Sunday, January 27, 2013

Japan voters split on revising pacifist constitution: poll

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese voters are divided over Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's goal of revising the post-World War Two pacifist constitution to ease limits on the military, although nearly 90 percent of lower house lawmakers back the change, an opinion poll showed.

Abe, who returned to the premiership after his conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) won a huge election victory last month, has made clear he wants to loosen the constitutional limits on the military. The constitution has never been formally altered since it was drafted by U.S. Occupation forces in 1947.

The survey by the Asahi newspaper and a University of Tokyo research team showed that 50 percent of voters were in favor of revising the constitution, up from 41 percent in 2009 but far below the 89 percent of members of parliament elected in December's lower house election who want to alter the charter.

Forty-five percent of voters were in favor of allowing Japan to exercise its right to collective self-defense, or coming to the aid of an ally under attack. That was up from 37 percent in 2009, but well below the 79 percent of MPs who back the change in interpretation of the constitution.

Poll questions were mailed to 3,000 voters last month, of whom 1,889 responded. The lawmakers were surveyed before December's election.

Japan has for decades been stretching the limits of the constitution's pacifist Article Nine, which if strictly interpreted bans even the maintenance of a military. It has dispatched troops for international peace keeping operations and to Iraq on a non-combat reconstruction mission in 2004-2006.

But changes have been politically contentious, while signs Japan is flexing its military muscle have the potential to upset rival China, where memories of Tokyo's war-time aggression run deep. China and Japan are also now locked in a territorial row.

Constitutional revisions require the backing of two-thirds of the lawmakers in both houses of parliament and a majority of voters in a national referendum.

A separate survey by Kyodo news agency released on Sunday showed more than 70 percent of voters favored revising a law that governs the Self-Defence Forces, as Japan's military is known, to ease restrictions on the military's activities to rescue Japanese at risk from overseas conflicts.

The LDP is calling for changes to the law to ease limits on the military's use of weapons and other restrictions in such cases following this month's hostage crisis in Algeria, in which 10 Japanese were among 38 hostages killed.

(Reporting by Linda Sieg; Editing by Paul Tait)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/japan-voters-split-revising-pacifist-constitution-poll-014536112.html

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Get cirrus in the fight against climate change

FEATHERY cirrus clouds are beautiful, but when it comes to climate change, they are the enemy. Found at high-altitude and made of small ice crystals, they trap heat - so more cirrus means a warmer world. Now it seems that, by destroying cirrus, we could reverse all the warming Earth has experienced so far.

In 2009, David Mitchell of the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nevada, proposed a radical way to stop climate change: get rid of some cirrus. Now Trude Storelvmo of Yale University and colleagues have used a climate model to test the idea.

Storelvmo added powdered bismuth triiodide into the model's troposphere, the layer of the atmosphere in which these clouds form. Ice crystals grew around these particles and expanded, eventually falling out of the sky, reducing cirrus coverage. Without the particles, the ice crystals remained small and stayed up high for longer.

The technique, done on a global scale, created a powerful cooling effect, enough to counteract the 0.8 ?C of warming caused by all the greenhouse gases released by humans (Geophysical Research Letters, DOI: 10.1002/grl.50122).

But too much bismuth triiodide made the ice crystals shrink, so cirrus clouds lasted longer. "If you get the concentrations wrong, you could get the opposite of what you want," says Storelvmo. And, like other schemes for geoengineering, side effects are likely - changes in the jet stream, say.

Different model assumptions give different "safe" amounts of bismuth triiodide, says Tim Lenton of the University of Exeter, UK. "Do we really know the system well enough to be confident of being in the safe zone?" he asks. "You wouldn't want to touch this until you knew."

Mitchell says seeding would take 140 tonnes of bismuth triiodide every year, which by itself would cost $19 million.

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'2-D' electronic devices, may be possible: Fine patterns made with single-atom-thick graphene and boron nitride

Jan. 27, 2013 ? Rice University scientists have taken an important step toward the creation of two-dimensional electronics with a process to make patterns in atom-thick layers that combine a conductor and an insulator.

The materials at play -- graphene and hexagonal boron nitride -- have been merged into sheets and built into a variety of patterns at nanoscale dimensions.

Rice introduced a technique to stitch the identically structured materials together nearly three years ago. Since then, the idea has received a lot of attention from researchers interested in the prospect of building 2-D, atomic-layer circuits, said Rice materials scientist Pulickel Ajayan. He is one of the authors of the new work that appears this week in Nature Nanotechnology. In particular, Ajayan noted that Cornell University scientists reported an advance late last year on the art of making atomic-layer heterostructures through sequential growth schemes.

This week's contribution by Rice offers manufacturers the possibility of shrinking electronic devices into even smaller packages. While Rice's technical capabilities limited features to a resolution of about 100 nanometers, the only real limits are those defined by modern lithographic techniques, according to the researchers. (A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter.)

"It should be possible to make fully functional devices with circuits 30, even 20 nanometers wide, all in two dimensions," said Rice researcher Jun Lou, a co-author of the new paper. That would make circuits on about the same scale as in current semiconductor fabrication, he said.

Graphene has been touted as a wonder material since its discovery in the last decade. Even at one atom thick, the hexagonal array of carbon atoms has proven its potential as a fascinating electronic material. But to build a working device, conductors alone will not do. Graphene-based electronics require similar, compatible 2-D materials for other components, and researchers have found hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) works nicely as an insulator.

H-BN looks like graphene, with the same chicken-wire atomic array. The earlier work at Rice showed that merging graphene and h-BN via chemical vapor deposition (CVD) created sheets with pools of the two that afforded some control of the material's electronic properties. Ajayan said at the time that the creation offered "a great playground for materials scientists."

He has since concluded that the area of two-dimensional materials beyond graphene "has grown significantly and will play out as one of the key exciting materials in the near future."

His prediction bears fruit in the new work, in which finely detailed patterns of graphene are laced into gaps created in sheets of h-BN. Combs, bars, concentric rings and even microscopic Rice Owls were laid down through a lithographic process. The interface between elements, seen clearly in scanning transmission electron microscope images taken at Oak Ridge National Laboratories, shows a razor-sharp transition from graphene to h-BN along a subnanometer line.

"This is not a simple quilt," Lou said. "It's very precisely engineered. We can control the domain sizes and the domain shapes, both of which are necessary to make electronic devices."

The new technique also began with CVD. Lead author Zheng Liu, a Rice research scientist, and his colleagues first laid down a sheet of h-BN. Laser-cut photoresistant masks were placed over the h-BN, and exposed material was etched away with argon gas. (A focused ion beam system was later used to create even finer patterns, down to 100-nanometer resolution, without masks.) After the masks were washed away, graphene was grown via CVD in the open spaces, where it bonded edge-to-edge with the h-BN. The hybrid layer could then be picked up and placed on any substrate.

While there's much work ahead to characterize the atomic bonds where graphene and h-BN domains meet and to analyze potential defects along the boundaries, Liu's electrical measurements proved the components' qualities remain intact.

"One important thing Zheng showed is that even by doing all kinds of growth, then etching, then regrowth, the intrinsic properties of these two materials are not affected," Lou said. "Insulators stay insulators; they're not doped by the carbon. And the graphene still looks very good. That's important, because we want to be sure what we're growing is exactly what we want."

Liu said the next step is to place a third element, a semiconductor, into the 2-D fabric. "We're trying very hard to integrate this into the platform," he said. "If we can do that, we can build truly integrated in-plane devices." That would give new options to manufacturers toying with the idea of flexible electronics, he said.

"The contribution of this paper is to demonstrate the general process," Lou added. "It's robust, it's repeatable and it creates materials with very nice properties and with dimensions that are at the limit of what is possible."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Rice University, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. C. Drexler, S. A. Tarasenko, P. Olbrich, J. Karch, M. Hirmer, F. M?ller, M. Gmitra, J. Fabian, R. Yakimova, S. Lara-Avila, S. Kubatkin, M. Wang, R. Vajtai, P. M. Ajayan, J. Kono, S. D. Ganichev. Magnetic quantum ratchet effect in graphene. Nature Nanotechnology, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2012.231

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/Z5aTSo83LOQ/130127134208.htm

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Menopause And You | Jackie's Women's Interest Bazaar

Related eBooks

Menopause is more than just some annoying phase that women go through. Just like puberty, it requires times and information to understand all the changes as you?re entering a new phase of your life.

Source:Menopause And You

Related Reading:

The Reluctant Rancher (Billionaire Rancher) (BBW)The Reluctant Rancher (Billionaire Rancher) (BBW)"Luke Tanner and women didn't mix, plain and simple."

Luke Tanner learned early on that no one cared enough to look past his roughhewned appearance and sour attitude to discover what lay beneath the surface - other than his wallet. When Mary Carter hits him up for a loan, he makes her a proposition she can't refuse.

Mary fantasized about Luke Tanner since her first glimpse of the veritable mountain of a man. She knows there's more to Luke than his bank account. Though she tries to hide her feelings, a fire burns between them. Will it end in ashes - or forge a love that would last a lifetime.

EXCERPT:

?Who the hell are you and what are you doing on my land??

The shock of the deep male voice held Mary immobile for several seconds.

She turned slowly, facing the man she had come to see. But if the sound of his voice had shocked her, the sight of the man stunned her. Mary had seen Luke Tanner on several occasions but she had never been this up close and personal. A mountain of a man, she had to look up to see his face. A long way up. With genuine feminine appreciation she realized that Luke Tanner would stand at least six-foot-four in his stocking feet. His shoulders were broad and sturdy, their huge mass emphasized by the flannel-lined denim work jacket he wore. His large size made her, Mary Carter, feel small and dainty.

A patch of dark, curling hair peeked out from the neckline of his blue plaid western shirt and her stomach quivered at the tantalizing glimpse of his permanently sun-darkened chest. Her gaze fell, drinking in the sight of his strong, muscular legs. Whitewashed jeans clung lovingly to every male sinew. Even though his waist could never be called slim, it was in perfect proportion to his size. To Mary, he was a fine looking man.

With great reluctance, she tore her gaze away, taking in the rest of his sun-bronzed features ? his frowning forehead, his beard-roughened jaw, and his crooked nose. Immediately his eyes captured her attention. My goodness, she had never seen such incredible eyes. Green as the mountain grass after the first spring rain and surrounded by lashes a woman would die for.

Mary shivered, more in reaction to this potently virile male than from the cold seeping beneath her coat.

Plus Size Confidence (The Plus Size Girls Guide to...)Plus Size Confidence (The Plus Size Girls Guide to...)Love who you are and live a plus size life!
The ultimate companion for the modern plus size girl!

In the Plus Size Girl's Guide to Plus Size Confidence you'll learn to:

-stop negative self-talk!
-recognize your accomplishments!
-feel comfortable talking about yourself!
-develop confident body language!
-create opportunities for success!

Elly In BloomElly In BloomThe #1 Kindle Bestseller in Contemporary Fiction!? Surrounded by lush flowers and neurotic brides, chubby 32-year old Elly Jordan has carved out a sweet little life for herself as the owner of Posies, a boutique wedding florist in St. Louis. It's not bad for a woman who drove away from her entire life just two years ago when she found her husband entwined with a red-headed artist.

Sure, Elly has an embarrassingly beautiful best friend, a terribly behaved sheepdog and a sarcastic assistant who she simply calls "Snarky Teenager", but overall her days are pleasantly uneventful. As a bonus, her new next door neighbor just happens to be an unnervingly handsome musician who has an eye for curvy Elly. Just when she feels that she is finally moving on from her past, she discovers that an extravagant wedding contract, one that could change her financial future, is more than she bargained for.

With the help of her friends, staff and the occasional well-made sandwich, Elly bravely agrees to take on the event that threatens to merge her painful history with her bright new life, and finds herself blooming in a direction she never imagined.

Elly's voice, both charming and hilarious, will appeal to those readers who have been looking for a new voice in chick-lit, and will give women of all sizes the realistic heroine they've been waiting for.

Big, Beautiful, and Pregnant: Expert Advice and Comforting Wisdom for the Expecting Plus-Size WomanBig, Beautiful, and Pregnant: Expert Advice and Comforting Wisdom for the Expecting Plus-Size WomanAlmost half of all pregnant women are overweight in the U.S. today, but there are few places they can turn for reliable information and helpful advice on the special set of challenges they'll face during the nine-month adventure that lies ahead. In Big, Beautiful and Pregnant, Cornelia van der Ziel, a highly sought-after obstetrician who specializes in plus-size pregnancies, and Jacqueline Tourville, a plus-size mom who's lived the experience, offer a warm, witty, medically-sound guide for overweight women who want the skinny on what to expect from pregnancy and childbirth. They answer all the questions pregnant moms may have, including: Is my pregnancy doomed to be difficult because I'm overweight? How can I find a sympathetic doctor? Am I destined for a c-section because of my extra pounds? Are there special medical risks to my unborn child? Where can I find maternity clothes in extra-large sizes? A unique combination of impeccable medical advice, fun, and down-to-earth charm, Big, Beautiful and Pregnant provides plus-size pregnant women with information, inspiration, a sense of sisterhood, and reassurance that they can have a healthy and happy pregnancy.

Tags: plus size

Source: http://www.jackiesbazaar.com/womensinterests/plus-size/menopause-and-you

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This Is Why You Always Ask for a Window Seat

The song's called America the Beautiful for a reason and it's easy to see why from a mile up. Frequent-flying photographer Julieanne Kost captured these incredible images, check out the rest of the gallery at Julieanne Kost Photography or in book form, Window Seat, The Art of Digital Photography and Creative Thinking. Click on the images below to embiggen. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/fYz6ymxn2nc/this-is-why-you-always-ask-for-a-window-seat

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Saturday, January 26, 2013

Returning to the Garden | Raising a Family on a Budget

WW II poster promoting gardening (from the National Agricultural Library)

WW II poster promoting gardening (from the National Agricultural Library)

I grew up in a family that always had a huge garden.? I would come home from school and pick strawberries and then all summer there were tomatoes, peppers, beets, squash, beans?you name it!? So when my husband & I bought our house I wanted a garden.? The down side, I had a new baby, poor soil, and bit off way more than I could chew. ?Now here I am 5 years later, another baby on the way and trying to keep this year?s garden (the first attempt since the disaster 5 years ago) practical.

The garden that we plant, needs to produce enough for our family, with a little extra for sharing or canning, but not so much that we become overwhelmed. ?Even more so, it needs to remain small enough so that I do not lose my mind trying to maintain a garden while I?m 9 months pregnant and with a newborn at home.

We decided last August, when the big oak tree in our yard fell during a storm, that now that we have light in the yard, it would be ideal to put in a few fruit trees, so that is our big time/money investment for the garden this year. ?Following that, it is replacing a blueberry bush (or possibly 2) that were decimated during the same tree incident.

I am trying to be realistic and only plan 1 small vegetable garden, but it is really tough when I want to be able to grow all of the beautiful produce for making baby food, but the more I think about it, the more I come to terms with just how impractical that would be this year.

I like the concept of the Victory Gardens from the WWII era.

Encouraged by the federal government to supplement scarce fruit and vegetable supplies, Americans planted more than 20 million victory gardens. Those gardens produced an estimated 40% of all vegetables eaten nationally during the later war years.

The practice of growing a garden to supply most of one?s own fruit and vegetables is regaining popularity today. Reasons vary from wanting to eat more locally produced food, to environmental concerns, as well as wanting to save money in a difficult economy.

If I keep that as our focus, producing only what our family will consume, with a little extra to preserve, then that should help to keep me on track with the planning and implementation of this year?s garden.

I think I?ll return to the garden planner for a little longer, and will share my progress tomorrow.

Source: http://www.raisingafamilyonabudget.com/?p=8732

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Friday, January 25, 2013

Biogen's injectable MS drug effective in trial

(Reuters) - Biogen Idec Inc said on Thursday that a late-stage clinical trial of an experimental multiple sclerosis treatment showed it to be safe and effective in cutting the annual rate of relapse in patients with the autoimmune disease.

The injectable treatment, peginterferon beta-1a, also known as Peg-Avonex, is designed to reduce the dosing schedule typical of standard interferon drugs such as Biogen's own Avonex, as it is designed to last longer in the body.

Biogen said the results "support peginterferon beta-1a as a potential treatment dosed every two weeks or every four weeks for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis."

The company said fewer patients relapsed on an every two-week dosing schedule than those on an every four-week schedule in the trial. The study included more than 1,500 patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis.

Both schedules of use worked at about the same rate to reduce the progression of disability with MS, an autoimmune disease that affects the brain and spinal cord, the company said.

Still, analysts are mainly focused on another multiple sclerosis drug in development by Biogen, BG-12, a pill that some expect could become the leading treatment for the disease.

David Ferreiro, an analyst at Oppenheimer, said in a research report that he expects peak sales of Peg-Avonex of around $830 million a year.

"We see the drug's convenience benefit as modest and expect a diminishing injectables market in the advent of BG-12, an oral with stronger efficacy than injectables," he said.

Biogen said it plans to submit the drug for approval in 2013 and Mark Schoenebaum, a research analyst at ISI Group, said in a note that he expects approval in 2014.

(Reporting By Caroline Humer; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/biogen-says-ms-drug-worked-broad-study-133828205--finance.html

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Video shows plane struck by lightning, passengers? ho-hum reactions

What's scarier?being in an airplane struck by lightning or being in an airplane stuck by lightning and finding yourself surrounded by people who aren't freaking out?

[Related: Dangerous airplane stunt caught on tape]

We tend to go with the latter, and we cite the above video as proof. The U.K.'s Telegraph reports that a passenger named Bertan Atay recorded a short clip of the passengers aboard his Turkish Airline flight after an engine caught fire. The Telegraph says the "video captures the panic and confusion" of the moment, but we'd have to disagree. Everyone appears oddly calm, like the site of an engine fire wasn't cause for concern.

[Related: Airplane's parachute credited with saving three lives]

The passengers do allow themselves to murmur a bit once the lights go out, but that's about as panicked as they seem to get. And, fortunately, everything turned out OK. The pilot declared an emergency and brought the plane down to safety. No one was hurt.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/video-shows-plane-struck-lightning-passengers-ho-hum-231546799.html

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Video: Apple Weighs on Nasdaq; Amazon.com Acquires Ivona Softwar...

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Roanoke Pok?mon Trading Card Game Player Crowned City ...

by Valerie Garner

Alex Dennis, Pokemon contest winner crowned city champion.

Alex Dennis, Pokemon contest winner crowned city champion.

Roanoke?s own, Alex Dennis, 9, put his Pok?mon trading card skills to the test on December 30th during the Pok?mon Trading Card Game (TCG) City Championship in Fincastle, VA.

After a full day of head-to-head battles, Alex was crowned City Champion in the Junior Division, earning him a City Championship trophy and Championship Points which count toward him potentially earning an invitation to the 2013 Pok?mon World Championships in Vancouver, BC

Alex ?Is the son of Jeff and Marina Dennis of Vinton. Alex said he spent ?5 months in preparing for the contest. In a phone call Alex said, ?it was a tough contest and he had a lot of competition.?

He said that it felt good to win. Alex had a lot of fun. The contest was new to the family ? ?It?s been different,? said Jeff Dennis. ? At first I thought it was just another card game and there was not a whole lot to it.? He found out quickly that there was a lot of strategy and math involved. ?I was absolutely impressed? and I got involved with it because Alex needed someone to play with at home.? His father admitted that Alex was absolutely better at it then he was. ?All I knew about it before this is that it was a cartoon,? he laughed.

Neither Alex nor his father realized that with the accumulation of points it was possible that Alex could be going to the 2013 World Championships. He was ready to pack though if Alex was selected and take the jaunt to Vancouver, BC.

The Pok?mon City Championship tournaments bring together Pok?mon players of all skill levels to test their Pok?mon TCG skills, strategy, and creativity. The Fincastle Pok?mon community of fans, family, and friends were on-hand cheering for their Trainers as they battled to become a Pok?mon City Champion. Play! Pok?mon Premier Events are sanctioned by The Pok?mon Company International and locally managed by Premier Tournament Organizers who run hundreds of Pok?mon TCG and video game tournaments every year throughout North America. Collectively they oversee tens of thousands of Pok?mon competitors who train and compete at various local league events and sanctioned tournaments on their quest to become a Pok?mon World Champion.

?Pok?mon City Championships are special because they are a great way for both new and veteran players to come together and compete in a game they really enjoy,? said J.C. Smith, director of Consumer Marketing for The Pok?mon Company International. ?The Fincastle-area had a strong turnout of Pok?mon TCG players and we?re excited to follow these local players as they continue to battle throughout the season, perhaps making it to the 2013 Pok?mon World Championships in Vancouver.?

Play! Pok?mon competitors are divided equally into three divisions: Junior Division (born in 2002 or later), Senior Division (born in 1998?2001), and Masters Division (born in 1997 or earlier). For more information on future tournaments, including dates and locations or if you would like to learn more about joining a local league, please visit www.pokemon.com/play.?

Be sure to Like the official Pok?mon Facebook page at Facebook.com/Pokemon and follow Pok?mon on Twitter @Pokemon for the latest Pok?mon news and fun!?

About Pok?mon

The Pok?mon Company International, a subsidiary of The Pok?mon Company in Japan, manages the property outside of Asia and is responsible for brand management, licensing, marketing, the Pok?mon Trading Card Game, the animated TV series, home entertainment, and the official Pok?mon website. Pok?mon was launched in Japan in 1996 and today is one of the most popular children?s entertainment properties in the world. For more information, visit www.pokemon.com.

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Video: Midday Bond Report

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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/50577132/

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Thursday, January 24, 2013

Trial in India gang rape begins in newly created court

NEW DELHI (AP) ? The trial of five men charged with the gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a New Delhi bus began in a closed courtroom with opening arguments by the prosecution lawyers in a special fast-track court set up just weeks ago to handle sexual assault cases.

The brutal attack last month set off protests across India and opened a debate about its epidemic of violence against women. A government committee established because of the attack has called for a complete overhaul of the way the criminal justice system deals with rape, sexual assaults and crimes against women in general.

The five men on trial ? who face a maximum sentence of death by hanging if convicted ? covered their faces with woolen caps as they walked into the courtroom Thursday surrounded by a phalanx of armed police. Two hours later, after proceedings were over, they were whisked away by the police.

Details of the proceedings were not available because of a gag order against revealing what happens inside the courtroom, and court officials who provided some information to The Associated Press spoke on condition of anonymity because of the order. Closing courtrooms to the public and the media is routine in Indian rape cases, even though defense lawyers had argued that since the victim is dead, the proceedings in this case should be opened.

Judge Yogesh Khanna turned down requests by journalists that they be briefed on the day's proceedings and said the gag order would remain.

Since Friday is a public holiday in India, the next hearing in the case was set for Monday, when the defense will present its opening arguments.

A sixth suspect in the case has claimed he is a juvenile and is expected to be tried in a juvenile court.

On Thursday, a magistrate separately rejected a petition by Subramanian Swamy, a prominent politician, that no leniency be shown toward the accused who claims to be a juvenile because of the brutal nature of the crime, said Jagdish Shetty, an aide to Swamy.

Documents presented by prosecution last week to the Juvenile Justice Board indicated that the defendant was a juvenile at the time of the attack, which would make him ineligible for the death penalty.

Magistrate Geetanjali Goel is expected to rule on the suspect's age on Jan. 28.

The suspect, who is not being identified by The Associated Press because he says he is 17, would face three years in a reform facility if convicted as a juvenile.

After the fast-track court hearing, M.L. Sharma, a defense lawyer for Mukesh Singh, one of the accused, said he had withdrawn from the case. V.K. Anand, who represents Mukesh's brother Ram Singh, will now defend both brothers. The two lawyers had been arguing over who was Mukesh Singh's real lawyer.

Sharma said he left the case to save his client from being tortured to fire him. He has long maintained that the other defense lawyers were planted by the police to ensure guilty verdicts.

Dozens of police were outside the sprawling court complex in south New Delhi where the trial is taking place. Inside the court, about 30 policemen blocked access to the room where Khanna heard the prosecution's case.

Outside the courtroom scores of journalists and curious onlookers crowded the hallway.

Prosecutor Dayan Krishnan warned defense lawyers that if they spoke to journalists he would slap contempt of court notices on them, said V.K. Anand, a defense lawyer.

Police say the victim and a male friend were attacked after boarding a bus Dec. 16 as they tried to return home after an evening showing of the movie "Life of Pi." The six men, the only occupants of the private bus, beat the man with a metal bar, raped the woman and used the bar to inflict massive internal injuries to her, police said. The victims were dumped naked on the roadside, and the woman died two weeks later in a Singapore hospital.

Abhilasha Kumari, a New Delhi-based sociologist, said the attack could end up having a large impact on the country.

"This case has brought the violence against women center stage and it has, out of sheer public pressure, forced the government to sensitize itself to crimes against women," she said.

The trial began a day after a government panel recommended India strictly enforce sexual assault laws, commit to holding speedy rape trials and change the antiquated penal code to protect women.

The panel appointed to examine the criminal justice system's handling of violence against women, received a staggering 80,000 suggestions from women's groups and thousands of ordinary citizens.

Among the panel's suggestions were a ban on a traumatic vaginal exam of rape victims and an end to political interference in sex crime cases. It has also suggested the appointment of more judges to help speed up India's sluggish judicial process and clear millions of pending cases.

Law Minister Ashwani Kumar said the government would take the recommendations to the Cabinet and Parliament.

"Procedural inadequacies that lead to inordinate delays need to be addressed," he told reporters.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/trial-india-gang-rape-begins-special-court-012953846.html

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Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Early Bird Registration Underway for 2013 Rocky Mountain Early ...

BuyerSteps Authors: Udayan Banerjee, RealWire News Distribution, David Weinberger, Kevin Benedict, Greg Schulz

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Regional Forum Set for March 1-2 at Colorado Convention Center Will Feature More Than 150 Informative Workshops

About Marketing and Sales

Source: http://buyersteps.ulitzer.com/node/2521702

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How PR Can Support SEO | Business 2 Community

How PR Can Support SEO image PR Amplifies SEO

The marriage of PR and SEO has been rumored for years.? Through its Panda and Penguin updates over the past 18 months, Google has changed the game to give more authority to high quality content over hundreds of questionable links.? Content, storytelling, third party endorsement ? all are more important than ever.? The most valuable links come from sites with high domain authority, like mainstream media and major blogs.

That?s where PR people come in, right?? The problem is that many PR professionals don?t think in SEO terms, or they view it as a bag of questionable technology tricks.? For their part, SEO-ers sometimes define PR as keyword stuffed press releases.

How can we bring the two closer together?

Use search data to inform PR programs, not just execute them.? We generally try to optimize PR content or focus on sharing media results, but sometimes the insights that analytics provide can be very enlightening.? Search engine data lets us see where competitors are, which sites are linking to them, and who exerts the most influence in the category.? Ongoing analytics reviews also offer insight into what types of media profiles drive traffic, and sometimes the results are counterintuitive.

Don?t rely on enhanced press releases.? Many PR pros are trained to load their releases with lots of links.? This is an outdated strategy, and spending money on newswire distribution of link-heavy press releases is likely to be a waste.? Google?s Matt Cutts caused a stir last year when he warned PRs against expecting releases to have a positive impact on rankings, but he was referring to the huge number? of ?news-free? releases created simply to generate website backlinks.

Focus on unique content.? This is what we do naturally, but even if PR doesn?t own content marketing, we can support SEO in a big way by refreshing the content calendar and dreaming up ideas for unique and differentiated content, including white papers, articles, videos, and infographics.

Ask journalists for links.? PR people can be shy about asking bloggers and journalists to link to client websites when a story appears in digital form.? But there are many occasions where it?s perfectly legitimate, and increasingly common, to do so.? In fact, it often makes sense to give priority to smaller media outlets that will link over larger outlets with a policy against it.

Consider news-surfing.? Also known as ?newsjacking,? this PR technique has a bad name because it?s been associated with exploiting negative events, like the marketers who rushed to promote products after Hurricane Sandy.? But it doesn?t need to be controversial.? It simply means attaching your business or story to a breaking news item, in real time.? But be mindful that newsjacking rarely has legs; it?s nearly always a short-term strategy.

Write press releases tailored for media.? Of course, releases are intended for journalists.? But the problem is PR people are pressured to throw in keywords tailored to shopper e-commerce searches (or whatever) and the press announcements become like Christmas trees ? everyone wants to hang something on it.? Remember, most journalists start story research with Google.

Use social sharing.? Most PR pros make good use of social sharing to amplify and extend the reach of earned media placements.? But they don?t always build the social following or online community in advance.? It pays to have that in place before the hits start rolling in.

Measure social influence.?? Along with sharing, more PR practitioners need to give greater priority to the reach that social sharing entails.? It can greatly enhance the value of a single blog or media story, and we don?t always get credit for that.

How PR Can Support SEO image

Source: http://www.business2community.com/public-relations/how-pr-can-support-seo-0377243

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Space instrument adds big piece to solar corona puzzle

Jan. 23, 2013 ? The Sun's visible surface, or photosphere, is 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. As you move outward from it, you pass through a tenuous layer of hot, ionized gas or plasma called the corona. The corona is familiar to anyone who has seen a total solar eclipse, since it glimmers ghostly white around the hidden Sun.

But how can the solar atmosphere get hotter, rather than colder, the farther you go from the Sun's surface? This mystery has puzzled solar astronomers for decades. A suborbital rocket mission that launched in July 2012 has just provided a major piece of the puzzle.

The High-resolution Coronal Imager, or Hi-C, revealed one of the mechanisms that pumps energy into the corona, heating it to temperatures up to 7 million degrees F. The secret is a complex process known as magnetic reconnection.

"This is the first time we've had images at high enough resolution to directly observe magnetic reconnection," explained Smithsonian astronomer Leon Golub (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics). "We can see details in the corona five times finer than any other instrument."

"Our team developed an exceptional instrument capable of revolutionary image resolution of the solar atmosphere. Due to the level of activity, we were able to clearly focus on an active sunspot, thereby obtaining some remarkable images," said heliophysicist Jonathan Cirtain (Marshall Space Flight Center).

Magnetic braids and loops

The Sun's activity, including solar flares and plasma eruptions, is powered by magnetic fields. Most people are familiar with the simple bar magnet, and how you can sprinkle iron filings around one to see its field looping from one end to the other. The Sun is much more complicated.

The Sun's surface is like a collection of thousand-mile-long magnets scattered around after bubbling up from inside the Sun. Magnetic fields poke out of one spot and loop around to another spot. Plasma flows along those fields, outlining them with glowing threads.

The images from Hi-C showed interweaved magnetic fields that were braided just like hair. When those braids relax and straighten, they release energy. Hi-C witnessed one such event during its flight.

It also detected an area where magnetic field lines crossed in an X, then straightened out as the fields reconnected. Minutes later, that spot erupted with a mini solar flare.

Hi-C showed that the Sun is dynamic, with magnetic fields constantly warping, twisting, and colliding in bursts of energy. Added together, those energy bursts can boost the temperature of the corona to 7 million degrees F when the Sun is particularly active.

Selecting the target

The telescope aboard Hi-C provided a resolution of 0.2 arcseconds -- about the size of a dime seen from 10 miles away. That allowed astronomers to tease out details just 100 miles in size. (For comparison, the Sun is 865,000 miles in diameter.)

Hi-C photographed the Sun in ultraviolet light at a wavelength of 19.3 nanometers -- 25 times shorter than wavelengths of visible light. That wavelength is blocked by Earth's atmosphere, so to observe it astronomers had to get above the atmosphere. The rocket's suborbital flight allowed Hi-C to collect data for just over 5 minutes before returning to Earth.

Hi-C could only view a portion of the Sun, so the team had to point it carefully. And since the Sun changes hourly, they had to select their target at the last minute -- the day of the launch. They chose a region that promised to be particularly active.

"We looked at one of the largest and most complicated active regions I've ever seen on the Sun," said Golub. "We hoped that we would see something really new, and we weren't disappointed."

Next steps

Golub said that data from Hi-C continues to be analyzed for more insights. Researchers are hunting areas where other energy release processes were occurring.

In the future, the scientists hope to launch a satellite that could observe the Sun continuously at the same level of sharp detail.

"We learned so much in just five minutes. Imagine what we could learn by watching the Sun 24/7 with this telescope," said Golub.

This research is being published in the journal Nature in a paper co-authored by Cirtain, Golub, A. Winebarger (Marshall), B. De Pontieu (Lockheed Martin), K. Kobayashi (University of Alabama -- Huntsville), R. Moore (Marshall), R. Walsh (University of Central Lancashire), K. Korreck, M. Weber and P. McCauley (CfA), A. Title (Lockheed Martin), S. Kuzin (Lebedev Physical Institute), and C. DeForest (Southwest Research Institute).

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. J. W. Cirtain, L. Golub, A. R. Winebarger, B. De Pontieu, K. Kobayashi, R. L. Moore, R. W. Walsh, K. E. Korreck, M. Weber, P. McCauley, A. Title, S. Kuzin, C. E. DeForest. Energy release in the solar corona from spatially resolved magnetic braids. Nature, 2013; 493 (7433): 501 DOI: 10.1038/nature11772

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/LWNsF_HJvy4/130123144226.htm

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White Samsung ATIV Smart PC launches in South Korea, remains the same inside

White Samsung ATIV Smart PC launches in South Korea, remains the same inside

There's obviously something about gadgets dressed in white livery that attracts plenty of consumers, and thus it shouldn't come as a surprise to see Samsung introduce a bleached model of its own ATIV Smart PC. Unfortunately for some, however, the maker of the Galaxy line is keeping this particular launch local, with the white ATIV Smart PC set to be an exclusive to South Koreans -- well, at least for the time being. Regardless, Samsung's Windows 8 hybrid remains unchanged otherwise, meaning there's still that same 11.6-inch, 1,366 x 768 display, a 1.8GHz, dual-core Clover Trail processor, 4,800 mAh battery and 64GB of onboard storage. The frosted ATIV device is on sale now for 1,090,000 won (around $1,000) -- but, hey, because we know there are likely would-be buyers outside of South Korea, we have a gallery past the jump to show what's being missed.

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Source: Samsung

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/21/white-samsung-ativ-smart-pc-south-korea/

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Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Insurgents abandon towns in central Mali as French ... - World News

After launching airstrikes and a final strike, the French military have recaptured the key town of Diabaly from Islamist rebels. NBC's Rohit Kachroo reports.

By Bate Felix, Reuters

DIABALY, Mali ? French and Malian armored columns rolled into the towns of Diabaly and Douentza in central Mali on Monday after the al Qaida-linked rebels who had seized them fled into the bush to avoid air strikes.

France said the advance was a significant step in its campaign to break Islamist fighters' grip over Mali's vast desert north, a presence raising fears of the region becoming a an African launchpad for international militant attacks.

The stakes in Mali rose dramatically last week when Islamist gunmen cited France's intervention as the reason for attacking a gas plant in neighboring Algeria, seizing hundreds of hostages and sowing fears the conflict would spill across borders.

"This advance by Mali's army into towns held by their enemies is a clear military success for the government in Bamako and for French forces supporting the operation," French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said.

France, which has made 140 bombing sorties since January 11, plans eventually to hand over the military operation to a U.N.-sanctioned African mission ? although that deployment has been hampered by a lack of supplies, funds and training.

Diabaly, 220 miles north of Mali's dusty riverside capital Bamako, had harbored the main cluster of insurgents south of the frontline towns of Mopti and Sevare.

Douentza, some?480 miles?from Bamako along the eastern road to the rebel stronghold of Gao, was a staging post in the rebels' southward advance two weeks ago that prompted France to intervene for fear they would capture the Malian capital.

In Diabaly, the dusty streets were now littered with the charred wreckage of eight rebel pick-up trucks. Residents said 200 Islamist fighters had held them captive for three days as human shields against French air strikes.

"There were 12 of us in the house, with no food or water," said 18-year-old Seydou Diarra. "They stopped us from leaving the village. They told us we'll die together and those who insisted on leaving were unbelievers."

Malian soldiers proudly displayed some 80 boxes of machine gun ammunition left behind by the fleeing rebels. Life gradually returned to the town's main street as shops reopened and children played on the parade ground where French and Malian troops parked their armored personnel carriers.

African?boots on the ground
France has sent 2,150 ground troops to Mali and deployed jet fighters and attack helicopters that hammered rebel bases for an 11th day on Monday, as it awaited troops from nearby African nations, pouring into Bamako, to deploy to the front line.

Some 1,000 African troops from the West African regional bloc ECOWAS and the central African nation of Chad have arrived, and that number is expected to top 5,000 in the coming weeks.

Joe Penney / Reuters

A Malian soldier searching through debris at a military camp in the town of Diabaly on Monday. French airstrikes hit the camp a week ago after it was taken over by al Qaida-linked rebels.

Military experts say the swift and effective deployment of African forces is crucial to sustain the momentum of France's air campaign and prevent Islamists from melting away into the empty desert or the rugged mountains near the Algerian border.

The Islamist alliance in Mali groups al Qaida's North African wing AQIM and the Malian militant groups Ansar Dine and MUJWA. It has imposed harsh sharia, meting out amputations and destroying ancient shrines sacred to moderate Sufi Muslims.

France aims to sweep the Islamists from northern Mali, an area the size of Texas, to prevent them using it as a base to mount attacks on the West or coordinate with other Islamist militants such as Nigeria's Boko Haram and Somalia's al Shabaab.

Paris aims to hand over the military operation to the U.N.-mandated African-led International Support Mission to Mali (AFISMA) "as quickly as possible. Until that happens, we shall do our duty," President Francois Hollande said on Monday.

"We know that's going to take time."

The Algerian hostage-taking, claimed by veteran jihadist Mokhtar Belmokhtar in the name of al Qaida, has placed Mali conflict firmly on the agenda of Western capitals.

Belmokhtar's Mulathameen Brigade warned of further attacks on foreign interests unless France halted its intervention.

Algeria said 37 foreigners?were killed during the hostage taking, which ended with an assault by its security forces.

Britain, whose nationals were among those caught up in the hostage crisis, said on Monday it would increase counter-terrorism and intelligence aid to Algeria and consider giving more help to France to fight the Mali rebels. But it ruled out any direct British military intervention in Africa.

Addressing parliament, British Prime Minister David Cameron said a "patient, intelligent, but tough" approach was the best way to defeat terrorism. He stressed the "long-standing and deep" root causes of terrorism and pledged to help foster democracy and the rule of law in places at risk of Islamist militancy.

Egypt warns over intervention
Egypt, however, warned that military intervention in Mali would aggravate strife in Africa and risk alienating the rest of the continent from its Arab north.

"The intervention must be peaceful and developmental and funds must be spent on development," Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi, a freely elected Islamist, told an Arab development conference in Saudi Arabia.

The United States sent its first flight bringing logistical support on Sunday but has no plans to send combat troops.

France has appealed for international donors to help fund the African mission at a conference on January 29. The European Union also said it would host a meeting on Mali on February 5, with the support of the United Nations and the African Union.

In recent days, Islamists have melted into the scrubland of central Mali, preferring not to engage directly with Malian and French troops. Residents of Diabaly said some rebels had doffed their flowing robes to blend in with the population, raising fears of ambushes and booby traps left behind in captured towns.

A resident of Timbuktu told Reuters by satellite telephone on Monday that scores of pick-up trucks carrying Islamist fighters had arrived there since Saturday, as the rebels apparently pulled their forces back to their desert strongholds.

The push northward by the Malian army has raised the specter of ethnic reprisals by security forces and militia groups. Human Rights Watch said it had received reports of serious abuses being committed by the Malian army against civilians in Niono.

There have also been reports of killings by Malian soldiers of lighter-skinned Arabs and Tuaregs, who are widely blamed for the rebellion that swept northern Mali.

In Diabaly, angry residents said the rebels had been led there by former army soldiers led by a local Tuareg captain who had deserted to join the Islamists.

"Only a person who knows Diabaly very well would have been able to bring them here," said Diabaly Mayor Oumar Diakite.

Related:?

Photoblog: Retaking Diabaly

France, Mali set aside colonial past to fight new common foe

ANALYSIS: Why France is taking on Mali extremists

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/21/16619802-insurgents-abandon-towns-in-central-mali-as-french-troops-advance?lite

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Reports: Canadian kills 2 in Philippines court

Chester Baldicantos / AP

Police examine the scene where prosecutor Maria Teresa Casino was wounded at the Regional Trial Court building in Cebu city in central Philippines on Tuesday.

By Ian Johnston, Staff Writer, NBC News

A Canadian man shot dead a doctor who was suing him and the doctor?s lawyer in a court in the Philippines on Tuesday, according to reports.

Police said the man had smuggled a pistol into the court in the central city of Cebu, the AFP news agency reported.

The report said the Canadian had been accused of petty mischief.

A government prosecutor was also injured and the Canadian was shot and wounded during a melee, police told local radio DZBB. His condition was not clear Tuesday.

BBC News reported that the 65-year-old had been accused of mischief by his neighbors.

AFP said there was a public debate in the Philippines over stricter gun-control laws after a number of gun-related deaths in January.

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/22/16638980-reports-canadian-shoots-doctor-lawyer-to-death-in-philippines-court?lite

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Monday, January 21, 2013

Ignite News ? Hockey is back. But are the fans?

Home ? Sports

The NHL returned on Saturday after a lockout lasting 113 days. While the crowds showed up for the games, some fans are wondering if watching the rest of the season is even worth it.

Campus Recreation Programmer Matthew Schnarr says it?s unacceptable how selfish both parties were during the lockout.

?I have zero support for selfish athletes,? he said.

?The fact that they make the money that they do and all they wanted was more, doesn?t make sense.?

When the owners of the leagues? franchises locked out the players on September 16th, many fans still had hopes the dispute wouldn?t last as long as the ten-month lockout in 2004-05. Die-hard hockey fan and Mohawk business student Ryan Ardell says he?s going to watch most of the games.

?I?m glad that the lockout didn?t last as long as the one in 2004,? he said.

?All that matters, is that hockey is back.?

In the end, Schnarr says fans may come back, but will still be affected by the lockout.

?Hockey fans and kids who aspire to be in the NHL will be there every step of the way, but the average fan might be turned away from the sport,? he said.

The new agreement will run for ten years, with the option to stop the deal after eight years.

Source: http://www.satelliteonline.ca/2013/01/21/hockey-is-back-but-are-the-fans/

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Pats lead Ravens 3-0 midway through first quarter

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) ? Stephen Gostkowski kicked a 31-yard field goal on New England's second series to give the Patriots a 3-0 lead over the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC championship game Sunday.

The kick with 6:21 left in the first quarter capped a 13-play, 67-yard drive on which Tom Brady completed five of seven passes for 55 yards.

Both teams punted on their first possession before the Patriots began their scoring drive at their 21-yard line after a 50-yard punt by Sam Koch.

The Patriots began the series with Brady's 8-yard completion to Brandon Lloyd. The pair teamed up for three completions, gaining 37 yards, on the drive.

A win Sunday would send the Ravens (12-6) to the Super Bowl for the second time and extend the 17-year career of linebacker Ray Lewis, who has said he will retire after the season.

A victory would put the Patriots (13-4) in their eighth Super Bowl, tying the Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers for the most all time, and Brady in his sixth.

It would be the Patriots' second straight appearance in the NFL title game and third in six years.

The Patriots played without tight end Rob Gronkowski, who broke his left arm a week earlier in their 41-28 divisional win over the Houston Texans.

The winner of the game plays the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl on Feb. 3.

___

Online: http://pro32.ap.org/poll and http://twitter.com/AP_NFL

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pats-lead-ravens-3-0-midway-first-quarter-001113056--spt.html

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Deal of the Day: 42% off Seidio CONVERT Combo for iPhone 5

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/RB9MxiL0eqc/story01.htm

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Write at the Merge ? Creative Writing Prompt | Write on Edge

writing prompt Welcome to Week 4 of Write at the Merge! Just a quick refresher of the guidelines for our new format.

Write at the Merge will provide you with two? somethings? to spark your creativity. You have up to 500 words to write a creative writing piece inspired by the prompt. Some weeks both things might speak to you but some weeks your piece can be solely inspired by one of the offerings. It?s your prompt, so use it in a way that works for you.

Bring your serial fiction, memoir, stand-alone fiction, poetry or any sort of creative writing inspired by what you find here. The link is open now and will be open until 11:59 p.m. PST on Thursday.

This week, we have an image and a quotation for you:

image courtesy of lynnsta (via Flickr Creative Commons)

image courtesy of lynnsta (via Flickr Creative Commons)

Groucho Marx Quotes

Source: http://writeonedge.com/2013/01/write-at-the-merge-week-4/

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Sunday, January 20, 2013

Plouffe: What's on Obama's second-term to-do list? (CNN)

Share With Friends: Share on FacebookTweet ThisPost to Google-BuzzSend on GmailPost to Linked-InSubscribe to This Feed | Rss To Twitter | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/278316942?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Real Estate Issues: Getting Your Property Prepared For Relocation ...

When you are relocating to a brand new residence, one of the biggest issues that you are going to deal with is just how to ready your current residence for relocating day. With so much going on around you, it really is going to be hard to figure out just what needs to be completed, and what you do not really need to care for till after your possessions are moved by a moving company. Determining what you have to do, and the order in which you have to do it, can take an enormous amount of anxiety off your shoulders whenever you are relocating. Here are some of the things that you must think about as you prepare your current residence for the day the moving organizations come to take your possessions away.

Of course you have to think about packing first. With so many things within your residence, you are going to have to get a technique in place so that you can make sure everything remains safe and secure and packed in a way that can make certain that it doesn?t get damaged along the way. Getting some packing suggestions from moving specialists is a fantastic way to go about this, and you can find those packing suggestions from a trusted site like http://movingcompanies.us. A good set of suggestions will let you know about producing a staging place, acquiring your packing materials together beforehand, and choosing a good method of inventory and organization. If you follow the guidance provided, you should end up packed and prepared, without much trouble.

Another thing you will want to do to prepare your house for the move entails getting it in the state it needs to be in for potential buyers to come view it. Whenever you are selling a residence, you will need to clean it up to ensure that people who may be interested in getting it will see the good elements of the residence and not as many of the negative elements. What does this exactly entail? You must always take some time to clean the yard and trim the bushes, as well as wash off the home or touch up the paint. Inside, you need to touch up or paint the rooms if you are able, or at least clean any heavy trafficked places. Think about clearing out the living area and places where potential buyers are likely to see first. Finally, make sure that you fix holes and broken tiles or worn carpets to ensure that the potential buyers see the best side of the residence you are wanting to sell.

Getting ready for moving day will often require that you do a number of things, but these are some of the most significant. No matter why you are relocating or where you are relocating to, keep these things in mind so that you can approach the moving process with a clear mind along with a level head. Ultimately, not only will you decrease the anxiety that you face in the course of the moving process, but you will be able to get through the move without any of the larger difficulties often associated with relocation, real estate sales, or change in general.

Source: http://www.propertyinvestmentdirect.com/financing-your-investment/real-estate-issues-getting-your-property-prepared-for-relocation-home

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Saturday, January 19, 2013

'The electric car is not dead,' says GM chief

GM's North America chief Mark Reuss told attendees at a trade event that "the electric car is not dead," Voelcker writes.

By John Voelcker,?Guest blogger / January 18, 2013

The 2014 Cadillac ELR plug-in hybrid is introduced at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Mich., Tuesday. The ELR and other plug-in cars are still at the very earliest stages of adoption, Voelcker writes, purchased by a variety of early adopters with varying motivations.

Rebecca Cook/Reuters/File

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Well, duh.

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The day after it unveiled the?2014 Cadillac ELR?range-extended electric luxury coupe, GM's North America chief Mark Reuss told attendees at a trade event that "the electric car is not dead."

?That?s despite what you might hear, and despite what you might read about Americans not being ready for it," Reuss?continued, "or about it being ?under attack? by local governments retracting incentives for it.?

Why did Reuss feel the need to say what should be obvious--from sales data if nothing else?

Largely because much of the media has confused underachieving on sales targets with failure in the market.?