Michelle and I wish you a blessed and joyful Easter."
The Republicans used their weekly address, delivered by Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., to not only spread well-wishes for Easter and Passover, but also to advocate for the building of the Keystone XL pipeline to lower energy prices.
"The Keystone XL pipeline is a no-brainer," Terry said in the GOP address. "The people and the Congress have spoken. The experts have weighed in. Now it's the time to build the Keystone pipeline. No more delays, no more politics. If the president continues to drag his feet, Congress is prepared to act.
"Doing all of this isn't just about the dollars and cents. It's about coming together to solve longstanding problems to ensure our children will have the same chances, the same hope and freedoms we've had," he said. "These are the blessings we celebrate during the rites of Easter and Passover. It's a time to unite in prayer and celebration - to renew traditions, lift up our spirits and tell old stories that remind us how trials and suffering can be overcome with courage and resolve. It's a time for perspective. If we look for opportunities to work together and seize on them - if we choose to build on and not squander past sacrifices - we come that much closer to realizing the promise of a more perfect union and peace for one and all."
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Saturday, March 30, 2013
Sequoia Capital In Singapore After A Year, Has Yet To Invest In A Local Startup
When Sequoia Capital India landed in Singapore quietly in 2012, the buzz around town was that a big-name US fund being in the country was going to really jolt the market and provide serious cred to the startups here. The Indian team running operations here, however, appears to have spent the last year of its time in the island state helping startups in its India portfolio expand into Singapore, rather than directly investing in startups here. However, the company just moved into a fancy?new co-working space called?The Co, and is its anchor tenant, so it could be a sign that it?s trying to get closer to local startups. Previously, it?operated out of a service office in High Street. Singapore is a popular choice as a base for foreign companies looking to expand into Southeast Asia, because it’s a mature market with plenty of infrastructure available. But as a tiny country, it’s not often the main addressable user base, and startups originating from Singapore are also taught to have expansion plans charted. Early last year, Sequoia Capital India MD, Shailendra Jit Singh, expressed interest in having the fund?s companies expand into the region. Sequoia Cap in the US also appeared to have been eyeing activity in Singapore for a while?it had its first offsite meeting in the country in 2011, and was in discussion with Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong about its presence here. The Prime Minister?s Office oversees its R&D arm, the National Research Foundation (NRF), which has been busy backing local venture capital firms here over the past few years. Its Technology Incubation Scheme is a program that distributes seed funding to startups picked by 11 NRF-appointed VCs. The NRF matches investment values in the proportion of 85 percent to 15 percent?the larger portion dished out by the government. This allows the VCs here to provide bigger sums of seed capital to startups, with much of the risk absorbed by the NRF. Former NRF projects head, Yinglan Tan, was also pulled over to Sequoia Capital India?s team in July last year, where he is now a venture partner based in Singapore. When I ran into Tan in Manila a couple of months ago, he was evasive about Sequoia’s activities in Singapore, but was happy to try to set up meetings with their existing portfolio companies in Singapore?all Indian-based startups, except for Airbnb and Evernote. Some of these companiesSource: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/9RLBrFSLBM8/
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The South: A near-solid block against 'Obamacare'
FILE ? In this March 15, 2013 file photo Republican governor of South Carolina Nikki Haley speaks at the 40th annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Md. As more Republicans give in to President Barack Obama?s health-care overhaul, an opposition bloc remains across the South, which includes governors who lead some of the nation?s poorest and unhealthiest states. ?We will not expand Medicaid on President Obama?s watch. We will not expand Medicaid ever,? Haley told the audience at CPAC. Medicaid is financed mostly by Congress, with state?s putting up match funding. Obama?s law mandated that states open Medicaid to everyone with household income up to 133 percent of the federal poverty rate, but the Supreme Court ruled states must have a choice. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
FILE ? In this March 15, 2013 file photo Republican governor of South Carolina Nikki Haley speaks at the 40th annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Md. As more Republicans give in to President Barack Obama?s health-care overhaul, an opposition bloc remains across the South, which includes governors who lead some of the nation?s poorest and unhealthiest states. ?We will not expand Medicaid on President Obama?s watch. We will not expand Medicaid ever,? Haley told the audience at CPAC. Medicaid is financed mostly by Congress, with state?s putting up match funding. Obama?s law mandated that states open Medicaid to everyone with household income up to 133 percent of the federal poverty rate, but the Supreme Court ruled states must have a choice. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal addresses the Senate on the last day of the legislative session, Thursday, March 28, 2013, in Atlanta. Deal paid legislators a visit late Thursday afternoon as lawmakers neared the final gavel of the 2013 session. It's a ceremonial tradition for Deal, who served in the General Assembly before being elected to Congress and then the governor's office. But the governor is able to celebrate a session that gave him most of what he wanted from lawmakers. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
ATLANTA (AP) ? As more Republicans give in to President Barack Obama's health-care overhaul, an opposition bloc remains across the South, including from governors who lead some of the nation's poorest and unhealthiest states.
"Not in South Carolina," Gov. Nikki Haley declared at the recent Conservative Political Action Conference. "We will not expand Medicaid on President Obama's watch. We will not expand Medicaid ever."
Widening Medicaid insurance rolls, a joint federal-state program for low-income Americans, is an anchor of the law Obama signed in 2010. But states get to decide whether to take the deal, and from Virginia to Texas ? a region encompassing the old Confederacy and Civil War border states ? Florida's Rick Scott is the only Republican governor to endorse expansion, and he faces opposition from his GOP colleagues in the legislature. Tennessee's Bill Haslam, the Deep South's last governor to take a side, added his name to the opposition on Wednesday.
Haley offers the common explanation, saying expansion will "bust our budgets." But the policy reality is more complicated. The hospital industry and other advocacy groups continue to tell GOP governors that expansion would be a good arrangement, and there are signs that some Republicans are trying to find ways to expand insurance coverage under the law.
Haslam told Tennessee lawmakers that he'd rather use any new money to subsidize private insurance. That's actually the approach of another anchor of Obama's law: insurance exchanges where Americans can buy private policies with premium subsidies from taxpayers.
Yet for now, governors' rejection of Medicaid expansion will leave large swaths of Americans without coverage because they make too much money to qualify for Medicaid as it exists but not enough to get the subsidies to buy insurance in the exchanges. Many public health studies show that the same population suffers from higher-than-average rates of obesity, smoking and diabetes ? variables that yield bad health outcomes and expensive hospital care.
"Many of the citizens who would benefit the most from this live in the reddest of states with the most intense opposition," said Drew Altman, president of the non-partisan Kaiser Family Foundation.
So why are these states holding out? The short-term calculus seems heavily influenced by politics.
Haley, Haslam, Nathan Deal of Georgia and Robert Bentley of Alabama face re-election next year. Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant is up for re-election in 2015. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is term-limited at home but may seek the presidency in 2016. While they all govern GOP-leaning states, they still must safeguard their support among Republican voters who dislike large-scale federal initiatives in general and distrust Obama in particular. Florida's Scott, the South's GOP exception on expansion, faces a different dynamic. He won just 49 percent of the vote in 2010 and must face an electorate that twice supported Obama.
A South Carolina legislator put it bluntly earlier this year. State Rep. Kris Crawford told a business journal that he supports expansion, but said electoral math is the trump card. "It is good politics to oppose the black guy in the White House right now, especially for the Republican Party," he said.
Whit Ayers, a leading Republican pollster, was more measured, but offered the same bottom line. "This law remains toxic among Republican primary voters," he told The Associated Press.
At the Tennessee Hospital Association, president Craig Becker has spent months trying to break through that barrier as he travels to civic and business groups across Tennessee. "It's really hard for some of them to separate something that has the name 'Obamacare' on it from what's going to be best for the state," he said, explaining that personality driven politics are easier to understand than the complicated way that the U.S. pays for health care.
Medicaid is financed mostly by Congress, though states have to put in their own money to qualify for the cash from Washington. The federal amount is determined by a state's per-capita income, with poorer states getting more help. On average in 2012, the feds paid 57 cents of every Medicaid dollar. It was 74 cents in Mississippi, 71 in Kentucky, 70 in Arkansas and South Carolina, 68 in Alabama. Those numbers would be even higher counting bonuses from Obama's 2009 stimulus bill.
Obama's law mandated that states open Medicaid to everyone with household income up to 138 percent of the federal poverty rate ? $15,420 a year for an individual or $31,812 for a family of four. The federal government would cover all costs of new Medicaid patients from 2014 to 2016 and pick up most of the price tag after that, requiring states to pay up to 10 percent. The existing Medicaid population would continue under the old formula. In its ruling on the law, the Supreme Court left the details alone, but declared that states could choose whether to expand.
Hospital and physician lobbying groups around the country have endorsed a bigger Medicaid program. Becker said he explains on his road show that the Obama law paired Medicaid growth with cuts to payments to hospitals for treating the uninsured. Just as they do with Medicaid insurance, states already must contribute their own money in order to get federal help with those so-called "uncompensated care" payments.
The idea was instead of paying hospitals directly, states and Congress could spend that money on Medicaid and have those new beneficiaries ? who now drive costs with preventable hospital admissions and expensive emergency room visits ? use the primary care system. But the Supreme Court ruling creates a scenario where hospitals can lose existing revenue with getting the replacement cash Congress intended, all while still having to treat the uninsured patients who can't get coverage.
Becker said that explanation has gotten local chambers of commerce across Tennessee to endorse expansion. "These are rock-ribbed Republicans," he said. "But they all scratch their heads and say, 'Well, if that's the case, then of course we do this.'"
In Louisiana, Jindal's health care agency quietly released an analysis saying the changes could actually save money over time. But the Republican Governors Association chairman is steadfast in his opposition. In Georgia, Deal answers pressure from his state's hospital association with skepticism about projected "uncompensated care" savings and Congress' pledge to finance 90 percent of the new Medicaid costs.
Altman, the Kaiser foundation leader, predicted that opposition will wane over time.
Arkansas Republicans, who oppose Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe's call for expansion, have floated the same idea as Haslam: pushing would-be Medicaid recipients into the insurance exchanges. Jindal, using his RGA post, has pushed the Obama administration to give states more "flexibility" in how to run Medicaid.
Deal convinced Georgia lawmakers this year to let an appointed state board set a hospital industry tax to generate some of the state money that supports Medicaid. That fee ? which 49 states use in some way ? is the same tool that Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer is using to cover her state's Medicaid expansion. Georgia Democrats and some hospital executives have quietly mused that Deal is leaving himself an option to widen Medicaid in his expected term.
"These guys are looking for ways to do this while still saying they are against 'Obamacare,'" Altman said. "As time goes by, we'll see this law acquire a more bipartisan complexion."
-----
Follow Barrow on Twitter (at)BillBarrowAP.
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Friday, March 29, 2013
Steps which help to create Internet Marketing Plan | DreamGrow ...
If you have a business then it is impossible to stay out of internet marketing. An amalgamation of internet marketing plan with the business plan and its vision can make wonders in promoting and making the business a success. But to make the business grow and prosper you need to have an effective and proper internet marketing plan. This plan should also be good enough and focused to drive internet traffic to your website. To achieve that, the following tips or steps might help to create a good and effective internet marketing plan.
1.?The Vision
Before starting the most important step set the goal or vision. This will act as the starting point and also set goals for your internet marketing strategy. The clearly written vision is not only for you but it should be clearly and concisely communicated to the whole team that will be working for it. With time there can be changes in the goal or vision and necessary changes can be undertaken. This also needs to be effectively communicated with the team for them to understand clearly also. Every activity that is proposed or comes to the mind should be weighted for and against before implementation.
The goal or vision also should include a budget for the marketing activities, as it should not fizzle out after some time.
2.?Target market
Without a complete understanding of the target market any marketing plan is like building castles in thin air. Understanding the consumers, their behavior and the target audience or target market will help you device plans to drive traffic to your site, and thereby greater conversion rate. This knowledge will also help in developing proper goals and plans to achieve them.
3.?The Competitors
Understanding the market competition and knowing them provides additional knowledge that helps sustaining competition in the market. Reports on the competitor?s business, marketing plans and relevant information will give you an extra edge over them. This will also ensure you to avoid the loopholes or problems they have.
4.?The Solutions
There may be numerous businesses in the same niche, and providing customers and consumers with the same service or products. There is a huge possibility that they all provide them at almost the same price. So to stand out in the rest, the best way is to provide solutions to their problems also. Make sure that you provide solutions to their problems and have a dedicated page to address their problems. Establish yourself as an expert in that field. Also make sure that instead of bragging about your product or company, the content speaks what the company will do for its clients and how the clients will benefit from their product or service. Most consumers tend to look for information regarding their benefit.
5.?The Funnel
Using a funnel or an inverted pyramid to filter clients is a proven and an excellent strategy. The wide top of the pyramid or cone opens with low cost or freebie for the clients and the narrower segments slowly makes way for the costlier offers or products. Depending on the response, the strategies can be further developed, modified and planned.
6.?The Brand
The brand name for your trade or service is very important. This will also play an important role in using the domain for your website. Another important need is a perfect tagline that will be your identity in a line. Both these combined together makes your identity in the market and tells about your service and product to the customers.
7.?The Website
The website needs to be visually appealing to customers and consumers. It should have all the things to attract the customer?s attention, and it should also be graphic enough for the customer to understand what you have to offer. Moreover the page should be light in weight so that it does not take infinite time to load. Ensure that the pages also open fast on mobile or handheld devices.
Remember that content still holds the key, and make sure to describe the offers, services and products properly. Keep in mind that the content is more into informing clients about the offers and benefits and not tall tales about yourself.
Add pages for customer feedback and helpline pages for prompt customer interaction. Also ask for reviews and comments from customers or visitors. Ask them to subscribe for free services like upcoming offers, newsletters and so on.
8.?Business Managing Mechanism for online trades
Ensure that the site is safe and have required certificates on display to gain customer confidence. Also use best possible technology for safer internet buying and selling from your website. This is very important and also use best possible softwares for generating receipts and responses for buyers.
9.?Other marketing options & cost and Resources
Check out other marketing plans that can be implemented. Using pay-per-click or affiliate plans. Using social media and social bookmarking to plan an efficient internet marketing needs to be considered. Proper and good SEO needs to come into play as well. Look for every possible opportunity and option that might actually help you market on the internet effectively.
Once all these are done identifying the cost is very important. The in-house human capital and monetary strength needs to be ascertained. Calculate and budget for every step needs to be efficiently distributed. Outsourcing some work at cheaper options can be a good idea.
10.?To-Do list
Finalize the to-do list with all the nitty gritty details. It is best to use software to keep all the detailed data, and update it regularly. Divide the work to teams and take regular updates from each team to keep track of progress.
Final Word
The most important thing for success in internet marketing strategy involves the continuous monitoring of the data available and redesigning or strengthening areas that are working fine or not working. Measuring marketing plans and adjusting accordingly is also one of the better ways. Stay clear of any black hat SEO techniques of scam that might guarantee you instant results. Make your team co-operative and let them have a clean understanding of the goals and plans. Also they should be clear about their responsibilities.
But the best step is to put you in the consumer?s shoes and imagining what benefits and deals would attract them and design steps and plans accordingly.
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About The Author: Kelly is a writer/blogger. She loves writing, travelling and reading books. She contributes in KEL Attorneys. Check here for more on KEL Attorneys
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Posted on: March 28, 2013
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Source: http://www.dreamgrow.com/steps-which-help-to-create-internet-marketing-plan/
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Cyprus banks to re-open; limits on transactions
NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) ? Cypriots get their first chance to access their savings in almost two weeks when the country's banks reopen Thursday ? albeit with strict restrictions on transactions ? after being closed due to the country's acute financial crisis.
Lines were starting to form outside banks Thursday morning ahead of the official opening for six hours at noon (1000 GMT). Systems have been frozen pending the official opening, and guards from a private security firm were reinforcing police outside some ATMs and banks in the capital, Nicosia.
Controls on financial transactions, imposed to prevent worried savers and businesses rushing to withdraw all their money, include limiting cash withdrawals to 300 euros ($383) per day per person and limiting payments abroad to 5,000 euros. No checks can be cashed, although they can be deposited in bank accounts, and travelers leaving the country can only take up to 1,000 euros, or the equivalent in foreign currency, with them in cash.
The restrictions will be reviewed daily and are initially in place for seven calendar days, until next Wednesday, the decision published by the Finance Ministry states.
Banks in Cyprus have been shut since March 16 to prevent people draining their accounts as politicians scrambled to come up with a plan to raise enough funds for Cyprus to qualify for 10 billion euros ($12.9 billion) in bailout loans for its stricken banking sector. An initial plan that would have seized up to 10 percent of people's bank deposits was soundly rejected in Parliament, leaving politicians struggling to come up with an alternative.
The deal was finally reached in Brussels early Monday, and imposes severe losses on deposits of over 100,000 euros in the country's two largest banks, Laiki and Bank of Cyprus. Laiki will be broken up, with its good assets being absorbed by Bank of Cyprus. The exact amounts of the losses have not yet been officially announced. Nonetheless, customers of those banks will still be able to access some of their funds when they open on Thursday.
Many Cypriots are struggling to work out exactly what they could and couldn't do with the restrictions in place. Morning television talk shows hosted dial-ins with experts, with viewers' queries ranging from where they would repay loans if they were taken out from Laiki, which is being restructured, to how they could pay tuition fees for children studying abroad and handle check payments. Across the country, people wondered whether they would be able to access their salaries, many of which were due this week.
"I believe this will be a very difficult day for both people and bank employees because no matter how much information there was, things were changing all the time," said Costas Kyprianides, a grocery supplier in Nicosia. "Even us traders, like myself, have so many checks which I need to deposit so I can make ends meet."
During the bank closure, ATMs were working but quickly ran out of money. Those of the two troubled banks, Laiki and Bank of Cyprus, had imposed withdrawal limits of 100 euros a day.
"Up until last night things kept on changing," said store owner Antonis Arotokritou, wondering about how to go about dealing with checks. "There's an overall panic and uncertainty from both the bankers and the rest of the people."
The stock market announced it would remain closed on Thursday "in order to ensure the smooth functioning of the stock market and protect investors." It too has been closed since March 16.
"The Central Bank decided on some limitations, so we are sure that slowly, slowly we are going back to functioning of the banks without serious problems," the head of the parliament, Yiannakis Omirou, told AP. "Some problems I'm sure will be created but our people are ready to overcome the difficult moments we are passing."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cyprus-banks-open-limits-transactions-074110832--finance.html
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Spat between two Dutch companies sparks record-breaking 300Gbps DDoS attack
March 28 (Reuters) - Rory McIlroy, playing for the first time since losing his world number one ranking earlier this week, got off to a shaky start at the Houston Open on Thursday where he dropped three shots over his opening eight holes. The 23-year-old Northern Irishman, who was replaced atop the world rankings by Tiger Woods this week, struggled to find his rhythm on an ideal day for low scoring at the Redstone Golf Club in Humble, Texas. He bogeyed the par-four second hole and made a double-bogey seven on the eighth hole to limp to the turn at three-over. ...
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/spat-between-two-dutch-companies-sparks-record-breaking-010927453.html
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PFT: Palmer reportedly prefers release to paycut
APWhen owners and teams treat football like a business, media and fans shrug.? When players do, it?s regarded as an affront to the integrity of the game.
It?s not fair, but that?s the way it is.? And Raiders quarterback Carson Palmer needs to brace himself for that reaction as he tries to force his way out of Oakland.
It?s obvious Palmer wants out.? Two years ago, he finagled his exit from Cincinnati by feigning retirement.? The strategy looked to be a failure until Raiders quarterback Jason Campbell broke his collarbone and former Raiders coach Hue Jackson lost his damn mind, giving up a first-round pick and a second-round pick for a quarterback who isn?t the guy he used to be.
Now, Palmer is turning up his nose at $10 million from the Raiders, which sets the stage for the Raiders eventually to cut him ? and for Palmer to play for someone else.
As Mike Silver of Yahoo! Sports explains it, Palmer wants to play for a contender, even if it means being a backup.? (Cough . . . Seahawks and Pete Carroll . . . cough.)? Of course, Palmer won?t get $10 million to be a backup, but his willingness to walk away from football in order to get out of Cincinnati proves that he?d be willing to walk away from $10 million in order to get a shot at winning.
Palmer?s posture also reflects a belief that, despite the hiring of G.M. Reggie McKenzie and coach Dennis Allen, Palmer doesn?t see the silver-and-black bus getting turned around in the immediate future.? Otherwise, he?d gladly take $10 million to stay put.
The problem is that the Raiders currently hold all the cards.? With no seven-figure trigger in Palmer?s deal, the $13 million doesn?t become fully guaranteed until Week One, which means the Raiders can cut him much later in the offseason, if they draft a quarterback early ? or if they eventually decide Terrelle Pryor can get the job done.? The only risk the Raiders are taking is that, if Palmer drops a dumbbell on his foot or pops an Achilles tendon in offseason conditioning drills or otherwise suffers a season-ending injury while on the clock, the Raiders will owe Palmer his full salary.
That could set the stage for a Steve McNair-style lockout.? Even without Palmer being barred from the building (which would violate the CBA), Palmer is making his second power play in two years.
When a team does it, we applaud.? Fair or not, Palmer should prepare for the jeers and the boos and the accusations of being a chronic quitter.
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Fewer children mean longer life?
Mar. 27, 2013 ? New research into ageing processes, based on modern genetic techniques, confirms theoretical expectations about the correlation between reproduction and lifespan. Studies of birds reveal that those that have offspring later in life and have fewer broods live longer. And the decisive factor is telomeres, shows research from The University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
Telomeres are the protective caps at the end of chromosomes. The length of telomeres influences how long an individual lives. Telomeres start off at a certain length, become shorter each time a cell divides, decline as the years pass by until the telomeres can no longer protect the chromosomes, and the cell dies. But the length of telomeres varies significantly among individuals of the same age. This is partly due to the length of the telomeres that has been inherited from the parents, and partly due to the amount of stress an individual is exposed to.
?This is important, not least for our own species, as we are all having to deal with increased stress,? says Angela Pauliny, Researcher from the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences at the University of Gothenburg.
Researchers have studied barnacle geese, which are long-lived birds, the oldest in the study being 22 years old. The results show that geese, compared to short-lived bird species, have a better ability to preserve the length of their telomeres. The explanation is probably that species with a longer lifespan invest more in maintaining bodily functions than, for example, reproduction.
?There is a clear correlation between reproduction and ageing in the animal world. Take elephants, which have a long lifespan but few offspring, while mice, for example, live for a short time but produce a lot of offspring each time they try,? says Angela Pauliny.
The geese studied by researchers varied in age, from very young birds to extremely old ones. Each bird was measured twice, two years apart. One striking result was that the change in telomere length varied according to gender.
?The study revealed that telomeres were best-preserved in males. Among barnacle geese, the telomeres thus shorten more quickly in females, which in birds is the sex with two different gender chromosomes. Interestingly, it is the exactl opposite in humans,? says Angela Pauliny.
The journal BMC Evolutionary Biology has classified the research article ?Telomere dynamics in a long-lived bird, the barnacle goose? as ?Highly Accessed?.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Gothenburg, via AlphaGalileo.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Angela Pauliny, Kjell Larsson, Donald Blomqvist. Telomere dynamics in a long-lived bird, the barnacle goose. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 2012; 12 (1): 257 DOI: 10.1186/1471-2148-12-257
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/wo_0G9jQGjg/130327103045.htm
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Thursday, March 28, 2013
Audioair Wants To Unlock Audio From Muted TVs Everywhere And Give Your Local Bar A New Way To Advertise
If you've ever been in a sports bar with your friends to watch a big game, you've likely run into the "muting" problem. While the bar may have two dozen TVs, each might be playing a different game, and there's either too much sound or none at all. At most local restaurants, bars, airports and health clubs, you'll find TVs muted for this very reason.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/sIzZccJFbM4/
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Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz's Maveron Doubles Down On Seed Investments In Consumer Startups
Maveron, the VC firm founded by Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz and Dan Levitan, is doubling down on seed investments. The firm, which has offices in both Seattle and San Francisco, has been making a few seed investments sporadically over the past few years, but with today's announcement, Maveron is committing to making at least 12 seed investments per year.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/RDE2icW9tqY/
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Sales of Timberlake's new album beat expectations in first week
Mar 26 (Reuters) - Leading money winners on the 2013 PGATour on Monday (U.S. unless stated): 1. Tiger Woods $3,787,600 2. Brandt Snedeker $2,859,920 3. Matt Kuchar $2,154,500 4. Steve Stricker $1,820,000 5. Phil Mickelson $1,650,260 6. Hunter Mahan $1,553,965 7. John Merrick $1,343,514 8. Dustin Johnson $1,330,507 9. Russell Henley $1,313,280 10. Kevin Streelman $1,310,343 11. Keegan Bradley $1,274,593 12. Charles Howell III $1,256,373 13. Michael Thompson $1,254,669 14. Brian Gay $1,171,721 15. Justin Rose $1,155,550 16. Jason Day $1,115,565 17. Chris Kirk $1,097,053 18. ...
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sales-timberlakes-album-beat-expectations-first-week-002842891--finance.html
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Rock, Paper, Shotgun Apology For Using Female Writers | Rock ...
By John Walker on March 27th, 2013 at 9:00 pm.
We made a mistake. It?s important as a website that readers can trust that we are up front when this happens, and willing to admit to our failings, and promise to address them. And as recently as last week, Rock, Paper, Shotgun let a woman write an article. We would like to apologise to our readers for any offence caused.
Perhaps what makes what?s becoming known as #PeaSoupGate so serious an error on our part was the apparent subterfuge used in the run up to this article. The author and ? we now confess ? woman, Cara Ellison, had been writing articles for us for a few months in advance of this particular piece. And with no appropriate warning, the article finished with an image revealing that Cara was in fact female. Clearly many readers were upset, and we now hope to redress the balance over this unfortunate incident.
The piece, an interview with someone else we have since discovered to also be a woman, Rhianna Pratchett, finished with a picture of Ellison in the foreground, with a pot of pea soup in the background. What is so particularly problematic with this picture is that rather than containing the face of a man, as readers trust to expect, it seems we published what is identifiably a picture of a woman.
Naturally commenters expressed their shock and rage. Most were in fact so upset by the situation that they forgot to even mention that their horror was born of Ellison?s apparent lack of a Y chromosome, and instead in their confusion simply argued against the use of an image of the writer at all. With RPS?s male writers having frequently posted their own faces on the site over the years ? and of course to no complaint ? it just shows quite how wrong it was of us to allow this situation to occur, so upsetting and confusing as it was that people would become so muddled.
Some have observed that it is deeply peculiar that none of RPS?s male writers have ever been so vitriolically criticised for featuring picture of themselves, if it?s even happened at all. Others have claimed that rarely do readers feel the need to comment on whether they find the male writers of RPS attractive or not when images of them appear. Also that complaining about Cara?s writing about herself seems peculiar on a site that is proudly self-indulgent before it?s informative. Lines like ?it?s almost like women in games journalism have something to prove? applied to a style of writing used by all of RPS?s male writers since we launched nearly six years ago, they say, appear incongruous. But this is a very insensitive argument that does not take into account the severity of the trauma our interview has caused.
RPS would also like to apologise for featuring other female writers, both born and identifying as female, on a regular basis. Clearly by being women they are imposing their agenda on an undeserving audience, in a way that is inexcusable.
From this point going forward, we will ensure that if a woman is somehow writing on the site, that during the process they will be required to wear a top hat, false moustache, and steely, manly glare as they type, in order to eradicate the unpleasantness so many have had to experience. No longer will they be allowed to ?play the gender card? by openly having their gender be so not-male.
Source: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/03/27/rock-paper-shotgun-apologies-for-using-female-writers/
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Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Obama Signs Bill to Avoid Government Shutdown
Mar 26 (Reuters) - Leading money winners on the 2013 PGATour on Monday (U.S. unless stated): 1. Tiger Woods $3,787,600 2. Brandt Snedeker $2,859,920 3. Matt Kuchar $2,154,500 4. Steve Stricker $1,820,000 5. Phil Mickelson $1,650,260 6. Hunter Mahan $1,553,965 7. John Merrick $1,343,514 8. Dustin Johnson $1,330,507 9. Russell Henley $1,313,280 10. Kevin Streelman $1,310,343 11. Keegan Bradley $1,274,593 12. Charles Howell III $1,256,373 13. Michael Thompson $1,254,669 14. Brian Gay $1,171,721 15. Justin Rose $1,155,550 16. Jason Day $1,115,565 17. Chris Kirk $1,097,053 18. ...
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-signs-bill-avoid-government-shutdown-201603063.html
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Britain tries to get rail award process back on track
By Rosalba O'Brien
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain has announced a shake-up in the way it awards rail franchises, battling to restore confidence in a privatised network which has been dogged by financial problems at rail companies and costly errors in the bidding process.
The government said on Tuesday it would implement the recommendations of an independent review set up after mistakes in the way bids were assessed forced it to tear up the award of the West Coast mainline franchise last year.
The recommendations include staggering the award of franchises and creating a new advisory panel.
Britain's railways have faced a string of problems since they were privatised in the 1990s, including fatal crashes that led to expensive and disruptive network upgrades, as well as financial problems at rail companies which led the government to bring the East Coast mainline back into public hands in 2009.
The Department of Transport said on Tuesday it would immediately start a competition to return the East Coast service to the private sector, and gave a schedule for other franchises, with the West Coast line up for grabs from April 2017.
"The new programme will provide long-term certainty to the market and support the delivery of the government's 9.4 billion pounds rail investment strategy for 2014-2019," said Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin.
Virgin Trains, which was to lose the West Coast service before flaws in the award process led the government to ask it to stay on, gave a cautious welcome to the new proposals.
"It seems a lot of things we were arguing for have come to pass," said a spokesman. "It's clear they've learnt their lessons. Let's hope we can move on."
However trade unions, which oppose the privatisation, said the East Coast line had "flourished" under state control.
"This is privatisation for privatisation's sake, as ministers steadfastly ignore what is best for the rail industry and the people who work on it and use it," said Trades Union Congress general secretary Frances O'Grady.
NEW TIMETABLE
Virgin Trains, a venture between businessman Richard Branson's Virgin Group and Stagecoach, was asked last year to continue running the West Coast service until November 2014.
Its spokesman said the new timetable for the franchise meant its contract was effectively being extended, although the company would need to sit down and negotiate with the Department of Transport as it "would prefer an incentivised contract."
He said Virgin also expected to bid for the East Coast service, which runs the London to Edinburgh route and is now slated to return to the private sector from February 2015.
An eight-year East Coast contract was won by National Express in 2007 after the demise of the original holder, GNER. But the service was renationalised after the company said funds set aside to cover losses on the line would run out.
The new staggered timetable means extensions on existing contracts will be needed to get expiring franchises into place.
This should benefit current operators Go-Ahead, FirstGroup, Stagecoach and National Express, said analysts at Jefferies.
"While that should be seen as a small positive for all, it may be most so for FirstGroup, which should secure some needed cash flows for longer out of this," they said.
FirstGroup - which runs Capital Connect, Great Western and TransPennine Express - and Stagecoach both welcomed the timetable publication in separate statements.
FirstGroup was awarded the West Coast franchise - which links London to Glasgow - last year, before the government cancelled its decision at a cost of around 40 million pounds to the taxpayer.
(Editing by Tom Pfeiffer and Mark Potter)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/uk-unveils-long-term-rail-franchise-plans-073259564--finance.html
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The Country Cooking of Ireland download ebook for free
Download ebook or buy real book: ?The Country Cooking of Ireland? by Colman Andrews, Christopher Hirsheimer, Darina Allen
Genres: Non Fiction, History, Cultural, Ireland, Food And Drink, Food, Cookbooks, Cooking
 | Rating: 4.08 Publish date: November 11th 2009 Awards: James Beard Book Award for Cookbook of the Year (2010) Isbn: 081186670X |
In The Country Cooking of Ireland , internationally acclaimed food and travel writer Colman Andrews brings to life the people, countryside, and delicious food of Ireland. Fast emerging as one of the world?s hottest culinary destinations, Ireland is a country of artisanal bakers, farmers, cheesemakers, and butteries, where farm-to-table dining has been practiced for centuries. Meticulously researched and reported, this sumptuous cookbook includes 250 recipes and more than 100 photographs of the pubs, the people, and the emerald Irish countryside taken by award-winning photographer Christopher Hirsheimer. Rich with stories of the food and people who make Ireland a wonderful place to eat, and laced with charming snippets of song, folklore, and poetry, The Country Cooking of Ireland ushers in a new understanding of Irish food.
Source: http://www.ebookjoint.org/the-country-cooking-of-ireland.html
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Monday, March 25, 2013
Former Zambian president arrested
LUSAKA, Zambia (AP) ? Zambia's former president, Rupiah Banda, was arrested by police for alleged abuse of authority and corruption.
Banda, 76, who ruled Zambia from 2008 to 2011, was charged with corruption Monday and released on bail of Kwacha 500,000 ($100,000) and ordered to turn in his passport.
Namukolo Kasumpa, spokesperson for the government investigating team, told journalists that Banda will appear in court on Tuesday. Banda is also scheduled to be questioned by the investigating panel on April 4.
He is accused of stealing $11 million, part of which he had used on his re-election campaign of 20 September 2011. Banda has denied all the charges.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/former-zambian-president-arrested-160624844.html
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Sunday, March 24, 2013
Top China college in focus with ties to army's cyber-spying unit
By Melanie Lee
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Faculty members at a top Chinese university have collaborated for years on technical research papers with a People's Liberation Army (PLA) unit accused of being at the heart of China's alleged cyber-war against Western commercial targets.
Several papers on computer network security and intrusion detection, easily accessed on the Internet, were co-authored by researchers at PLA Unit 61398, allegedly an operational unit actively engaged in cyber-espionage, and faculty at Shanghai Jiaotong University, a centre of academic excellence with ties to some of the world's top universities and attended by the country's political and business elite.
The apparent working relationship between the PLA unit and Shanghai Jiaotong is in contrast to common practice in most developed nations, where university professors in recent decades have been reluctant to cooperate with operational intelligence gathering units.
The issue of cyber-security is testing ties between the world's two biggest economies, prompting U.S. President Barack Obama to raise concerns over computer hacking in a phone call with new Chinese President Xi Jinping. China denies it engages in state-sponsored hacking, saying it is a victim of cyber-attacks from the United States.
There is no evidence to suggest any Shanghai Jiaotong academics who co-authored papers with Unit 61398 worked with anyone directly engaged in cyber-espionage operations, as opposed to research.
"The issue is operational activity - whether these research institutions have been involved in actual intelligence operations," said James Lewis, director of the Technology and Public Policy Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "That's something the U.S. does not do."
"(In the U.S.) there's a clear line between an academic researcher and people engaged in operational (intelligence gathering) activities."
Shanghai Jiaotong declined to comment.
CO-AUTHORS
In reviewing the links between the PLA and Shanghai Jiaotong - whose alumni include former President Jiang Zemin, the head of China's top automaker and the former CEO of its most popular Internal portal - Reuters found at least three papers on cyber- warfare on a document-sharing web site that were co-authored by university faculty members and PLA researchers.
The papers, on network security and attack detection, state on their title pages they were written by Unit 61398 researchers and professors at Shanghai Jiaotong's School of Information Security Engineering (SISE).
In one 2007 paper on how to improve security by designing a collaborative network monitoring system, PLA researcher Chen Yi-qun worked with Xue Zhi, the vice-president of SISE and the school's Communist Party branch secretary. According to his biography on the school's website, Xue is credited with developing China's leading infiltrative cyber-attack platform.
Calls and emails to Xue were not answered. Reuters was unable to find contact details for Chen.
Fan Lei, an associate professor at Shanghai Jiaotong whose main research areas are network security management and cryptography, also co-authored a paper with Chen. Fan told Reuters he has no links with Unit 61398 and his work with Chen in 2010 was because Chen was a SISE graduate student. Fan said he was unaware Chen was with the PLA when they collaborated. Both of the papers Chen co-wrote with SISE professors stated he was with the PLA unit.
Cyber-security experts say the publicly available papers and China's National Information Security Engineering Centre are ostensibly about securing computer networks.
"The research seems to be defensive, but cyber-security research in general can be dual purpose," said Adam Meyers, director of intelligence at CrowdStrike, a security technology company based in Irvine, California. Figuring out how best to defend networks, by definition, means thinking about the most effective means of attack, he noted.
Efforts to reach the PLA for comment on its collaboration with Shanghai Jiaotong were unsuccessful.
TECH PARK NEIGHBORS
Set amid manicured lawns, Shanghai Jiaotong University is one of China's top four colleges, turning out brilliant technical engineers much in demand by both domestic companies and foreign multinationals. Its reputation has led to tie-ups with elite universities abroad.
Last month, Mandiant Corp, a private U.S.-based security firm, accused China's military of cyber-espionage on U.S. and other English-speaking companies, identifying Unit 61398 and its location at a building on the outskirts of Shanghai. China said the report was baseless and lacked "technical proof".
"SISE at Shanghai Jiaotong has provided support" to PLA Unit 61398 - known more formally as General Staff Department (GSD), Third Department, Second Bureau - said Russell Hsiao, author of papers on China's cyber-warfare capabilities for Project 2049 Institute, a Virginia-based think-tank, who drew his research from the technical papers and government reports.
He said another Shanghai Jiaotong department, the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, also did research work with another PLA unit. A Project 2049 report last year found the GSD's Third Department had oversight of "information security engineering bases" in Shanghai, Beijing and Tianjin.
The GSD Third Department's Shanghai base is in an industrial park housing mainly government research institutes and high-tech firms. The SISE building is in the same development, 40 kms from the university's main Minhang campus. Across the street from SISE is the National Information Security Engineering Center, a building commissioned in 2003 by PLA Unit 61398. Also part of the base is the Ministry of Public Security's Third Research Institute, which researches digital forensics and network security.
AUTO RESEARCH
Shanghai Jiaotong is not officially linked to China's military. SISE says on its website its goal is to speed up the development of China's information security sector and address the national shortage of information security professionals.
Shanghai Jiaotong set up a joint institute in China's second city in 2006 with the University of Michigan - seeking, it says on its web site, to "develop innovative and highly reputable education and research programs in various engineering fields." A spokesman for the U.S. college said it has no relationship with SISE. Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh also had a partnership with Shanghai Jiaotong's School of Electronic, Information and Electrical Engineering, and Singapore Management University said it ended a tie-up with SISE last June.
Among the industries in the United States allegedly targeted by Unit 61398, as recently as last year according to Mandiant, is transportation, including the auto sector.
The University of Michigan collaborates closely with Detroit-based automakers on research projects, and is one of three colleges that comprise the University Research Corridor, which spent $300 million on R&D projects over the last five years. Nearly a third of that was funded by private industry, according to local consultant the Anderson Economic Group.
"There was no indication in 2010 that the joint institute was involved in any way and that also is the case today. We do, of course, watch the news reports on these issues carefully," said Rick Fitzgerald, a University of Michigan spokesman, referring to a New York Times report in 2010 citing investigators' claims to have tracked cyber-attacks against Google Inc to Shanghai Jiaotong and an eastern Chinese vocational school.
(Additional reporting by Jim Finkle and Joseph Menn in SAN FRANCISCO; Editing by Ian Geoghegan)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/top-china-college-focus-ties-armys-cyber-spying-012515143--sector.html
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Fearing stark future, Syrian Alawites meet in Cairo
By Khaled Yacoub Oweis
AMMAN (Reuters) - Opposition campaigners from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's Alawite sect will meet this weekend to support a democratic alternative to his rule and try to distance the community from wholesale association with the government's attempts to crush a two-year uprising.
The two-day meeting in Cairo, the first by Alawites supportive of the revolt, will draft a declaration committing to a united Syria and inviting the mainstream opposition to cooperate on preventing sectarian bloodletting if Assad falls and agree on a transitional justice framework, organizers said.
As the war takes on an increasingly sectarian bent, severing the Alawite fate from that of Assad could be crucial for the survival of the community, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam that comprises about 10 percent of Syria's population.
"The meeting is happening almost two years late, but it will help disassociate the sect from Assad. Every effort is needed now to prevent a wide-scale sectarian bloodbath when Assad eventually goes, in which the Alawites would be the main losers," a Western diplomat said.
At least 70,000 people have been killed since a peaceful protest movement led by Syria's Sunni Muslim majority broke out against four decades of family rule by Assad and his father, members of the Alawite sect.
The demonstrations were met by bullets, eventually sparking a Sunni backlash and a mostly Islamist armed insurgency that is leading some Alawites to fear they have no future without Assad.
Assad has said he is fighting a foreign-backed conspiracy to divide Syria and that the rebel forces are Islamist "terrorists."
A statement by the organizing committee of the Alawite conference said: "The regime, which is becoming more isolated and weak, is working on turning sectarian zealotry into bloodshed. There are anti-regime forces also pushing toward sectarian warfare."
"Depriving the regime of the sectarian card is crucial for its ouster and for negotiating a Syrian national covenant on the basis of a modern statehood and equal citizenship and justice," the statement said.
About 150 Alawite figures, including activists and religious leaders, who were mostly forced to flee Syria for supporting the revolt, will attend the conference in Cairo, which will start on Saturday.
Alawites were prominent in a leftist Syrian political movement that was crushed by Assad's father, Hafez al-Assad, in the 1970s and 1980s, along with Islamist opposition.
DEMOCRATIC ASPIRATIONS
Among prominent Alawites currently in jail is free-speech advocate Mazen Darwish, who worked on documenting the victims of the crackdown against the revolt, and Abdelaziz al-Khayyer, a centrist politician who advocated peaceful transition to democratic rule.
Issam Ibrahim, a lawyer who is helping organize the conference, said the uprising had given the Alawites a chance to show the sect was not monolithic, and that it aspired like the rest of the population to live under a multi-party democracy, while fearing the rise of Islamist extremism.
Ibrahim recalled taking part in a pro-democracy demonstration at the beginning of the uprising in the Sunni district of al-Khalidiya in the central city of Homs when the protesters came under attack by a pro-Assad militia.
"A group of us took refuge in a house, and the house owner, who did not know I was Alawite, began cursing Alawites. When my comrades told him I was one, he came to me and gave me the keys to his house."
"We are in a sectarian crisis and the political forces of the opposition are falling into a serious error by not discussing it," Ibrahim, whose father was jailed for years under the rule of the elder Assad, told Reuters.
He said the document that would emerge from the conference "will affirm Alawite commitment to national unity and inter-communal existence and civic peace," mirroring a stance the sect's leaders took during French colonial rule in the 1920s in opposition to proposals for partition of the country.
"There is an Islamist current that is expanding at the expense of the democratic civic current, which needs to unite," Ibrahim said. "We as Alawites are Syrians first. We are trying to be part of a real change."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fearing-stark-future-syrian-alawites-meet-cairo-011732860.html
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Tilda Swinton performs art of sleeping in NYC
NEW YORK (AP) ? Actress Tilda Swinton is performing the art of sleeping at New York City's Museum of Modern Art.
A museum spokeswoman says the "Moonrise Kingdom" star presented her one-person piece called "The Maybe" on Saturday.
In "The Maybe," Swinton lies sleeping in a glass box for the day. The exhibit will move locations within the museum every time Swinton performs.
There is no published schedule for the piece, which will occur about a half dozen more times through the end of the year.
Swinton first performed the piece at the Serpentine Gallery in London in 1995. In 1996, she performed it in the Museo Barracco in Rome.
She won an Oscar in 2008 for best supporting actress for her role in "Michael Clayton."
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How to Install Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean on Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 P3110 with Blackbean ROM [GUIDE]
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Source: www.ibtimes.com --- Sunday, March 24, 2013
Step-by-step guide to install Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean using BlackBean ROM on Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 P3110. ...
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