Clocking an accelerating universe: First results from BOSS

ScienceDaily (Mar. 30, 2012) ? Some six billion light years ago, almost halfway from now back to the big bang, the universe was undergoing an elemental change. Held back until then by the mutual gravitational attraction of all the matter it contained, the universe had been expanding ever more slowly. Then, as matter spread out and its density decreased, dark energy took over and expansion began to accelerate.

Today BOSS, the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey, the largest component of the third Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-III), announced the most accurate measurement yet of the distance scale of the universe during the era when dark energy turned on.

"We've made precision measurements of the large-scale structure of the universe five to seven billion years ago -- the best measure yet of the size of anything outside the Milky Way," says David Schlegel of the Physics Division at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), BOSS's principal investigator. "We're pushing out to the distances when dark energy turned on, where we can start to do experiments to find out what's causing accelerating expansion."

How to measure expansion in an accelerating universe

Accelerating expansion was announced less than 14 years ago by both the Supernova Cosmology Project (SCP) based at Berkeley Lab and the competing High-z Supernova Search Team, a discovery that resulted in 2011 Nobel Prizes for the SCP's Saul Perlmutter and High-z Team members Brian Schmidt and Adam Riess. Acceleration may result from an unknown something dubbed "dark energy" -- or, dark energy may be just a way of saying we don't understand how gravity really works.

The first step in finding out is to establish a detailed history of expansion. Unlike supernova searches, which depend on the brightness of exploding stars, BOSS uses a technique called baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) to determine the distances to faraway galaxies.

Baryon acoustic oscillation measures the angle across the sky of structures of known size, the peaks where galaxies cluster most densely in the network of filaments and voids that fill the universe. Since these density peaks recur regularly, the angle between appropriate pairs of galaxies as precisely measured from Earth reveals their distance -- the narrower the apparent angle, the farther away they are.

Knowing the distance to an object tells its age as well, since its light travels from there to here at known speed. And the redshift of the light reveals how the universe has expanded since that time, as expansion stretches space itself; the wavelength of light traveling through space toward Earth stretches proportionally, becoming redder and revealing the expansion of the universe since the light left its source.

"BOSS's first major cosmological results establish the accurate three-dimensional positions of 327,349 massive galaxies across 3,275 square degrees of the sky, reaching as far back as redshift 0.7 -- the largest sample of the universe ever surveyed at this high density," says Martin White of Berkeley Lab's Physics Division, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California at Berkeley and chair of the BOSS science survey teams. "BOSS's average redshift is 0.57, equivalent to some six billion light-years away. BOSS gives that distance to within 1.7 percent -- 2,094 megaparsecs plus or minus 34 megaparsecs -- the most precise distance constraint ever obtained from a galaxy survey."

The origin of BAO, the regular clustering of ordinary matter (called "baryons" by astronomical convention), was the pressure of sound waves (thus "acoustic") moving through the universe when it was still so hot that light and matter were mixed together in a kind of soup, in which the sound waves created areas of regularly varying density ("oscillation"). By 380,000 years after the big bang, expansion had cooled the soup enough for ordinary matter to condense into hydrogen atoms (invisible dark matter was also part of the soup) and for light to go its separate way.

At that moment variations in density were preserved as variations in the temperature of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), a phenomenon first measured by Berkeley Lab astrophysicist George Smoot, for which he shared the 2006 Nobel Prize. The warmer regions of the CMB signal areas where the density of matter was greater; these regions seeded the galaxies and clusters of galaxies that form the large-scale structure of the universe today. Thus the cosmic microwave background establishes the basic scale of baryon acoustic oscillation used to measure the expansion history of the universe.

BOSS's data on galaxy clustering and redshifts can be applied not only to BAO but also to a separate technique called "redshift space distortions" -- a direct test of gravity that measures how fast neighboring galaxies are moving together to form galaxy clusters.

What if dark energy isn't an unknown force or substance, but instead a shortcoming of Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, our best-yet theory of gravity? General Relativity predicts how fast galaxies should be moving toward one another in galaxy clusters, and, in the aggregate, how fast the structure of the universe should be growing. Any departure from its predictions would mean the theory is flawed.

"We depend on redshift to know expansion rates and how structure was growing at different times in the past," says Beth Reid, a Hubble Fellow at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory who directed the BOSS study of redshift space distortions. "But redshifts aren't uniform. Galaxies are carried along in the Hubble flow as the universe expands, but they also have their own velocities. They tend to fall toward denser regions, for example. Because the ones on the far side of a dense region are coming toward us, their redshift makes them look closer than they really are; the opposite is true for the galaxies on the near side, which are falling away from us -- they look farther away."

Statistical analysis of the redshifts of the hundreds of thousands of galaxies in the BOSS dataset can take into account the peculiarities of local variation and still produce a dependable measure of distance, the Hubble expansion rate, and the growth rate of structure in the universe. With these techniques, Reid and her colleagues have measured gravity on a scale of 100 million light years, far larger than the most accurate gravity measure yet, which is based on the distance from Earth to the moon. Their conclusion: Einstein was right.

The right tools to do the job

BOSS obtained these best-yet measures with the wide-field Sloan Telescope at the Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico, designed especially for galaxy surveys but mounting a spectrograph far more sophisticated than was available to earlier SDSS surveys.

"The 2.5-meter Sloan Telescope remains the world's premier facility for wide-field spectroscopy because it uses fiber-fed spectrographs, which offer a huge numerical advantage," says Natalie Roe, director of Berkeley Lab's Physics Division and instrument scientist for BOSS, who directed construction of the new spectrographs.

For each 15-minute exposure, covering three degrees of the sky, a thousand optical fibers are inserted by hand into aluminum "plug plates" and positioned at the telescope's focal plane; each fiber is targeted on a specific distant bright galaxy, selected from earlier SDSS imaging. The BOSS instrument uses 50 percent more fibers than earlier SDSS runs, each with finer diameter; for more coverage and finer resolution the new spectrograph incorporates two red cameras using the thick, red-sensitive astronomical CCDs invented and fabricated at Berkeley Lab, as well as two new blue cameras.

"All the data collected by BOSS flows through a data-processing pipeline at Berkeley Lab," says Stephen Bailey of the Physics Division, who describes himself as the "baby sitter of the pipeline." Working with Schlegel at Berkeley Lab and Adam Bolton at the University of Utah, Bailey "turns the data into something we can use -- catalogues of hundreds of thousands of galaxies, eventually well over a million, each identified by their two-dimensional positions in the sky and their redshifts." The data are processed and stored on the Riemann computer cluster, operated by Berkeley Lab's High-Performance Computing Services group.

The current crop of BOSS papers is based on less than a quarter of the data BOSS will continue to collect until the survey ends in 2014. So far, all lines of inquiry point toward the so-called "concordance model" of the universe: a "flat" (Euclidean) universe that bloomed from the big bang 13.7 billion years ago, a quarter of which is cold dark matter -- plus a few percent visible, ordinary, baryonic matter (the stuff we're made of). All the rest is thought to be dark energy in the form of Einstein's cosmological constant: a small but irreducible energy of puzzling origin that's continually stretching space itself.

But it's way too soon to think that's the end of the story, says Schlegel. "Based on the limited observations of dark energy we've made so far, the cosmological constant may be the simplest explanation, but in truth, the cosmological constant has not been tested at all. It's consistent with the data, but we really have only a little bit of data. We're just beginning to explore the times when dark energy turned on. If there are surprises lurking there, we expect to find them."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

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Journal References:

1. Lauren Anderson, Eric Aubourg, Stephen Bailey, Dmitry Bizyaev, Michael Blanton, Adam S. Bolton, J. Brinkmann, Joel R. Brownstein, Angela Burden, Antonio J. Cuesta, Luiz N. A. da Costa, Kyle S. Dawson, Roland de Putter, Daniel J. Eisenstein, James E. Gunn, Hong Guo, Jean-Christophe Hamilton, Paul Harding, Shirley Ho, Klaus Honscheid, Eyal Kazin, D. Kirkby, Jean-Paul Kneib, Antione Labatie, Craig Loomis, Robert H. Lupton, Elena Malanushenko, Viktor Malanushenko, Rachel Mandelbaum, Marc Manera, Claudia Maraston, Cameron K. McBride, Kushal T. Mehta, Olga Mena, Francesco Montesano, Demetri Muna, Robert C. Nichol, Sebastian E. Nuza, Matthew D. Olmstead, Daniel Oravetz, Nikhil Padmanabhan, Nathalie Palanque-Delabrouille, Kaike Pan, John Parejko, Isabelle Paris, Will J. Percival, Patrick Petitjean, et al. The clustering of galaxies in the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: Baryon Acoustic Oscillations in the Data Release 9 Spectroscopic Galaxy Sample. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2012 [link]
2. Reid et al. The clustering of galaxies in the SDSS-III DR9 Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: Measurements of the growth of structure and expansion rate at z=0.57 from anisotropic clustering. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2012 [link]

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.

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JetBlue pilot's outburst: Could side effects from medications be at fault?

Federal investigators and JetBlue officials poring over Clayton Osbon's medical records are expected to look for clues as to whether medications, or their side effects, might be an issue.

Side effects from sleep and antidepressant medications ? or perhaps even a nutritional supplement ? are possible areas of investigation as officials probe the mystery of a JetBlue pilot's erratic behavior aboard a flight Tuesday, medical experts say.

Skip to next paragraph

Clayton Osbon, who was charged Wednesday with interfering with a flight crew, a felony, reportedly ran up and down the aisle of the plane shouting about Al Qaeda and declaring the plane was going down, even as passengers struggled to restrain him.

The co-pilot landed the Las Vegas-bound flight safely in Amarillo, Texas. Mr. Osbon was taken, strapped to a stretcher, to a local medical facility and later charged.

Yet the 12-year JetBlue captain had been, prior to this episode, a man whom the company's CEO called a ?consummate professional,? rising within JetBlue's ranks to become an exemplary "flight standards captain." Osbon has been reported by news outlets to have been an even-tempered man on good terms with his neighbors and hobby pilot buddies in his hometown of Richmond Hill, Ga.

So what might have stirred this emotional tornado ? described as a "medical situation" by JetBlue officials ? emerge?

Federal investigators and JetBlue officials poring over Osbon's medical records are expected to look for clues as to whether medications, or their side effects, might be an issue in the case, or whether the incident is attributable to a rare case of psychosis or other mental aberration not previously diagnosed.

Experts unconnected with the investigation say several pharmacological issues under scrutiny within the airline industry are likely to get attention in the Osbon case, including the side effects of medicines that pilots sometimes use to fight fatigue and depression.

Was Osbon, for instance, among those pilots newly permitted by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to use one of four specific antidepression medications, whose potential side effects are known to include hallucination and panic attacks?

Use of antidepressants had long been considered cause for grounding a commercial pilot. That changed in April 2010, when the FAA announced it would begin to issue medical certificates, or waivers, on a case-by-case basis to "pilots taking medication for mild to moderate depression." Now, pilots taking Prozac, Zoloft, Celexa, or Lexapro under doctors? orders are allowed to fly if they have had successful treatment for 12 months.

"He might have a psychosis or some other underlying illness," says Russell Rayman, a board-certified specialist in aerospace medicine and a former director of the Aerospace Medical Association in Alexandria, Va., an organization of physicians and scientists that conducts research on medicine and the aerospace industry.

"But there's also the possibility that [Osbon] had a reaction to some medication he was taking as a prescription ? or even something he just bought in the drugstore," Dr. Rayman speculates. "All three possibilities have to be investigated. Certainly some medications could trigger a bizarre reaction."

The FAA requires pilots under age 40 to receive physical examinations once a year. Pilots 40 and over must have exams twice a year. As part of the checkup, they must submit all medications they are taking or that have been prescribed by doctors.

Medications related to sleeping problems could have been an issue in this case, some aerospace medical experts say. Osbon typically flew jets out of John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. He roomed with several other pilots in a small apartment, according to news reports. With fragmented, often-changing schedules, many pilots develop problems sleeping.

Half of all airline pilots "rarely or never get a good night's sleep on work nights," according to a survey released earlier this month by the National Sleep Foundation, an Arlington, Va., organization of health professionals who study the issue.

Last year, the National Transportation Safety Board, responding to a fatal 2008 charter-jet crash in Minnesota, called for changes in rules dealing with how airline pilots deal with fatigue. Failure of pilots to get a good night's rest, undiagnosed sleep disorders, and unauthorized sleep medications were cited in the case.

If a pilot is prescribed a sleeping medication for regular use, it?s possible the FAA might not recertify him to fly at his next physical exam, some medical experts note.

Medications "for sleep ? they all have psychiatric overhangs," says one senior medical expert with knowledge of federal aviation requirements who requested anonymity. "The FAA won't permit the use of sleep medications because the parade of sleepwalking and crazy things happening the next day is just unbelievable."

Instead, the expert says, the agency has tried to address this by changing the work rules. In 2014, the FAA will require 10 hours of rest (up from eight hours currently) between flight duties, with at least eight hours of sleep.

Another problem is that pilots sometimes "self-medicate" to sleep better, some say. And they may not report that.

"I don't think we really know to what extent pilots are self-medicating for sleep problems because of ?the fear of FAA regulations prohibiting sleep medications," says Sanjay Patel, a specialist in sleep medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and a researcher at Harvard Medical School. "If anything, pilots are more likely to be undertreating insomnia for fear of the FAA restrictions."

Dr. Patel adds, ?It would be very rare for something like [the Osbon case] to happen [because of reactions to sleep medications], but you can't completely rule it out without looking for evidence of drug in the person's system."

Finally, there is the question of nutritional supplements. According to his Twitter account, Osbon, in his spare time, was moonlighting as a "regional director" to help market a nutritional supplement aimed at weight loss. Could he have been affected by it?

"There's so much we just don't know," Rayman says. "People walk into a drugstore and buy what they want ? they're self-medicating. Any of those medications could trigger a bizarre reaction in conflict with one another. And we don't know what kind of dietary supplements he was using, if any. It's something that needs to be checked."

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How to improve self esteem Send Margot Love

What do we imply by self esteem? In straightforward phrases, it indicates the way you are feeling about on your own or instead you are feeling you possess a pretty inadequate self picture. Like such as, when at perform, in the event you really feel you have attained achievement simply because you received an advertising in the latest position, it means your self esteem is superior. It can be superior to have a high self worth about you. A few of the other doubts about self worth are-

? Are you proud of your latest task?
? Do your colleagues respect that which you do?
? Does one usually evaluate yourself together with your other colleagues?
? How would you feel about your social status?

It does not suggest a son of the billionaire has received significant self esteem mainly mainly because he is aware of he is a billionaire himself. He is aware that even though he runs a marathon in 5 several hours is not going to make a difference considerably although the actual time needed to complete the marathon is four hrs.

Ok, since you received to understand the essential concept regarding what it implies whenever we say self worth, let us uncover out how to make improvements to self worth.

1- Exercise ? Workout is taken into account as one of the ideal options to enhance your self esteem. Indeed, after you exercising you can definitely shed weight and simultaneously you might sense satisfied about you because it will lower your strain. Its excellent to workout with good friends as it is the most beneficial time you may share your thoughts and go over methods to improve just about every many others self esteem.

2- Optimistic contemplating ? This is vital. Take away many of the damaging items whatever you think about your self. Accelerate your power imagining ?Yes, I am the best person for this job? or ?Yes, I can perform it?. Convey in that perspective in yourself. Produce down all of the superior things about you that make you proud or oneself. When you are feeling low, just go through the guide in which you have prepared about your self. This may routinely boost your self esteem.

3- Be self-confident ? This can be on the list of most effective means to further improve your self worth. If you are talking with the juniors or seniors in your office, follow whatever you say. But recall, its essential to make sure that what you have talked about is absolutely ideal. At the time it transpires, you will see you get your because of regard from everybody largely given that they realize that you may only speak out what you feel can be accomplished or attained.

4- Choose difficulties ? It is another significant component to explore. At do the job or simply in the course of studies, consider up difficulties. Dont have a sense you wont be in a position to do it. Go ahead and check out your finest to get it completed. Success comes from failure. Even Thomas Edison wouldve under no circumstances invented an electrical bulb in the event he had lost hope after repeated tries. He just went forward and took up the problem. Thus, experience the problem in daily life. Youre going to be surprised with your operation when you may have efficiently completed your project.

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Gose's 3 steals in 8th help Jays beat Red Sox

Associated Press Sports

updated 6:24 p.m. ET March 29, 2012

FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) - Anthony Gose ran all over the Boston Red Sox on Thursday, and in doing so helped the Toronto Blue Jays steal a 3-2 victory to extend their spring training winning streak to 10 games.

Gose drew a leadoff walk in the eighth inning off left-hander Justin Thomas, then stole second, third and home for what turned out to be the winning run.

"I never saw anybody steal second, third and home in the same inning in my career," Blue Jays manager John Farrell said. "He is obviously exciting. He can take over on the basepaths. He has a combination of pure speed, plus the ability to read some things. You just turn him loose. He's a pure basestealer.

"It's a risky play," Farrell added. "But with two outs, it was a calculated gamble."

Gose had four stolen bases in the game, and has seven during spring training. He has 194 stolen bases in four minor league seasons, including 70 last year with Double-A New Hampshire.

"Real fast runner being a young daring guy," Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine said, adding that catch Jarrod Saltalamacchia "checked him four times. The fifth time he didn't check him. He lobbed it and Justin got it stuck in his glove, I guess. If he gets the ball out. He's out. ... He's a fast runner that kid."

Red Sox started right-hander Alfredo Aceves pitched a solid six innings, allowing two runs on three hits with four strikeouts and two walks. He got in trouble in the sixth.

With one out, Gose reached on an error by third baseman Kevin Youkilis, then stole second and went to third on an error by catcher Kelly Shoppach. Rajai Davis walked and stole second. Eric Thames single to right scored Gose and Davis.

"I think he's one of the better pitches that we have in camp," Valentine said. "He's pitched well. Ran out of gas a little at the end, I thought, but other than that he's a very good pitcher. And he pitched well today."

For Aceves, it's "a dream" to be a starter. He made four starts in his 55 appearances last season, his first with the Red Sox. However, he won't be disappointed if he ends up working out of the bullpen.

"You know why?" he asked. "It's hard to get a job. This job is really unique, and I think looking at the other hand, we have to be glad to have a job, to play with the Red Sox."

David Ortiz hit a solo home run for the Red Sox.

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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DeMarco: The Dodgers have new owners, but how quickly will they become contenders? It's one of many key storylines to examine as the season gets under way.

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Finding A Quality Air Conditioning Contractor Is No Easy Task ? The ...

Do you need to change an existing heating or air conditioning system? Is your system not working as well as it has to be? Make sure to choose a professional contractor who can help you to get the most out of your heating and cooling systems.

## How to Decide on the Best Company?

You should think about quality as well as price when selecting an air conditioning contractor. The cheapest quote will not always get you the best service. A professional and experienced technician will be able to assess any troubles with energy efficiency before installation, meaning that you will get years of reliable service out of the installed product.

## How to Choose the Best Product?

A knowledgeable air conditioning contractor can assist you to choose the product that will work ideal for your home. Room air conditioners work well in small spaces and only cool the area they are placed in. A central air conditioner is perfect for cooling the entire house; the size of air conditioner needed depends on the size of your home. Picking the right product and having it professionally installed can minimize air conditioning service and repair costs down the road.

## Why is Maintenance Important?

Heating and air conditioning maintenance services performed by a qualified contractor can improve the output quality of your product, ensuring effective heating and cooling for the life of the product. Performing regular maintenance on your heating and cooling systems means that you will have to replace them less frequently.

## What Sort of Maintenance Should be Applied?

Regular heating and air conditioning maintenance is recommened to improve the performance of your heating and cooling systems and to keep energy expenses down. A trained technician will be able to examine your products? functionality and repair any leaks, replace filters, clean evaporator and condenser coils, and seal and insulate heating and air conditioning ducts to ensure highest energy efficiency.

## How to Improve Energy-Efficiency?

It is essential to select an air conditioning contractor who can guarantee the energy efficiency of your home. A qualified technician will be able to give great tips on sealing your home to make it energy efficient, and will provide installation that will allow your heating and cooling systems to reach the absolute maximum manufacturer-specified efficiency.

To ensure energy-efficiency and to minimize air conditioning service and repair expenses, choose an experienced contractor for the installation and servicing of your heating and air conditioning products.

If you are searching for information on how to improve air conditioner performance or want to learn more about ways to improve indoor air quality, make sure that you visit Cooksair.com today.

Source: http://www.thedailydowner.com/finding-a-quality-air-conditioning-contractor-is-no-easy-task/

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The Hard Facts: It's All In Your Head | MWF Seeking BFF

It?s Research Wednesday! Where I share the latest, or most fascinating, in the science of friendship.

?Researchers are suggesting that there is a link between the number of friends you have and the size of the region of the brain ? known as the orbital prefrontal cortex ? that is found just above the eyes. A new study shows that this brain region is bigger in people who have a larger number of friendships.? (?Brain Size May Determine Whether You Are Good at Keeping Friends?; ?Sciencedaily.com 2/24/2012)

We already knew that the size of the human brain is related to the size of our social networks. According to The Dunbar Number, humans can maintain about 150 relationships at one time. That?s relationships, not friendships. It includes the people you might see on the street, chat with, and know how they fit into your life.

This new research says that the size of an individual?s orbital prefrontal cortex is directly related to how many friends she can hold on to. I?m not going to lie, the brain research is sometimes over my head. (Aagh! Pun! Not intended!) But the gist is that to maintain a lot of pals we need to be able to understand how other people think, and the bigger the frontal lobe, the better we are at that mind-reading, or ?mentalising? as the researchers call it.

Here?s how Robin Dunbar, who is also the brain behind this latest study, explains it: ??Mentalising? is where one individual is able to follow a natural hierarchy involving other individuals? mind states. For example, in the play ?Othello?, Shakespeare manages to keep track of five separate mental states: he intended that his audience believes that Iago wants Othello to suppose that Desdemona loves Cassio. Being able to maintain five separate individuals? mental states is the natural upper limit for most adults.??

Here?s what I?m wondering: Now that we know the specific social skill (mentalising) that contributes to someone having a lot of friends, can a person work on that skill? Can she strengthen it if she wants to be able to keep more pals? Or does the size of the frontal lobe determine your mentalising ability, and that?s that?

It?s unclear from the research. What we know is this: ?The size of your brain determines your social skills, and it is these that allow you to have many friends,? or, as Dunbar said, ?there is a link between the ability to read how other people think and social network size.?

All of which is to say one thing: Want more friends? Work on your mind-reading. Tall order.

?

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Source: http://mwfseekingbff.com/2012/03/28/the-hard-facts-its-all-in-your-head/

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Awards presented at 2012 State Construction Conference | North ...

Good Faith Effort Awards: Pictured left to right are: Bridget Wall-Lennon, Director, Office for Historically Underutilized Businesses; Calvin Stevens, Director of Business Development and Diversity, Balfour Beatty Professional Service/Construction Industry Company; ?Sharon Ozment, Chief Financial Officer, Guilford County Public Schools, Special Recognition Award; Dorothy Vick, HUB Coordinator for UNC-Charlotte, HUB Advocate; Katie Tyler, President/CEO of Tyler 2 Construction, HUB Firm; Patrice Gilmore, Diversity Program Manager/ Project Manager with LendLease, Industry/ Agency ? Individual; James Griffin, HUB Coordinator, ?NC A&T State University, Anthony Phillips, HUB Coordinator, UNC-Greensboro, Brenda Fulmore, HUB Coordinator, Winston-Salem State University, UNC System Triad Coalition, Public Sector Owner/ Agency; Grover Burthey, HUB Coordinator, ?Office for Historically Underutilized Businesses.

The Frank B. Turner Award was presented? to a career state employee during the 31st annual State Construction Conference at the McKimmon Center in Raleigh. Additionally, the State Building Commission recognized an outstanding architecture and engineering firm and the Office for Historically Underutilized Businesses (HUB) presented six Good Faith Effort Awards to HUB leaders.

The event, which attracted more than 1,100 contractors, subcontractors, engineers, architects, landscape architects and representatives of state agencies, is presented by the State Construction Office of the N.C. Department of Administration.

The Frank B. Turner Award was presented to J. Donald Edwards Jr., former Physical Plants Director of Cherry Hospital in Goldsboro.? Given annually since 1983, the Turner Award recognizes a state government employee for dedicated public service and outstanding professional contributions to the built environment.

Edwards began his 30-year career at Cherry Hospital in 1979 as a Plant Engineer and went on to become the Physical Plants Director in 1982.? His family has a historical connection to Cherry Hospital: His father, Donald Edwards Sr., was the Farm Superintendent for 37 years.

A Certificate of Merit from the State Building Commission was presented to Clark Nexsen Architecture and Engineering for outstanding achievement in the UNC-Charlotte Residence Hall Phase IX Spruce Hall project.

The HUB Office presented six Good Faith Effort Awards to recognize outstanding HUB leaders, including:

HUB Firm: Katie Tyler, President/CEO of Tyler 2 Construction, which has been in general contracting for 28 years, in recognition of its outstanding achievements as a historically underutilized business.

HUB Advocate:? Dorothy Vick, HUB Coordinator for UNC-Charlotte, in recognition of her dedication in promoting and advocating for historically underutilized businesses.

Professional Service/Construction Industry Company: Balfour Beatty Construction, in recognition of its outstanding efforts for HUB Outreach and Utilization on General Contracting and Construction Management-at-Risk Projects.

Public Sector Owner/Agency:? UNC System Triad Coalition (N.C. A&T University, UNC-Greensboro and Winston-Salem State University) in recognition of its commitment to the state?s HUB Program and utilization of HUB firms.

Industry/Agency ? Individual:? Patrice Gilmore, Diversity Program Manger/Project Manager with LendLease Inc., in recognition of her exemplary diligence and accomplishments in promoting the HUB Utilization on the UNC Bell Tower Project.

Special Recognition Award:? Sharon Ozment, Chief Financial Officer with Guilford County Public School System, in recognition of her outstanding leadership in supporting the HUB/MWBE Program initiatives of her district and the state.? Read More.

Source: http://www.ncconstructionnews.com/architects/awards-presented-at-2012-state-construction-conference/

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Afternoon Links (Theagitator)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

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Boehner, Reid talks may end U.S. transport bill standoff (reuters)

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Palo Alto Real Estate Market Update: Mortgages - Of Jobs, Loans ...

IF searching for a new job and refinancing a home are both on the agenda, you might be wondering which task you should finish first.

Mortgage?experts generally recommend that homeowners complete their refinancing before making any major career changes, especially if they are planning to start their own business or become an independent contractor, in which case income may fluctuate.

?There?s no real reason to wait unless you don?t qualify? with current income, said Matt Hackett, the underwriting manager for Equity Now, a direct mortgage lender in?New York City. The job market has been steadily improving. The unemployment rate fell to 8.3 percent in February from 9.0 percent in February 2011. And?data?released this month from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that more people quitting their jobs this year are doing so voluntarily.

But depending on work history and mortgage lender, just being in the market for a new job might hinder a person?s ability to refinance or buy a home.

?If you?re actively looking to leave your job, it will impact how the bank views giving you a mortgage,? said Jason Auerbach, a divisional manager of First Choice Loan Services inManhattan. The search raises ?a question mark about their future employment? and income, he added.

In addition to checking employment at the start of the application process, many lenders will verify such information as late as the last 72 hours before mortgage closing. If they learn a borrower is starting a new job in the very near future, the mortgage can be delayed or even derailed. And borrowers who withhold such information could be committing income fraud, Mr. Auerbach said.

Other lenders, however, say they make?loans?based on a moment-in-time snapshot of a borrower?s finances.

?As long as the time when you?re closing that loan that you?re gainfully employed in the job that you said you were, you?re telling the truth,? said Heidi Yanavich, who trains mortgage loan originators at the McCue Mortgage Company, a direct lender in New Britain, Conn.

Still, Mrs. Yanavich said, the best path is to refinance first and change jobs afterward ? especially if a borrower is changing careers. ?Your success in a new field is not established,? she said.

An advantage to refinancing first is that ?you are freeing up additional cash flow? by reducing your monthly payment, said Jodi Glickman, the founder of Great on the Job, a career-training company based in Chicago. Some job changers may earn less at first. ?They are going to be assuming more risk,? she said, pointing out that they therefore need to reduce their financial risks.

All that said, however, there are advantages to refinancing later, especially for those who might have to relocate when they change jobs, Ms. Glickman said.

A person may well get a new job with more income and responsibility, or in an especially robust industry. That may help him or her qualify for a larger mortgage, or even better terms. According to Mr. Auerbach, you could be able to borrow up to four times your annual income.

Taking a new job right in the middle of a mortgage refinancing, though, could mean extra time and paperwork. Mr. Auerbach, for one, says he will very likely want to see an employment contract or a job offer letter.

Other lenders may want you to wait. Mrs. Yanavich says borrowers may need to provide 30 days of pay stubs and have their employer verify their employment and the time frame of any probationary period.

The Federal Housing Administration, along with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, requires 30 days? pay stubs if the loans are going to be insured by or resold to those entities.

If you?re counting on a future bonus, expect to be asked for a letter from your employer verifying that, too.

?Today?s lending is pretty conservative,? Mrs. Yanavich said. ?Incomes need to be documented.
?

Source: http://paloaltoproperties.blogspot.com/2012/03/mortgages-of-jobs-loans-and-timing.html

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French gunman's brother suspected of complicity

PARIS (Reuters) - The brother of an al Qaeda-inspired gunman shot dead by French police was placed under investigation on Sunday for suspected complicity in a killing spree that has made security a central election issue, with President Nicolas Sarkozy scenting an advantage.

Sarkozy, buoyed by a rise in opinion polls four weeks from the first round of a presidential vote, renewed hostilities with rival Francois Hollande over the weekend, saying the Socialist front runner was unfit to protect France's security interests.

Both men are seeking to adjust to - and in Sarkozy's case to capitalize on - the bloody drama in which Mohamed Merah killed three Jewish children, a rabbi and three soldiers before he was killed by police snipers after a marathon siege and a gunbattle.

After four days of police questioning, prosecutors said that Abdelkader Merah, the killer's older brother, was being placed under investigation on suspicion of complicity and would remain in detention for the duration of a inquiry that could last months before a decision to send him to trial or drop the case.

Abdelkader, 29, was arrested at dawn on Wednesday as elite police commandos surrounded the apartment of brother Mohamed in the southwestern city of Toulouse.

He was transferred to domestic intelligence headquarters in western Paris on Saturday along with his woman partner, who was released without charge shortly before dawn on Sunday.

Mohamed Merah, 23, a French citizen of Algerian origin, was killed by a police sniper as he jumped from the balcony of his lodgings, pistol firing, after a standoff of more than 30 hours and a gunbattle inside his three-room apartment.

He did not appear to have acted as part of a fundamentalist network, according to domestic intelligence chief Bernard Squarcini, but investigators want to establish whether he was swayed or given practical help by his brother Abdelkader.

Abdelkader, public prosecutor Francois Molins has said, was already known to security services for helping smuggle Jihadist militants into Iraq in 2007.

"Police inquiries have produced serious and matching pointers that suggest his (Abdelkader's) participation as an accomplice in crimes relating to a terrorist enterprise is plausible," the Paris prosecutor's office said in a statement.

It listed suspected offences of complicity in assassination and in robbery, and colluding with criminals planning terrorist enterprises.

Abdelkader said during a preliminary police interrogation he was proud of his brother's lethal exploits, and he also admitted to involvement in the March 6 robbery of a high-powered scooter his brother used in all three attacks, police sources say.

But his lawyer, Anne-Sophie Laguens, told journalists on Sunday: "He never said he was proud of his brother's acts and firmly condemns them."

Francois Molins, the prosecutor leading the case, has said police had found explosives in a car Abdelkader owned.

Abdelkader was known to have studied the Koran in Egypt in 2010 and French police had in the past found links between the brothers and a radical Islamist group based in southern France led by a Syrian-born Frenchman dubbed "The White Emir" by French media because of his fair hair and beard.

ELECTION BATTLES RENEWED

With the opening round of a two-round election just a month away, Sarkozy kept the focus at the weekend on security, a theme that, after gatecrashing the agenda last week, may help him in his re-election quest if it sticks as a voter worry.

Three-quarters of French voters said in a poll published on Saturday they approved Sarkozy's handling of the crisis. The president has promised new laws to criminally punish people who consult militant website or do indoctrination stints in places such as Pakistan and Afghanistan, which Mohamed Merah visited.

At a rally on the outskirts of Paris on Saturday, Sarkozy took a stab at Hollande's reluctance to back his proposed laws.

"He can cry foul, fiddle around, hesitate, skirt the issues and alter the finer points. He can refuse to vote for laws that I am proposing to protect France and the French people. But let me tell you that these laws will be adopted if the French choose to place their trust in me," he said.

Hollande, reduced to a bystander last week while Sarkozy reverted from campaigner to the role of president at the height of the killings crisis, struck back during a visit to the French island of Corsica off the southern coast, which has a long and violent history of racketeering and separatist struggles.

"Here's a place which has been subjected to violence and assassinations over the past five years. There are 20 homicides a year and he (Nicolas Sarkozy) sees fit to give us lessons about security and the law?" Hollande asked.

"The law needs to be applied, not reinvented every time according to the circumstances of the time. It's a question of halting splash announcements and giving the police and justice system the resources they need," he said.

Sarkozy has drawn level with Hollande in opinion polls and now even leads him in some surveys of voter plans for the first round of voting on April 22, when people can choose between 10 candidates, including the two big contenders.

All polls still show him losing the second-round runoff to Hollande, against whom he launched a personal attack during a conversation with a journalist that was reported at the weekend.

Philippe Ridet, a journalist who wrote a book about the 2007 victory, said in a magazine article that Sarkozy had taken him aside one time to say: "I am going to win and I am even going to tell you why. He's not good and it's starting to show. Hollande is useless. Useless, you understand."

(Additional reporting by Catherine Bremer and Gerard Bon in Paris and Saud Mehsud and Hafiz Wazier in Pakistan; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/french-gunmans-brother-suspected-complicity-130450290.html

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Utilising Visualization To push Astral Travel and leisure | Cell Phone ...

In the past several years the national air travel infrastructure from India features undergone something of an revolution.

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Source: http://hovalot.us/utilising-visualization-to-push-astral-travel-and-leisure/

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Shopping Roll: PRODUCT REVIEW: For the beautiful eyes!

[PAID ADVERTORIAL]

MagicColour is the leading distributor of Korea contact lenses,

offering wide palettes of tri-colour contact lenses collection design to end users.

With their factory in Korea that uses the new Diamond Cutting technology,

all products are on maximum accuracy & exceptionally fine quality surface.

MagicColour's Contact lenses have the highest water content of 55%,

so wearers will be having longer moisture with their lenses, compared to others

that has only 35% water content. All lenses are with 16.0mm diameter,

one of the largest size available in the market,

and could last for 3 months of daily usage!

Check out some of the lens I've got from them:

p/s: All contact lenses comes in blister packaging for hygenic purposes!

Here's a Before and After of how it looks on me!

Look so much different already ey? ;)

While here's the second pair:

Personally love the slight brown touch on the inner rim! :D

Below is the the Before and After:

And here's the last pair!

And how it looks on me:

Don't you love those shades already? :)

As they're all in 16.0mm diameter, hence it really makes a big difference

unlike the usual ones which is around 14mm that we could get elsewhere!

So it kinda give my eyes much more soul!

I also find that their lenses are "thinner" as compared to those that I've used,

so I really couldn't feel a thing or any discomfort even it's at 16mm,

& nice that it sits perfectly on my eyes! With the highest water content of 55%,

it definitely more comfortable that it last longer throught the day!

I mean, who doesn't love a pair of moisturized eyes right? ;)

Below are are the 3 exact pairs that are displayed on their site!

Feel free to click on the particular lens to be directed to the link itself!

MagicColour lens are all priced at RM40 - RM45 per pair,

and even available in a total of 11 beautiful collection to be chosen from,

Bet you'll love to get em on hands!

Currently they're having "March Buy 5" promotion until end of the month,

(which means, you'll have a week long left!)

where you could purchase any 5 pairs and get free shipping + lens case

for only RM150!

Ain't that a bargain? ;)

Now you could accumulate your orders with your girlfriends,

or even get all 5 for yourself if you're loving the shades they're offering!

So, if you're looking for these qualities for your contact lenses:

Quality, Unique, Comfort, Affordable

then you could definitely get your hands on MagicColour! ;)

Source: http://shoppingroll.blogspot.com/2012/03/product-review-for-beautiful-eyes.html

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Puzzling over links between monkey research and human health

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Studies in monkeys are unlikely to provide reliable evidence for links between social status and heart disease in humans, according to the first ever systematic review of the relevant research.

The study, published in PLoS ONE, concludes that although such studies are cited frequently in human health research the evidence is often "cherry picked" and generalisation of the findings from monkeys to human societies does not appear to be warranted.

Psychosocial factors such as stress, social instability and work dynamics are often believed to play an important role in the emergence of disease, with the negative effects associated with high stress levels deriving from disturbances and sudden change. In evaluating these effects on humans, the scientific community often relies on primate models because it is easier to induce changes in their environment, and because of monkeys' biological closeness to us. Such studies have historically provided one foundation for the suggestion that factors such as stress or position in a social hierarchy may lead to some people suffering more ill health than others.

Researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the University of Bristol undertook an extensive search of relevant studies and found 14 which offered evidence on coronary artery disease (CAD) and social status and/or psychosocial stress within the natural social hierarchies of primates.

They conclude: "Overall, non-human primate studies present only limited evidence for an association between social status and CAD. Despite this, there is selective citation of individual monkey studies in reviews and commentaries relating to human disease aetiology. Such generalisation of data from monkey studies to human societies does not appear warranted."

Lead author, Mark Petticrew, Professor of Public Health Evaluation at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, says that without assessing the validity of primate studies first, there is little point in using them to build theories of causes of human ill-health.

He says: "Before we can apply results from primates into our society, we need to make sure that the evidence coming from these studies is reliable. Systematic reviews of animal studies are still uncommon but they are essential for assessing the consistency and strength of their findings. It is unscientific to selectively refer a same small handful of positive findings and discard all the others that do not fit the hypothesis."

The researchers also warn against generalising results from primate data to human societies and point out that many primatologists themselves have drawn attention to the limitations in reaching such conclusions, as their findings are not necessarily comparable between similar species of monkey, and sometimes not even within the same species. Too many factors are at play that can introduce bias, such as the environment the primates were brought up in, the laboratory settings and other potentially traumatic experiences like relocating from the wild to a laboratory.

The study suggests that if studies correlating social hierarchy and heart disease in monkeys cannot be generalised to other monkeys, it makes even less sense to extend these findings to human health outcomes.

Co-author Professor George Davey Smith, of the University of Bristol, says: "In the UK, systematic reviews are an essential requirement when used to informing decisions about human care, as NICE recommends. We should expect the same from studies in animals, and even more so when those studies are then applied to humans."

Health services researcher Sir Iain Chalmers, one of the founders of the Cochrane Collaboration and coordinator of the James Lind Initiative, comments: "A thousand years ago Ibn Sina warned against incautious extrapolation from animal experiments to humans; yet, as the study by Petticrew and Davey Smith illustrates, this practice continues today. A recent increase in the numbers of systematic reviews of animal studies has begun to address this problem. As shown by Petticrew and Davey Smith here, these reviews have begun to reveal not only citation biases, but also important methodological deficiencies in many animal studies."

###

London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine: http://www.lshtm.ac.uk

Thanks to London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 41 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/118641/Puzzling_over_links_between_monkey_research_and_human_health

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Obama taps Jim Yong Kim for World Bank

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama on Friday nominated Dartmouth College president and global health expert Jim Yong Kim to lead the World Bank, an unconventional pick that could help to quell criticism in the developing world of the U.S. stranglehold on the international organization's top post.

Obama said Kim, a Korean-born physician and pioneer in the treatment of HIV, AIDS and tuberculosis, has the breadth of experience on development issues needed to carry out the financial institution's anti-poverty mission.

"It's time for a development professional to lead the world's largest development agency," Obama said Friday morning during a Rose Garden ceremony.

Obama was joined by Kim, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who first recommended that Obama consider Kim for the World Bank post.

The 187-nation World Bank focuses on fighting poverty and promoting development. It is a leading source of development loans for countries seeking financing to build dams, roads and other infrastructure projects.

Since its founding in 1944, the World Bank has always been headed by an American. But developing countries, who have long sought to gain more power in the organization, planned an unprecedented challenge to Obama's pick this year and considered nominating three other candidates.

However, Kim is still expected to succeed outgoing president Robert Zoellick, who announced in February that he was stepping down.

The actual selection will be made next month by the World Bank's 25-member executive board. The United States, as the world's largest economy, has the largest percentage of the votes.

Kim is expected to travel around the world on a listening tour to rally support for his nomination ahead of the board's vote.

Senior administration officials said Obama took a strong personal interest in filling the World Bank vacancy after current president Zoellick announced in February he was stepping down. Obama and his advisers considered more than a dozen candidates, including well-known figures in the administration. But in the end, officials said, Obama pushed for a nominee with broad development experience and was particularly drawn to Kim's innovative work fighting the spread of AIDS and tuberculosis.

"Jim has truly global experience. He has worked from Asia to Africa to the Americas, from capitals to small villages. His personal story exemplifies the great diversity to our country," Obama said Friday.

Obama was to travel to South Korea for a nuclear summit later Friday.

Administration officials said former President Bill Clinton weighed in with support for Kim during Obama's deliberations. In a statement Friday, the former president applauded Kim's nomination.

?

"Jim Kim is an inspired and outstanding choice to lead the World Bank based on his years of commitment and leadership to development and particularly health care and AIDS treatment across the world," he said.

U.S. and European officials have voiced support for the developing world's efforts to expand their power at the World Bank, as well as its sister lending organization, the International Monetary Fund. But the status quo remains, with France's Christine Lagarde holding the top spot at the IMF and Kim's candidacy for World Bank president all but certain to prevail.

Developing nations are expected to nominate Jose Antonio Ocampo, a Columbia University professor who had been finance minister for Colombia, and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria's finance minister, who has the backing of the three African countries on the World Bank board.

Economist Jeffrey Sachs, the director of Columbia University's Earth Institute, openly campaigned for the World Bank post, saying the position should be filled by an expert in development issues. But Sachs dropped his bid Friday after Obama announced his nominee, writing on Twitter: "Jim Kim is a superb nominee for WB. I support him 100%."

Obama administration officials said the pick was already being well-received in the developing world. After learning of Kim's nomination, Rwandan President Paul Kagame said the physician was "a true friend of Africa" and "a leader who knows what it takes to address poverty."

The World Bank opening put Obama in the awkward position of choosing between his desire to be seen as a supporter of rising economic powers and the pressures of a political year in which support for a non-U.S. candidate could have opened him to criticism.

Obama picked Kim over several more well-known candidates, including Susan Rice, current U.S. ambassador to the United Nations; Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.; and Lawrence Summers, Obama's former director of the National Economic Council.

Others mentioned for the World Bank post included Indra Nooyi, the head of soft drink company PepsiCo, and Laura D'Andrea Tyson, who served in top economic jobs in the Clinton administration.

Kim was born in Seoul, South Korea, and moved to the U.S. at age 5. He is a graduate of Brown University and Harvard University. He co-founded the global health organization Partners in Health and served as director of the World Health Organization's department of HIV/AIDS.

He began his tenure as president of Dartmouth in 2009, becoming the first Asian-American to lead an Ivy League institution.

___

AP Economics Writer Martin Crutsinger contributed to this report.

___

Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-taps-jim-yong-kim-world-bank-141639562.html

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Spiritual Quotes | Secrets of Enlightenment ? Inspirational | Natural ...

Spiritual Quotes by Living Enlightened Master, Dr. Acharya Yogeesh. Created and Music by: Siddhali Shree www.siddhayatan.org http www.siddhalishree.com (blog) Inspirational thoughts for spirituality, enlightenment, spiritual truth, meditation, self-improvement, self-awakening,finding?
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Source: http://www.natural-wisdom.com/360/spiritual-quotes-secrets-of-enlightenment-inspirational

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Internet Marketing Will Benefit Your Company Whether Online Or ...

Should you have a business offline or one that?s entirely online, you should be aware of the benefits of Internet marketing and advertising. Many small business owners decide to market their business and they do not even know there are lots of available benefits. Marketing is really a difficult task for the majority of individuals in their business, and Internet advertising is no different. You?re also going to find a in relation to any kind of marketing whether online or offline persistence, cash as well as a lot of work is involved. You ought to also be aware that Internet Marketing and advertising is something which can not only promote an internet business but it can also market a real world business.

Phuket PHP development The Internet has turned into a place where many individuals turn to when they would like to connect with their friends and family or even do a little bit of shopping at their favorite store. One of the primary reasons folks are now doing most of their shopping on the web is because they are able to get better deals and they don?t need to waste time in a store. The most wonderful thing you can do for your offline business is to make use of the World wide web to market it. In case you are an offline business you need to recognize that selling your products online can wind up boosting your sales greatly. You are also going to discover that eBay is a place where many different stores are placing their products to be able to create more income.

Traditional advertising methods are considerably more expensive than using Internet advertising and marketing, and there aren?t any flyers or brochures needed. You need to comprehend that putting your product on eBay or creating a web site to sell your product from is much cheaper when compared with radio or TV Advertising and marketing. An additional benefit of Internet marketing and advertising is that customers each day can reach into the millions. You might also see that individuals will be searching specifically for what ever product you?re promoting. I should also mention that you?ll be producing more product sales mainly because individuals are actually trying to find your product.

And regardless of what time your real world business is open, you will find the you?ll be able to make revenue on the web at any time mainly because the Internet does not close. If you do not see the value yet with advertising and marketing on the internet just compare the cost of advertising and marketing online to other real world marketing and advertising costs. Never before has it been simpler to start a business, and that is all as a result of the Internet, and right away, you are able to reach millions of customers. Instead of using phones to contact your potential customers you are going to discover that e-mail and instant messaging are the new ways that people are keeping in contact. You can have a big benefit over your competition when you?ve got a presence online, specifically being able to instantly take orders.

You are additionally going to discover that there?s not just one method to market on the net there are actually multiple methods which you could take advantage of. You will find the awareness of your company will be increased, and you can develop a relationship with your customers. After you understand what Internet marketing and advertising can do for your business, it is there for you to take full advantage of.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged Internet Marketing. Bookmark the permalink.

Source: http://carhirelanzaroteairport.org/internet-marketing-will-benefit-your-company-whether-online-or-offline/

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Q & A: How much credit history to finance a BMW? | Finance ...

Question by ddd : How much credit history to finance a BMW
Could anyone tell me what the minimum time of credit history that is needed to finance a BMW? Is a year of perfect credit history enough? Best answer:

Answer by ? Ask Me Anything ?
Probably not.You would also need a good down payment.Make a decent incomeMight need a cosigner

Add your own answer in the comments!

Source: http://www.lovefinanceinfo.com/2012/03/q-a-how-much-credit-history-to-finance-a-bmw/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=q-a-how-much-credit-history-to-finance-a-bmw

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Zvox Z-Base 220

The soundbar has become a popular way to enhanced HDTV sound without getting a full surround speaker system. It's small, inexpensive, and usually just one or two pieces. ZVox has a different, yet equally affordable and simple take on the idea. The company's ZBase systems are one-piece sound systems that are more slabs than bars, yet offer a full range of sound response and much more power than an HDTV can produce. The $199.99 (direct) ZVox Z-Base 220 is the company's smallest sound system, built for smaller HDTVs but featuring lots of power. The Z-Base 220 features three 2-inch speaker drives, a 5.25-inch subwoofer, and 35 watts of power in its simple frame. It's not for audiophiles or home theater enthusiasts, but anyone looking to put some more power in their HDTV's sound will be pleased.

Design
The boxy Z-Base 220 is a shining example of "stealth boring" industrial design. It's so plain and flat that it might as well be invisible in a home theater system. This isn't a bad thing; some audiophiles like displaying their speakers, but many listeners prefer sound to fill the room without much thought about what's making it. The flat black grille, plain orange LED display, and 3.5 by 17 by 12.5-inch (HWD) matte black body blend into most furniture as an easily ignored chunk. Because it's so deep and weighs 12 pounds, it can't be easily placed in front of an HDTV or mounted on a wall. You need to have the surface space to support it. The Z-Base 220 fits easily under smaller HDTVs 17 to 27 inches ideally, according to ZVox, but bass vibrations mean it's best used with nothing on it. The company markets it as a device you can place your small HDTV directly on it, but that's not a good idea if you want to listen to anything with bass.

Under the black grill are small mute/power, volume, and input buttons and a 3.5mm input jack. They're tucked below the body of the Z-Base 220, so they don't interrupt the flat design. The back of the device holds two RCA stereo inputs, an optical input, and a coaxial input.

The fat membrane remote controls all of the Z-Base 220's settings. Besides power, input, mute, and volume buttons, the remote has buttons for surround sound modes, dialog emphasis, output leveling, and adjusting bass and treble. Besides multiple surround modes and adjusting high end and low end, there aren't many adjustments like EQ settings on the speaker.

Sound
I watched Predator on Blu-ray to test the Z-Base 220's sound and surround abilities. The gunshots were suitably loud and dialog was clear even without the dialog emphasis mode turned on. With it enabled, the midrange was boosted slightly and treble and bass seemed to be flattened, so while it indeed brought out dialog slightly, it hurt the other sounds and music. When the volume was pumped up to maximum, high-frequency sounds like the predator's actions became slightly crunchy.

Surround sound was less impressive. While the Z-Base 220 can accept 5.1-channel surround sound and produces simulated surround with its single box, it doesn't offer the imaging a real surround system or a set of well-spaced stereo speakers can produce. If you want a real surround experience, or a wide sound field, the Vizio VHT510 ($249.99, 4 stars) offers a wide sound bar with a wireless subwoofer and surround satellites for full surround sound, and the Samsung HW-D450 ($299.99, 3.5 stars) has a wide stereo field and much more bass response with its own subwoofer.

Even so, the room thumped impressively (if not as impressive as it would with a large, dedicated subwoofer), and the flat bass notes in The Knife's Silent Shout stayed clear until the highest volume levels, when the drivers began to distort. For a one-piece sound system, the Z-Base 220 has some pretty hefty bass response. But if you want to take advantage of that bass, you'll have to ignore the benefit of it being such a flat device; while the base didn't distort at all at most volume levels, anything placed on top of the Z-Base 220 vibrated horribly to the beat. While there are no grilles on the top of the device, you still shouldn't block it or put any pressure on it to ensure clarity and that nothing on it will vibrate. Without the top obstructed, though, the bass is surprisingly powerful.

If you want to enhance your home theater's sound, the ZVox Z-Base 220 is an inexpensive way to add plenty of power without any hassle. It's louder and sounds better than a cheap sound bar, and while it doesn't have the bass output or surround imaging of discrete speakers and a subwoofer, it's extremely easy to set up and unobtrusive to keep on a shelf under your HDTV. Just make sure you have the room for it.

More Speaker reviews:
??? Zvox Z-Base 220
??? iLuv ArtStation Pro iMM514
??? Pioneer S-MM751RU
??? Altec Lansing inAir 5000 Wireless AirPlay Speaker
??? Energy Power EM-2.1
?? more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/GUNeUkaDBXk/0,2817,2401578,00.asp

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Israeli law eyes super-thin models as bad examples

An Israeli walks past an advertising displayed on a main street in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Monday, March 19, 2012. A new Israeli law, passed late Monday, is trying to fight the spread of eating disorders by banning underweight models from local advertising. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

An Israeli walks past an advertising displayed on a main street in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Monday, March 19, 2012. A new Israeli law, passed late Monday, is trying to fight the spread of eating disorders by banning underweight models from local advertising. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Israelis go past an advertising displayed along a main street in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Monday, March 19, 2012. A new Israeli law, passed late Monday, is trying to fight the spread of eating disorders by banning underweight models from local advertising. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

JERUSALEM (AP) ? Told she was too fat to be a model, Danielle Segal shed a quarter of her weight and was hospitalized twice for malnutrition. Now that a new Israeli law prohibits the employment of underweight models, the 19-year-old must gain some of it back if she wants to work again.

Not that she was ever overweight. At 1.7 meters (5-feet-7), she weighed 53 kilograms (116 pounds) to begin with. Feeling pressure to become ever thinner, she dropped another 13 kilograms (29 pounds). The unnaturally skeletal girl weighed 40 kilograms (88 pounds) by then, or about as much as a robust pre-teen, and her health suffered.

The legislation passed Monday aims to put a stop to the extremes, and by extension ease the pressure on youngsters to emulate the skin-and-bones models, often resulting in dangerous eating disorders.

The new law poses a groundbreaking challenge to a fashion industry widely castigated for promoting anorexia and bulimia. Its sponsors say it could become an example for other countries grappling with the spread of the life-threatening disorders.

It's especially important in Israel, which, like other countries, is obsessed by models, whose every utterance and dalliance is fodder for large pictures and racy stories in the nation's newspapers. Supermodel Bar Refaeli is considered a national hero by many. She is not unnaturally thin.

The new law requires models to produce a medical report no older than three months at every shoot for the Israeli market, stating that they are not malnourished by World Health Organization standards.

The U.N. agency relies on the body mass index, calculated by factors of weight and height. WHO says a body mass index below 18.5 indicates malnutrition. According to that standard, a woman 1.72 meters tall (5-feet-8) should weigh no less than 119 pounds (54 kilograms).

Also, any advertisement published for the Israeli market must have a clearly written notice disclosing if its models were made to look thinner by digital manipulation. The law does not apply to foreign publications sold in Israel.

In Israel, about 2 percent of girls between 14 and 18 have severe eating disorders, a rate similar to other developed countries, experts said.

The law's supporters hope it will encourage the use of healthy models in local advertising and heighten awareness of digital tricks that transform already skinny women into seeming waifs.

"We want to break the illusion that the model we see is real," said Liad Gil-Har, assistant to law sponsor Dr. Rachel Adato, who compared the battle against eating disorders to the struggle against smoking.

The law won support from a surprising quarter: one of Israel's top model agents, Adi Barkan, who said in 30 years of work, he has seen young women become skinnier and sicker while struggling to fit the shrinking mold of what the industry considers attractive.

"They look like dead girls," Barkan said.

Aspiring model Segal says she's thrilled with the new law and wishes it had been passed years ago. "I wouldn't have grown up thinking that this (being underweight) is a model of beauty. I wouldn't have reached the point I reached," she said.

Segal said an agent told her three years ago that she had a beautiful face ? but not a "model's body." Trying to attain that ideal through drastic diets, she ended up in the hospital twice and stopped menstruating.

Segal said she met Barkan during her modeling work, and he convinced her that she could succeed as a model without being unnaturally thin. Segal, who now weighs around 50 kilograms (110 pounds) and would have to gain 3.5 kilograms (almost eight pounds) to qualify for work.

Barkan estimated about half the 300 professional models in Israel would have to gain weight to work again.

Top Israeli model Adi Neumman said she wouldn't pass under the new rules, because her BMI is 18.3. Neumman said she eats well and exercises. "Make girls go to a doctor. Get a system to follow girls who are found to be puking," a symptom of bulimia, she said.

Critics say the legislation should have focused on health, not weight, arguing that many models are naturally thin.

"The health of the model ... should be evaluated. Our weight can change hour to hour," said David Herzog, a professor of psychiatry and a leading U.S. expert on eating disorders.

Pressure on the fashion industry has intensified in recent years, sparked by the deaths of models in Brazil and Uruguay from medical complications linked to eating disorders.

Uruguayan model Luisel Ramos, 22, collapsed and died soon after stepping off the runway in August 2006, reportedly of anorexia-linked heart failure.

Other governments have taken steps to prevent "size zero" medical problems but have shied away from legislation.

The Madrid fashion show bans women whose BMI is below 18. Milan's fashion week bans models with a BMI below 18.5.

The U.K. and U.S. have guidelines, but their fashion industry is self-regulated.

Unrealistic body images in the media are believed to shape eating habits, especially among young people, though there is debate about how influential they are. Other factors include psychological health, trauma like sexual assault, or a tendency within one's family to emphasize physical appearance as a sign of success.

It's not certain that the law will have a measurable impact, because Israeli teens take their cues from both international media and local publications, said Sigal Gooldin, an eating disorder specialist at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Social worker Uri Pinus, who treats seven teens with eating disorders at a Jerusalem hospital, said the law was unlikely to affect his patients.

"But our expectation is that this law will impact the wider public," Pinus said. "(It) will reduce pressure on the girls to lose weight."

Segal said putting weight back on would be a challenge. But, she said, "in the end it's a very low price to pay when I think about other girls who won't grow up sick in the future."

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Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article_2012-03-20-ML-Israel-Underweight-Models/id-2dfa3b46b1af497a8c84892df9bb18c9

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