Durham (a city in North Carolina) is looking to vitalize their already burgeoning startup scene by giving away the "World's Smallest Office," a moniker I once reserved for my attic bathroom but can now be rendered unto a bit of space in the front of a Cafe in Durham's beautiful Downtown. Although the office shown above appears to be more like a monkey cage than a formal workspace, the Smoffice (as it's called) will be available to one small startup for six months. The startup will also receive living space in downtown Durham and (this is just conjecture) a supply of Scuppernong grapes, known also as North Carolina's state fruit.
During a lockdown, if you try to walk across the street to buy bread, your compound guards will not only deny you exit, they?ll reprimand you for being outside at all. It's all part of living in Kabul.
I?ve gotten plenty of phone calls and e-mails from friends and family in the States asking me how I?m coping this week with the angry and deadly protests here over Quran burnings at a military base. I'm OK.
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The barrage of concern directed my way whenever there is a flare-up of some sort here has become part of my normal security updates.?Here in Kabul, those start with a text message or e-mail that reads like a military report.
A staff security director will explain that a situation is developing, and that they are monitoring it carefully, and that employees should stay tuned for further updates.?
A follow-up message will inform you whether what they are watching is peaceful or violent, and whether it is moving or stationary.
Depending on the length of a given protest, certain sections of town invariably become off limits. The largest foreign organizations mark their cars and subsequently worry about being targeted, but many organizations here slip around the city in unmarked cars and local taxis, keeping as low a profile as possible.?
When you get the message that violence is expected, you are put on lockdown, known among expats as "White City" for the UN?s corresponding alert color.
A bizarre ritual sets in: You devour every bit of news being published halfway around the world about events happening within a few blocks of your house, though often you won?t see anything other than empty streets and shuttered shops.
Friends you haven?t heard from in months will check in with you, often with more current news than you have, and ask how you?re coping with the violence.
Because there are no foreigners traversing the streets, traffic is noticeably better. This is particularly so on Fridays,?when most of the city sleeps in and goes to the mosque, and businesses are closed anyway.?
As I?ve learned in the 18 months that I?ve lived here, Kabul is no stranger to protests. The vast majority are peaceful. The crowds, ranging from dozens to a few hundred, are generally exercising their post-Taliban era right to assemble and demanding that this or that corrupt politician or governor be removed from office.
The demonstrations generally follow a fairly formulaic path: Protesters march down to this embassy, that military base, those mammoth international organizations. And the war correspondents who show up, looking for signs of conflict to report on, complain about the traffic and head home.?
Given the frequency of these lockdowns ? every time there is an assassination, explosion, or protest, or often even the threat of one ? an entire catering industry has formed to attend to the needs of those locked down expats stuck in their houses, bored and flush with cash.
And if you try to walk across the street to buy some oven fresh bread, your compound Kalashnikov-toting guards will not only deny you exit, they?ll thoroughly reprimand you, though they themselves will just switch their clothes at the end of their shift and walk home, disappearing into the city without a care in the world.?
In the end, this is all part of living in a city on the edge of a warzone.
Source: www.gotpoetry.com --- Saturday, February 25, 2012 Poetry News: The contest is for Bean and Warner elementary schools and Paragon Academy students, grades third through eighth.Link! ...
Chrome for Android Beta has been updated to 0.16.4215.215, picking up changes that have gone in through Chrome 16.0.912.77. ?Beyond the Chrome changes, this update contains:
Android Beam support - now beam URLs from Chrome to other devices with NFC.
Support for additional countries
Compatibility checks to ensure system prerequisites for Chrome are met
Essential bug fixes
Known issues
112923 : No way to toggle between mobile/desktop UA
113140 : Youtube Links Do Not Prompt For Which Application to Use
113132 : Chrome for Android beta doesn't support configured proxy in wi-fi settings
Other notable issues listed here
If you find a new issue, please let us know byfiling a bug.
A lesson on student loans Student Financial Education Services presents students with advice for dealing with loans. by STUDENT FINANCIAL EDUCATION SERVICES
This article originally appeared in The Tiger on February 24, 2012 | PRINT
Understanding Your Student Loans The majority of college students have them: student loans. Student loans have increased in popularity in recent years, mostly due to the increasing tuition rates seen across the country. As you near the end of your tenure here at Clemson, there are a few things to keep in mind that will better prepare you to deal with your student loans. Where do I find my loans? If you are like many students, you remember receiving the many pieces of mail over the past four years detailing your loans, but now you cannot seem to find the information. You most likely know your loans by the types of loans they are, like Stafford Loan, Perkins Loan and others. These loans are not all made by one company, but are sold off and serviced by a wide variety. There is an easy-to-use resource to help locate all of your student loans and who they are owned or serviced by. The website to help you locate your student loans is http://www.nslds.ed.gov/nslds_SA/. If you have private loans, such as those often made by banks or financial companies such as Discover, Citi, Bank of America or others, you may need to contact that financial institution directly, as their information is sometimes not located in the online database. How do I pay my loans? Once you graduate, you should be proactive about finding out when you need to start paying your student loans back. Graduating from college can be a hectic time, and with all the address changes that you may be going through, it?s easy for mail to get misplaced or sent to the wrong address. It is the responsibility of the borrower, which would be you, to make contact with the owner or servicer of your loan(s) in order to find out when payments begin. The owner or servicer of your loan will most likely offer you several options for repaying your loans, although not all companies offer these options, and some companies may offer more options. Here are a few basic options: Standard Repayment: Think of this payment option as a standard loan, you make fixed payments that do not change from month to month for the standard repayment period (which is typically 10 years). Extended Repayment: This payment option is similar to the standard payment option, except the payment period (which is the time it takes to pay back the loan) will be longer than the standard period. This type of repayment plan may be beneficial to those who have extremely large amounts of student loans and cannot afford the monthly payment under the standard repayment plan. Graduated Repayment: A graduated repayment plan offers the advantage of allowing you to make lower monthly payments right when you get out of school with the monthly payment increasing every set period of time (such as every two or three years). This type of repayment plan is based on the ideal that your income will increase over time. Income Dependent Repayment: This payment plan is available in certain government loan situations and allows the borrower to pay a certain percentage of their income toward the loan until the loan is paid off or until a time limit of 25 years is reached. If the time limit of 25 years is reached, the government will forgive the remaining balance on the debt, although tax implications may apply. Although these are just a few of the standard payment options, it is important to keep your current situation in mind when determining which payment plan is right for you. It is also important to think of the payment plan in terms of which will cost you the most in interest, as opposed to those repayment plans that will accrue the least amount of interest. Students are responsible for verifying the information in this article prior to making financial decisions. If you would like additional information on student loan payment plans or help understanding your student loan situation, please visit the Student Financial Education Office located in The Union, Office 805. You can set up an appointment by emailing us at sfes1@clemson.edu or calling us at (864) 656-7337. Views: 32 View the discussion thread. http://tourism9.com/??? http://vkins.com/
CNS video: Watch what some American students in Rome are doing to keep Latin alive youtu.be/Qle8Mk4h8S84:57 PM Feb 23rdvia TweetDeckRetweeted by 4 people
[unable to retrieve full-text content]LiveScience.com - The collapse of the ancient Mayan civilization may have been linked to relatively modest dry spells, researchers now say.
Rush Limbaugh on Wednesday gave a signal of approval to Rick Santorum?s explanation of his 2008 ?Satan? comment, calling it a ?pretty good answer,? while warning that there is only one person who poses a threat to the country?s religious liberty: President Barack Obama.
Limbaugh, who had said on his radio show Tuesday that Santorum would have to explain his comments that ?Satan has his sights on the United States of America,? relayed to his listeners the Republican candidate?s response from the campaign trail.
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??He told CNN, ?I?m a person of faith. I believe in good in evil. If somehow or another because you?re a person of faith and you believe in good and evil is a disqualifier for president, we?re going to have a very small pool of candidates who can run for president,? which I think is a pretty good answer,? Limbaugh said, according to a transcript of his show.
The conservative radio host charged, ?Do you think Santorum is a threat to your religious liberty? If you do, you are wrong. Barack Obama has already shown that he is a threat to religious liberty. He has already indicated he doesn?t believe in it.?
Limbaugh also cautioned that if the Democratic establishment chooses to treat the discussion of good an evil as ?something odd,? they would only find themselves ?so out of touch with the vast majority of Americans.?
The comments Santorum made at Ave Maria University in Florida years ago went viral after the speech headlined the Drudge Report.
?This is a spiritual war. And the Father of Lies has his sights on what you would think the Father of Lies would have his sights on: a good, decent, powerful, influential country ? the United States of America. If you were Satan, who would you attack in this day and age,? the GOP hopeful said in the summer of 2008. ?He attacks all of us and he attacks all of our institutions.?
Limbaugh took to the airwaves soon after, saying that Santorum will ?have to have an answer for these things when queried.?
Santorum was indeed asked about the remarks Tuesday, and responded by calling the question ?a joke? and ?absurd. Limbaugh said Wednesday that this reaction was ?exactly right.?
?In a political sense, the Democrats or the regime here, if you?re going to try to make an issue out of this good and evil business, you?re going to be in the minority,? he said, noting that the vast majority of Americans believe in the concept of good and evil.
Moving into a new house is a vast and challenging task, however there are numerous shifting organizations or movers to create the endeavor uncomplicated. Discovering an ideal shifting business is vital and there are specific lawful techniques also to contemplate when signing a agreement with the moving services. As there?s lots of work associated in the moving process much of your time the legalities of moving are overlooked. Many people don?t even know about these lawful techniques. The subsequent details are going to be handy when choosing your shifting business.
Legitimate techniques must be followed by each the consumer along with the shifting business. The customers have certain rights prior in order to signing a agreement with a moving company and moving firms should abide by them. Firstly the customer really should be given a compulsory approximation from the moving services, wherein the cost from the complete shifting practice and all other hidden price with all of the conditions and ailments are going to be described.
The consumer will sign a contract with all the moving services earlier than 54 the relocating procedure however it is important to read the contract very carefully earlier than signing it, as well as consumer has all of the rights to refuse to sign the contract if it is actually an incomplete document.
Moving Services
The consumer also has rights to make contact with with multiple shifting organizations and acquire estimations from them. The consumer can compare and contrast the quotations and choose the ideal amongst them however it is significant to maintain the quotation of each business from all of the many others.
The consumer also has certain responsibilities when shifting is in practice for which the consumer are going to be liable. Fulfillment of all those responsibilities are going to be handy to finish the endeavor in time without having unexpected challenges. The consumer should really prepare a list of all of the belongings in detail that have been uploaded to transport to the new place. The corporation as well as consumer should really each confirm the list earlier than and after the moving process. It reduces the chance of dropping the merchandise and also prevents misunderstanding between consumer as well as removal.
A few of the moving companies supply insurance for expensive merchandise. Consumer should really have an understanding of the conditions and ailments as well as stage of compensation earlier than signing the insurance document. It will have a number of ways during which a business won?t be liable for damages- all of which should really be fully realistic ? nevertheless the consumer should really be familiar with them earlier than the move commences.
For more information on moving company dial 0207 096 1146
Rivalry is the spruce of life since it forces an individual to do considerably better to remain on the top. Web market place is no distinct. Each day, many new sites are being developed whilst the current ones are constantly modified. Deep-down, every webmaster wishes to make his web site the most beneficial in order that it draws in the most volume of site visitors, guaranteeing greater conversions and increased earnings. Acquiring a personalized web site made by experts is the best approach towards the accomplishment of this goal however it's not the end of alternatives. In reality it's the beginning. Coupling with the very best individuals in the market is what an individual needs to aim for simply because this would not only get an individual an excellent web site but lifelong associations for useful internet tips.
Skilled NJ web design businesses assure their clients of fantastic functioning connection, supplying the greatest options to their problems by making their clients goals their personal. This process from the nj web design organizations enables the clients to give the key activity of developing a website that will become the face of their online business.
Web-site developing is not just related to supplying interesting artwork or eye-catching visuals, but regarding the confidence that an individual sets in the creator. The NJ web design firms make web-sites with an idea ensuring clarity of intent, desirable appeal and uncomplicated navigability. Since every single business is exclusive, its specifications aren't the same as other folks. Taking this cue, the NJ web design firms start out the procedure of webdesign by being attentive to their clientle indicating their demands. After the idea is apparent, a primary draft in accordance with the facts and tips of the buyer is generated. This original draft is then approved by the client and any adjustments demanded are involved by the NJ web design firms.
A confidently desirable site is useless if it's unfamiliar to the web based community. This requires the useful usage of search engine optimization tools, that would place the site higher in the search engine results. Useful Search engine optimization offerings are the stand out point of a number of the NJ web design firms and they build tactics strongly related to their clients business. This allows in putting the newly developed site in the top positions of the primary search engine results.
The part of the NJ web design firm is not confined to designing a web page but furthermore includes the provision of linked guidance offerings for example that relating to website statistics, functionality, search engine marketing and performance optimization to make sure that the Roi for the site is optimized. Every business ought to adapt to new problems and chances and this extends to the digital tactic also. The NJ web design firms offer adaptable offerings to ensure that any particular demands of clientle can be handled consequently.
Consequently, those trying to find professional looking web-sites for the goal of remaining ahead in competition should analyze for the best nj web design firm. The web is the best platform to locate such a company. One can go to message boards or take critiques from present buyers to obtain the most reliable, credible and proficient nj web design firm.
One of the most common ailments that afflict the human being is impairment or loss of hearing. The malady of partial or total loss of hearing profoundly impacts the normal day-to-day routine work of an individual. While there are revolutionary treatments for partial or temporary loss of hearing, total loss of hearing requires external aids for hearing to enable a patient to hear clearly. There are several causes of loss of hearing, some of which are on account of continual exposure to higher noise levels, noises emitted through explosions, or even non removal of wax in the ears. A timely treatment could enable a person to hear properly and with a substantial amount of clarity. However, a hearing aid is one of the most radical devices that have been invented through years of research.
A hearing aid is basically an electro-acoustic device that perfectly fits in the ear of the wearer and is ideally designed to amplify and adjust the sound to the convenience of the user of the hearing aid.
A Vast Array
There is a large variety of Hearing Aids that are available in the market. However, the selection of the appropriate piece of hearing aid depends on the size, power and the electrical circuitry of the hearing aid and the prescribed hearing aid by the medical specialist. The assortment of hearing aids includes body worn aids, behind the ear aids, in the ear aids, various types of canal inserted hearing aids. These hearing aids are used without any surgical intervention. One of the latest inventions in hearing aids in the last decade are the digital hearing aids, which are the fourth generation hearing aids and are equipped with proven and reliable characteristics.
With around a hundred various models of digital hearing aids manufactured by more than twenty producers, they have become the standard hearing aid for patients the world over. Digital hearing aids pick up the analog sound and convert it into binary code which is later on processed. The proficiency of the digital hearing aid largely depends on the elements used in the process of production. However, there is still a preference for the analog hearing aids since several people prefer it over the digital hearing aids as the sound appears to be much better through analog models.
Reputed Manufacturers
While there are several manufacturers of hearing aids all over the world, some of the better hearing aids are well known from their unparalleled reputation. Phonak Hearing Aids and Widex hearing aids are prominent hearing aids and are widely used throughout the world. Phonak is a Swiss based company that has a large collection of digital hearing aids users throughout the world.Similarly, Widex digital hearing aids are one of the most commonly used hearing aids and are assisting patients afflicted with hearing loss in a remarkable manner. ?
MetroPCS currently offers seven different smartphones, but only three of them support the carrier's 4G LTE network. Since MetroPCS doesn't have a 3G network, you're stuck in the 2G Internet slow lane without LTE. The $199 Samsung Galaxy Attain 4G offers users an alternative to the pricier LG Esteem ($299, 4 stars), our current Editors' Choice. While the Galaxy Attain is a fine midrange option, it could've been better with just a few tweaks.
Design, Call Quality, and Data Plans The Samsung Galaxy Attain measures 4.6 by 2.6 by .5 inches (HWD). At 4.2 ounces it's light, but feels kind of thick, like it's hiding a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. (It's not.) Made of shiny grey plastic with a textured back panel, the Galaxy Attain looks and feels midrange, but it's a nice, comfortable phone to hold and use.
The 3.5-inch, 320-by-480-pixel capacitive touch LCD is nice and bright and looks sharp enough, although text can sometimes look a bit fuzzy.?It would've been nicer to see a higher resolution. Typing and dialing numbers feels fine on the on-screen Swype QWERTY keyboard, but haptic feedback feels a bit delayed.
The Galaxy Attain works on MetroPCS's LTE network where it can find it, and on the much slower 2G CDMA network where it can't. The phone also uses 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi and connected to my WPA2-encrypted Wi-Fi network without a problem.
Reception is fine, but call quality has some issues on the Attain. Voices sound full, clear, and easy to understand in the phone's earpiece. But calls made with the phone sound fuzzy and thin on the other end, with poor background noise cancellation. Calls sounded fine through a?Jawbone Era?Bluetooth headset ($129, 4.5 stars), and Nuance-powered voice dialing worked well over Bluetooth without training. The speakerphone was too quiet to use outside, though calls sounded fine. Battery life was good at 8 hours, 16 minutes of talk time.
4G LTE on MetroPCS is very different than it is on AT&T and Verizon. As we discovered in our Fastest Mobile Networks testing, rather than offering spectacular speeds, MetroPCS is going for decent speeds at very low prices. The carrier's average 4G speeds are more like a very good 3G network. This proved to be true with the Attain, which pulled in average download speeds of 2.6Mbps and uploads of 2.7Mbps.
MetroPCS's biggest selling point is its inexpensive monthly plans. For $60 per month, you can get unlimited talk, text, and data, along with unlimited music from Rhapsody or video on demand from MetroStudio. A $50 plan gets you unlimited talk, text, and Web with 1GB of streaming data, while a new $40 plan offers unlimited talk, text, and Web with 100MB of streaming data.?
Apps, Multimedia, Camera and Conclusions The Galaxy Attain runs Android 2.3.6 (Gingerbread). There's no word yet on an update to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich).?Samsung has made some modifications to the UI with its TouchWiz overlay. There are seven customizable home screens you can swipe between, which come preloaded with some standard apps and widgets. Like many MetroPCS phones, the Attain has been loaded with a fair share of bloatware, none of which is deletable.
The Attain is powered by a 1GHz Snapdragon S2 MSM8655 processor like the LG Esteem, though it benchmarks a bit slower. Still, it should be fast enough for most uses aside from high-end gaming. Google Maps Navigation and MetroNavigator both offer free, voice-enabled, turn-by-turn GPS directions. MetroPCS includes an IM and Social app, which bundles apps for AIM, Facebook, Google Talk, and Twitter, among others, all in one place for quick access. The Galaxy Attain should also be compatible with most of the 300,000+ apps in Android Market.
Multimedia, Camera, and Conclusions Multimedia support is a strong point on the Attain. There's a microSD card slot underneath the battery cover. The phones comes with 1.41GB of free internal storage, along with a 2GB microSD card; my 32 and 64GB SanDisk cards worked fine as well. The phone was able to play back all of our music test files, and sound quality was fine over both wired 3.5mm headphones and?Altec Lansing BackBeat?Bluetooth headphones ($99.99, 3.5 stars). All of our test videos played back well in resolutions up to 720p.
The Attain's 3-megapixel camera takes surprisingly decent photos. Color and detail are both relatively sharp, considering the lower megapixel count. The camera records 720-by-480-pixel video at a smooth 30 frames per second both indoors and out. There's also a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera for video chat.
The Samsung Galaxy Attain 4G is a perfectly useful midrange LTE smartphone for MetroPCS. With better call quality and a higher-res display, it would have replaced the LG Esteem as our pick. But as it stands, the Esteem gets you a bigger, nicer display and better call quality, albeit for $100 more. MetroPCS's other LTE device, the Samsung Galaxy Indulge?($199, 3.5 stars), has a physical slide-out QWERTY keyboard, but it also has a lackluster display and poorer call quality than the Attain. If you don't want to drop down to 2G speeds, you may also want to check out the?LG Marquee?($279.99, 4 stars) over on Boost or the Huawei Mercury?on Cricket ($179.99, 4.5 stars). Both phones feature nicer displays and better call quality than the Attain, at similarly low monthly prices.
LONDON (Reuters) ? Christie's on Tuesday kicked off a fortnight of major London art sales with a bang, hitting or exceeding the most optimistic pre-sale expectations and extending 2011's record-breaking run into the new year.
At its impressionist and modern evening sale, the world's largest auctioneer sold works worth 97.8 million pounds ($155 million), which was toward the top end of estimates.
The Art of the Surreal auction raised an additional 37.2 million pounds ($59 million), well above the valuation range of 19.6-29.1 million pounds, although the total included buyers' premiums whereas pre-sale estimates did not.
According to preliminary figures, Christie's overall sold art worth 135.0 million pounds (slightly under $214 million), topping the high estimate of 127.1 million pounds as the London art world enters a two-week period of auctions that are off to a strong start.
British sculptor Henry Moore was the night's top lot. His "Reclining Figure: Festival" soared to 19.1 million pounds ($30.3 million) compared with pre-sale estimates of 3.5-5.5 million. Christie's said it was an auction record for the artist.
In the surreal section, Christie's also smashed the auction record for Spanish painter Joan Miro when "Painting-Poem" went for 16.8 million pounds ($26.6 million), double its estimate.
Vincent Van Gogh's "Vue de l'asile et de la Chapelle de Saint-Remy", from the collection of the late Hollywood actress Elizabeth Taylor, raised 10.1 million pounds ($16 million) versus expectations of 5.0-7.0 million.
"As the crown jewel of her art collection, we are delighted with the price achieved for Van Gogh's 'Vue de l'asile', a profoundly beautiful work from one of creative high points of the artist's career," Marc Porter, Chairman of Christie's Americas, said in a statement.
Juan Gris' "Le livre" went under the hammer for 10.3 million pounds, just short of the low estimate of 12 million.
The strong night launches Christie's into the new year on a positive note after it posted record revenues of 3.6 billion pounds in 2011, an increase of nine percent from 2010. Those figures underlined the ongoing strength of the "blue chip" art market that concentrates on top artists and rare works.
Emerging collectors from mainland China have been a driving force, and experts also believe investors are considering art as an alternative to stocks, bonds and currencies given the strength of the market in the last two years.
Rival Sotheby's holds its equivalent auction on Wednesday evening, and the two companies stage a second series of post-war and contemporary sales the following week.
Combined, the auctioneers are offering art worth in excess of 500 million pounds (roughly $800 million).
(Reporting by Mike Collett-White; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
ST. PAUL, Minn. ? Mitt Romney could face a significant challenge in Minnesota.
The mood has changed since the former Massachusetts governor won the state's caucuses in 2008. A state that once took pride in political consensus has turned as contentious as any other. Last summer's bitter government shutdown was a lowlight.
Romney campaigned four years ago as the more conservative choice than Arizona Sen. John McCain. This time around, Romney is the mainstream front-runner up against more conservative rivals, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.
And that makes Tuesday's caucuses unpredictable. Chuck Slocum led Minnesota Republicans in the mid-1970s. He says the activists expected to dominate small turnout are among the most conservative in the country.
Greensboro, North Carolina?s 9-member City Council on Tuesday will consider a resolution opposing a proposed constitutional amendment which would ban gay marriage in the state, local Fox affiliate MyFox8.com reported.
Voters will decide on the measure during North Carolina?s presidential primary in May.
If approved, the amendment would bar North Carolina from recognizing the relationships of gay and lesbian couples with marriage, civil unions and possibly domestic partnerships.
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Click here for gay wedding resources in North Carolina.
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They assist you learn more about automotive maintenance, car and truck accessories and car audio systems. At most beginner?s, general auto repair guides take you step-by-step through some of the most basic maintenance and repair processes which are present with all vehicles. You?re making your hard earned money if you buy, it becomes an important critical for your ability to succeed. You simply must pay wholesale price or below less the expense of any needed repairs, along with other expenses ie: detailing, newspaper ads, etc. When you know the wholesale price, less repair costs and expenses, you should understand how much you can purchase a vehicle. Auto repair can be a headache for motorists worldwide. Repair and replacing of parts are getting to be so costly that motorists are seeking cheap auto repair as an option to regular repair. It mandates that the maker must repair or replace the parts that control the emissions appearing out of your exhaust system. In addition to emission control the manufacturer can be to blame for the smog your automobile causes if you reside in California. If the mechanic is fully gone fixing this dilemma, the new new driver gets a complimentary smog control certificate.
Getting a car is a very important investment. You should always want to protect your savings the easiest way you can. You don?t want your vehicle for being more of a liability than a good point. If you?re not careful that is certainly exactly what can occur. A lot of them give extended warranties services for his or her clients. They even can undertake heavy engine and transmission repair and replacement as needed. Some dealers get their own websites from where you?ll be able to download special auto repair coupon codes. Besides donating your car or truck you can even donate your boat and motorcycles. This car which you donate might help offer the needy and provides them a much better life as well as allow you to get a tax cut. Moreover countless blessings. So just do it, donate your used car today.
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JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash.?? The Army on Friday dropped all charges against the fifth soldier accused of murdering Afghan civilians for sport during a 2010 deployment, in one of the most gruesome cases to emerge from the Afghan war.
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Spc. Michael Wagnon of Las Vegas had been charged with the unlawful killing of one Afghan civilian. He had been expected to go to trial in March.
In a statement late Friday, Joint Base Lewis-McChord said the charges were dismissed "in the interest of justice."
Four other soldiers from a Lewis-McChord Stryker brigade have been sent to prison in the killings of three unarmed men during patrols in Kandahar province.
On Thursday, Army Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs of Billings, Mont., was convicted of murder, conspiracy and other charges in the case. Gibbs was accused of exhorting his bored underlings to slaughter three civilians for sport.
A military jury sentenced him to life in prison, but he will be eligible for parole in less than nine years.
Gibbs was the highest ranking of the five soldiers charged in the deaths of the unarmed men during patrols in Kandahar province early last year. At his seven-day court martial at Joint Base Lewis-McChord south of Seattle, the 26-year-old acknowledged cutting fingers off corpses and yanking out a victim's tooth to keep as war trophies, "like keeping the antlers off a deer you'd shoot."
But he insisted he wasn't involved in the first or third killings, and in the second he merely returned fire.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Sediments from the Enol lake reveal more than 13,500 years of environmental history
Friday, February 3, 2012
A team of Spanish researchers have used different geological samples, extracted from the Enol lake in Asturias, to show that the Holocene, a period that started 11,600 years ago, did not have a climate as stable as was believed.
The Holocene period, which includes the last 11,600 years of our history, has always been described as a stable period in terms of climatic conditions, especially when compared to the abrupt changes that occurred in the last ice age, which ended around 10,000 years ago, giving way to the Holocene.
A study carried out by researchers from the Pyrenean Institute of Ecology (IPE) at the Spanish Research Scientific Council (CSIC), in collaboration with other scientists from Zaragoza, La Coru?a, Valencia and C?diz universities, and published in the Journal of Paleolimnology, has found climatic differences amongst the "stable" 13,500 years.
The study specifically focused on the Enol lake (Asturias), where various sediment samples were extracted from the bottom. These samples provide data about the regional humidity and temperature changes in the area over more than 135 centuries.
The project, together with a previous study that details the last ice age and another, more recent one that examines the last centuries, implies "the first time glacial evolution and climate change have been registered in the last 40,000 years in the Picos de Europa National Park" claims Ana Moreno, researcher from the IPE-CSIC and lead author of the study.
The Enol lake was formed 40,000 years ago following the retreat of a glacier which dug a trough, allowing the accumulation of sediments and water. 18,000 years ago it was already a lake and organic sediments that are currently being studied were starting to be deposited.
From the lake sediments the physical properties and the amounts of organic carbon, carbonate and other elements, could be analysed, as well as some biological indicators, such as diatom and ostracod fossils.
Vegetation cover evolution
Furthermore, the detailed study of pollen accumulated in this material allows us to make a reconstruction of the variations of vegetation cover, which is crucial information in the context of climate change and the impact of human beings.
The researchers recognised at least 4 different stages in the Holocene: the first one was cold and dry, between 13,500 to 11,600 years ago (cal years BP) which included a brief return to the icy condition known as Younger Dryas. This was followed by a period of higher temperature and humidity, between 11,600 and 8,700 years ago, which coincided with the beginning of the Holocene.
The third period had a drier climate, between 8,700 and 4,650 years ago, and finally a return to the more humid climate from then up to 2,220 years ago. The study also highlights the changes caused in the latest period caused by human activity, specifically from pasture and deforestation.
The study's conclusions therefore report significant environmental changes throughout the last 13,500 years in history. They also show how at the beginning of the Holocene, the vegetation coverage of the area, which until that time had consisted of Pinus (pine), Betula (birch) and Quercus (oak), then became a forest of mainly Quercus.
Researchers also highlight an increase in precipitation for nearly twelve centuries (between 9,750 and 8,600 years ago), which led to an increase in Corylus, or in other words, Hazel. Although the study of these geological traces from the Enol lake only covers up to 2,200 years ago, it is possible to determine the environmental impact that the region's inhabitants of that time had from studying the pollen.
Former use of mountain pastures
Moreno said that "The use of mountain pastures is possibly the oldest documented human activity in the area. As we have seen, the lengthy sampling of Lago Enol detected that an opening in the landscape began 4,650 years ago, and most notably from 2,700 years ago".
The results also show that from 4,650 years ago, humans contributed a greater presence of herbaceous species (from the Plantago and Rumex Acetosella genera) and a decrease in the area's woodlands.
Those in charge of the study claim that these hydrological and landscape stages from the Enol lake sediments demonstrate the biggest changes in the climate registered during the Holocene in the south of Europe. The Cantabria mountains were like that 2,200 years ago, a date that coincided with the Roman occupation and the start of the Second Punic Wars against the Carthaginians led by Hannibal.
In a more recent study, these researchers found from the pollen register that there have been many alterations in the landscape, which were caused by human activity in the last 200 years. For example, they detected a change in the number of coprophilious fungi (which feed on the faeces of the livestock that graze there) throughout the twentieth century.
According to the researchers, this is due to the fact that "the indigenous bovine livestock were replaced by Alpine Brown cattle, and, before that, high-milk yielding Frisians. This way it changes from being an extensive livestock on the mountain, with the indigenous cattle, to another intensive type, with stables at the bottom of the valley. Another change that the pollen shows is the introduction of eucalyptus plants in 1930.
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FECYT - Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology: http://www.fecyt.es/fecyt/home.do
Thanks to FECYT - Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology for this article.
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NYU Courant researchers weigh methods to more accurately measure genome sequencingPublic release date: 3-Feb-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: James Devitt james.devitt@nyu.edu 212-998-6808 New York University
Lost in the euphoria of the 2003 announcement that the human genome had been sequenced was a fundamental question: how can we be sure that an individual's genome has been read correctly?
While the first full, individual genome was sequenced a decade ago, given the vast genetic variation across the world's seven billion people, not to mention the differences in makeup even among close relatives, the question of accurate sequencing for individuals has continued to vex researchers.
With companies now projecting they can sequence a genome for a $1,000, down from $25,000 just a few years ago, and efforts to develop "personalized" medicines, this matter is taking on increased significance in today's marketplace. These cheaper endeavors rely on newer technologies, which assume that scientists can continue to use the standard shotgun approach of randomly chopping down the genome into smaller pieces and then reassembling them algorithmically. Specifically, today's lower cost is achieved by breaking the DNA into even tinier pieces and rapidly and cheaply reading a massive amount of them. But it is not clear how to assess the accuracy of the newer assembly algorithms and the basic shotgun approach, especially if the accuracy of the earlier genomic data is questionable.
Among the particular challenges in confirming the accuracy of the sequencing of an individual's genome is matching a person's phenotype, or physical trait, with his or her genotype, or genetic makeup. This has served, in particular, as a barrier to successful development of personalized medicines, which were predicted shortly after the first sequencing of the human genome, but have yet to truly materialize.
In an article in the journal PLoS One, researchers at New York University's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences evaluate some current methods to sequence individual genomesa study that serves as a "stress test" of the efficacy of these practices.
The researchers employed testing procedures that aim to identify key, or representative, features of the genome as well as how each of these features is related to others.
"Most current technologies, when assembling a genome, make several kinds of mistakes when they encounter a repeated regionwhere a substring of the letters that make up DNA strands re-occur in many locations in the genome," explained Bud Mishra, a professor of computer science and mathematics and the study's senior author. "The input random reads tend to collect in one such location, and also show much higher discrepancies among themselves."
To test the viability of these procedures, the NYU researchers relied on a collection of features from an open-source software, AMOS, developed by a public consortium of genomicists and bioinformaticists. If a method has accurately sequenced an individual's entire genome, the researchers hypothesized, then the components of that method's creation should "fit together," and will be consistent with other auxiliary data like "mate pairs," "optical maps," or "strobed sequences," all of which constitute long-range information from the genome. Currently, the use of mate pairs is quite common in sequence assembly and validation algorithms, but not the other two.
While they found shortcomings in all examined methods for sequencing an individual's genome, some assemblers showed promise. The NYU researchers' conclusions were derived from a procedure called Feature-Response Curve (FRCurve), which effectively shows a global picture of how different assemblers are able to deal with different regions and different structures in a large complex genome. In this way, it also points out how an assembler might have traded off one kind of quality measure at the expense of another kind. For instance, it shows how aggressively a genome assembler might have tried to pull together a group of genes into a contiguous piece of the genome, while incorrectly rearranging their correct order and copy-numbers.
"Such errors have important consequences, especially if the technology is being used to study the genome of a tumor, which often can be highly heterogeneous, making each tumor cell's genome rearranged and mutated very differently from its neighbors'," explained Mishra.
###
The study's other co-authors were NYU summer visitor Francesco Vezzi, now at Italy's University of Udine, and NYU graduate student Giuseppe Narzisi, now at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
The study was supported by the National Science Foundation and Abraxis BioScience, LLC.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
NYU Courant researchers weigh methods to more accurately measure genome sequencingPublic release date: 3-Feb-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: James Devitt james.devitt@nyu.edu 212-998-6808 New York University
Lost in the euphoria of the 2003 announcement that the human genome had been sequenced was a fundamental question: how can we be sure that an individual's genome has been read correctly?
While the first full, individual genome was sequenced a decade ago, given the vast genetic variation across the world's seven billion people, not to mention the differences in makeup even among close relatives, the question of accurate sequencing for individuals has continued to vex researchers.
With companies now projecting they can sequence a genome for a $1,000, down from $25,000 just a few years ago, and efforts to develop "personalized" medicines, this matter is taking on increased significance in today's marketplace. These cheaper endeavors rely on newer technologies, which assume that scientists can continue to use the standard shotgun approach of randomly chopping down the genome into smaller pieces and then reassembling them algorithmically. Specifically, today's lower cost is achieved by breaking the DNA into even tinier pieces and rapidly and cheaply reading a massive amount of them. But it is not clear how to assess the accuracy of the newer assembly algorithms and the basic shotgun approach, especially if the accuracy of the earlier genomic data is questionable.
Among the particular challenges in confirming the accuracy of the sequencing of an individual's genome is matching a person's phenotype, or physical trait, with his or her genotype, or genetic makeup. This has served, in particular, as a barrier to successful development of personalized medicines, which were predicted shortly after the first sequencing of the human genome, but have yet to truly materialize.
In an article in the journal PLoS One, researchers at New York University's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences evaluate some current methods to sequence individual genomesa study that serves as a "stress test" of the efficacy of these practices.
The researchers employed testing procedures that aim to identify key, or representative, features of the genome as well as how each of these features is related to others.
"Most current technologies, when assembling a genome, make several kinds of mistakes when they encounter a repeated regionwhere a substring of the letters that make up DNA strands re-occur in many locations in the genome," explained Bud Mishra, a professor of computer science and mathematics and the study's senior author. "The input random reads tend to collect in one such location, and also show much higher discrepancies among themselves."
To test the viability of these procedures, the NYU researchers relied on a collection of features from an open-source software, AMOS, developed by a public consortium of genomicists and bioinformaticists. If a method has accurately sequenced an individual's entire genome, the researchers hypothesized, then the components of that method's creation should "fit together," and will be consistent with other auxiliary data like "mate pairs," "optical maps," or "strobed sequences," all of which constitute long-range information from the genome. Currently, the use of mate pairs is quite common in sequence assembly and validation algorithms, but not the other two.
While they found shortcomings in all examined methods for sequencing an individual's genome, some assemblers showed promise. The NYU researchers' conclusions were derived from a procedure called Feature-Response Curve (FRCurve), which effectively shows a global picture of how different assemblers are able to deal with different regions and different structures in a large complex genome. In this way, it also points out how an assembler might have traded off one kind of quality measure at the expense of another kind. For instance, it shows how aggressively a genome assembler might have tried to pull together a group of genes into a contiguous piece of the genome, while incorrectly rearranging their correct order and copy-numbers.
"Such errors have important consequences, especially if the technology is being used to study the genome of a tumor, which often can be highly heterogeneous, making each tumor cell's genome rearranged and mutated very differently from its neighbors'," explained Mishra.
###
The study's other co-authors were NYU summer visitor Francesco Vezzi, now at Italy's University of Udine, and NYU graduate student Giuseppe Narzisi, now at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
The study was supported by the National Science Foundation and Abraxis BioScience, LLC.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
[unable to retrieve full-text content]When it comes to choosing what stocks to put into your investment portfolio, cheaper can sometimes mean better. For relatively more affordable stocks, the.
Posted by annarborrealestateexpert on February 2nd, 2012
Ann Arbor Condo Real Estate Update ? February 2012
Fox Pointe Condos, Ann Arbor have a great location near shopping, restaurants, area freeways and more, making them a popular choice among Ann Arbor condo buyers. These stacked ranch units feature numerous upgrades and many back to either the pond or wooded areas. There is currently 1 condo listed for rent and in 2011, 3 condos rented and 3 condos sold.
Condo Listed for Rent:
$1395/month. 1382 square feet with 2 bedrooms and 2 baths.
Rented Condos:
$1200/month. 1382 square feet with 2 bedrooms and 2 baths.
$1350/month. 1382 square feet with 2 bedrooms and 2 baths.
$1350/month. 1382 square feet with 2 bedrooms and 2 baths.
Sold Condos:
$118,000. 1382 square feet with 2 bedrooms and 2 baths. Listed by The Bouma Group
$125,000. 1382 square feet with 2 bedrooms and 2 baths. Listed by The Bouma Group
$125,000. 1382 square feet with 2 bedrooms and 2 baths. Listed by The Bouma Group
Comparing 2011 to 2010, condo prices at Fox Pointe have remained about the same and have risen from the low in 2009. The Bouma Group has listed and sold many Fox Pointe condos and knows this market very well. If you?d like to know more about these Ann Arbor condos, or the nearby Heatherwood, Weatherstone, or Valley Ranch condos, contact us today at 734-761-3060 or info@bouma.com. Check out our Ann Arbor Condo Hotline ? a terrific source for listing data, recent sold information, by-laws, floor plans and more for Washtenaw County condominiums!
Categories: Ann Arbor Condo Market Updates, Ann Arbor Condominium Complexes, Ann Arbor Real Estate, Fox Pointe
The Giants and Patriots have repeatedly said all week here that this is not 2008. These teams are different.
Still, Tom Brady noted Wednesday morning at his media session that not everything has changed. The Giants defensive line is still talking.
?It wouldn?t be the Super Bowl if they weren?t talking about coming to knock me down, knock me out,? Brady said.
He?s not kidding. I heard Justin Tuck, Osi Umenyiora, and Jason Pierre-Paul all say they felt they could ?rattle? Brady during their Media Day sessions.
?I think it starts with hitting him, even when you don?t actually get sacks, just keeping people around him so he can?t step up,? Tuck said. ?I think he gets a little frustrated when he has to go to his second or third receivers.
?You can kind of confuse him sometimes with our coverage. I think there are a lot of things that can get him rattled, but it just seems like not too many people are able to do that.?
Even the Giants coaching staff is getting in on the act.
?We did some things that disrupted his timing. We caused him to stay jittery in the pocket. Hopefully we can do that again,??defensive coordinator Perry Fewell said.
Brady was off target in the first regular game, but that was more about his accuracy and New York?s coverage than their pass rush. His protection mostly held up.
Brady?s offensive line will need to play well again on Sunday, or it will really feel like 2008 again.
WASHINGTON ? Some members of Congress want to include executive branch employees in a bill that would ban lawmakers from using nonpublic information to made stock trades. The bill also would require public reporting of new securities transactions within 30 days, all part of an effort by Congress to boost its dismal approval ratings that are now in the teens.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor told reporters Tuesday that if the bill now before the Senate isn't expanded to include the executive branch, he would add that provision to a bill expected to receive a House vote sometime in February.
A Senate amendment proposed by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., would include the executive branch.
"Why would this rule not apply to executive employees in the administration?" Coburn asked.
Actually, parts of the bill already apply, but not the 30-day reporting requirement.
Standards of conduct for the executive branch prohibit government workers from "engaging in financial transactions using nonpublic information, or allowing the improper use of nonpublic information to further private interests." Senior executive branch officials must publicly file annual financial disclosure reports ? the same as members of Congress and their senior staff.
It was unclear when the Senate would be ready to vote on the legislation.
U.S. lawmakers already are subject to the same penalties as other investors who use non-public information to enrich themselves, though no member of Congress in recent memory has been charged with insider trading. In 2005, the Securities and Exchange Commission and Justice Department investigated then-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's sale of stock in his family's hospital company, but no charges were ever brought against the Tennessee Republican.
Voters may believe lawmakers who are paid an annual salary of $174,000 are enriching themselves ? especially if those voters saw a segment of CBS' "60 Minutes" in November. The show questioned trades by a House committee chairman, the current speaker and his predecessor's husband. Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., all denied wrongdoing. Bachus chairs the Financial Services Committee.
A recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll of registered voters found 56 percent favored replacing the entire 535-member Congress. Other polls this year have given Congress approval ratings between 11 percent and 13 percent, while disapproval percentages have ranged from 79 percent to 86 percent.
The bill is titled the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act. President Barack Obama has endorsed it.
The Senate bill would prohibit lawmakers from tipping off family members or others about non-public information that could influence a stock's price, in addition to the explicit ban itself. And it would direct the House and Senate ethics committees to write rules that would make insider trading violators subject to congressional punishment.
Durham (a city in North Carolina) is looking to vitalize their already burgeoning startup scene by giving away the "World's Smallest Office," a moniker I once reserved for my attic bathroom but can now be rendered unto a bit of space in the front of a Cafe in Durham's beautiful Downtown. Although the office shown above appears to be more like a monkey cage than a formal workspace, the Smoffice (as it's called) will be available to one small startup for six months. The startup will also receive living space in downtown Durham and (this is just conjecture) a supply of Scuppernong grapes, known also as North Carolina's state fruit.
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Greensboro, North Carolina?s 9-member City Council on Tuesday will consider a resolution opposing a proposed constitutional amendment which would ban gay marriage in the state, local Fox affiliate MyFox8.com reported.![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 3-Feb-2012
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