WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S.debt ceiling increase must be part of any deal to resolve the looming "fiscal cliff" of tax increases and spending cuts, the top Democratic senator said on Thursday, further complicating talks to stave off the austerity measures.
President Barack Obama will not sign any agreement that does not contain a debt limit hike, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada told reporters after meeting with U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
That demand was underpinned with the White House warning Republican lawmakers that the $16.4 trillion statutory debt limit had to be increased soon and without drama.
"The president believes that it is entirely appropriate that Congress take action on this as part of an end of the year deal," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters.
The White House and congressional leaders have made little progress on a deal to avert the series of tax hikes and spending cuts slated to start taking effect January 1 that could tip the U.S. economy into recession.
It was not clear until Thursday that the White House was considering including the debt ceiling increase in this year's talks.
The Treasury is on track to reach the legal limit on its debt in the last week of December, but can use emergency tools to shift funds around to keep paying its bills.
Those measures are expected to give the Treasury extra funding until about mid-February at which time the government will no longer be able to borrow funds to make crucial payments such as the interest on U.S. debt.
"The president absolutely expects Congress to do its job, and one of the jobs that Congress has is to make sure that the United States government pays its bills," Carney said.
Last year, House of Representatives Republicans refused to raise the debt ceiling without spending cuts. Top Republican lawmaker, House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, repeated his position that any increase in the debt ceiling be matched or exceeded by spending cuts.
(Reporting by Rachelle Younglai, Jeff Mason and Kim Dixon; Editing by Sandra Maler and Vicki Allen)
China is one of 13 countries with extreme water shortages and the situation is made worse by widespread water pollution, experts say.
With 20 percent of the world's population but with only 6 percent of the world's water resources, China's strong economic growth has come at a cost to the environment, the experts said.
The Yangtze River flows an ominous blood red from industrial pollution, experts said, while chronic droughts plague important agricultural regions.
Guo Peiyuan, general manager of a Beijing corporate sustainability consulting firm, has seen the problem up close.
"I was born in a farmer's family in southern China and there are a lot of rivers there," he told CNN. "When I was a child we could swim in the river. But as I grew up in the 1990s, a lot of factories came in.
"One summer vacation I went to my hometown and my mother told me that the local farmers would not use the water for the crops because water was polluted and the vegetables would die."
There are concerns the water crisis will worsen in coming years.
In Beijing the amount water available per person is just 1-10th of the U.N. standard of 1,000 cubic meters, a threshold used to measure chronic water shortage, CNN reported.
In this July 6, 2011, file photo, President Barack Obama sits in front of a screen displaying a question he tweeted??Looking for leverage in "fiscal cliff" talks with Republicans, President Barack Obama on Wednesday was to host middle-class Americans whose taxes risk going up January 1 then retreat behind closed doors for talks with top corporate executives. The White House also worked to enlist support on Twitter, highlighting a hashtag, #My2K, for tweets about the standoff.
Obama planned to deliver a speech at 11:35 a.m. to press Congress to extend Bush-era tax cuts on income up to $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for families ? surrounded by Americans who stand to be affected when those reductions expire January 1.
The White House says that "a typical middle class family of four" would pay Uncle Sam an additional $2,200 unless those tax cuts are extended. Obama campaigned for reelection in large part on the argument that tax cuts that chiefly benefit the richest Americans? must expire in order to save popular government programs that face the axe. Republicans argue that will reduce investments that generate jobs at a time when the economy is still sputtering, with unemployment stubbornly high. The GOP has signaled it would be willing to consider boosting tax revenues as long as Democrats agree to overhaul popular entitlement programs like Medicare or Medicaid.
That $2,200 figure is the inspiration for #My2K, part of what the White House describes as an "online push" behind the president's approach. Obama has highlighted Twitter hashtags in past disputes with Republicans: #40dollars in the fight over the payroll tax holiday and #dontdoublemyrate in a feud over student loans.
The president, who spoke to top Republican and Democratic leaders over the weekend, was to make brief public remarks at the top of a meeting with his cabinet at 3 pm before huddling with senior executives from major American corporations.
Here is the list of attendees, as provided by the White House:
Frank Blake, Chairman and CEO, The Home Depot
Lloyd Blankfein, Chairman and CEO, Goldman Sachs Group
Joe Echeverria, CEO, Deloitte LLP
Ken Frazier, President and CEO, Merck and Co.
Muhtar Kent, Chairman and CEO, Coca Cola
Terry Lundgren, Chairman, President, and CEO, Macy's Inc.
Marissa Mayer, CEO and President, Yahoo!
Douglas Oberhelman, Chairman and CEO, Caterpillar
Ian Read, Chairman and CEO, Pfizer
Brian Roberts, Chairman and CEO, Comcast
Ed Rust, Chairman and CEO, State Farm Insurance Co.
Arne Sorenson, President and CEO, Marriott
Randall Stephenson, Chairman and CEO, AT&T
Patricia Woertz, President and CEO, Archer Daniels Midland
The "fiscal cliff" refers to an economically painful set of tax hikes and deep spending cuts that come into effect January 1 unless Congress and the president reach a deal.
Now that we're BFFs, could you just clear up those Harry Styles rumours for us please Swifty?
If you are following Taylor Swift on Twitter, you better count yourself lucky as you are part of the special few who she reckons she shares a particularly close bond with.
Well, we say few but it might be best to take that in the loosest possible form as that technically adds up to you and another 21million odd fans hanging about in her highly exclusive inner circle.
Celebs might make a fuss about wearing sunglasses and hiding their faces behind their manbags when they get papped out and about, but from what we can tell there's nothing they like more than airing their dirty laundry online.
But as far as we're aware, Swifty has never been the biggest tweeter or even the type to start the odd Pro Green style Twitter spat. But even so she reckons she keeps it real where her online followers are concerned.
?I think it?s all how you use it," she told the Hot Hits. "I don?t have like a team of people who operate it, I just use it when I wanna tell them something, or when I think something?s funny.?
?I think for me, it feels like a personal relationship. And yeah it?s a personal relationship with 22 million people, but it?s still a personal relationship."
But taking things so personally can have its downsides too, especially when it comes to the Twitter trolls lurking about under bridges waiting to jump out at her.
Swifty's used to it though and likes to focus on the real fans, as she explained: ?Sometimes if I see something that isn?t nice I?ll just quickly go to the next one, like read the next one,"
"The thing I love to look at the responses fir is to determine, like, the set list for tour. ?Cos I can tell based on what my fans are tweeting about the most, I can tell what songs they like the most. And that?s how I put together the setlist.?
Well it's nice to hear that she actually listens to what her fans have to say, but if she fancies getting into one teeny tiny celeb spat, we have to say that we'd still be pretty into it all the same.
What do you think?
Comments please.
?
Taylor Swift wants her new boyfriend to be a 'bad boy'
Harry Styles to introduce Taylor Swift to his parents?
The Travel Channel's Ghost Adventures pokes around Union Station
Posted
by Ben Palosaari on
Wed, Nov 28, 2012 at 9:30 AM
Ghost Adventures' formula is simple: Tatted-up host Zak Bagans and his buds blow into a supposedly haunted place, set up a bunch of cameras, chat up the locals and try to find ghosts. It's must-see TV for dude-bros with a weakness for the paranormal and a cable package that includes the Travel Channel. And sooner or later, it was bound to find KC's Union Station.
We ran across the recently broadcast Union Station episode (also viewable on YouTube) and watched it so that you wouldn't have to. Spoiler alert: The only spirits are behind the bar at Pierpont's.
No, the chills in this episode are pretty earthbound. The part, for instance, when a security guard named Marcus tells Bagans (who is, surprisingly, not a hobbit - more like Guy Fieri trying out for the Scooby gang) that he once saw a woman's legs in high heels, and Bagans asks if they were nice legs. Icky. (Marcus says he tried to talk to her, but she disappeared - because obviously she was a ghost. "Ain't nobody can evaporate," he tells Bagans.)
Later, Bagans chills with John, a member of the Union Station audiovisual team and something of an over-sharer. John explains that his run-in with the other side came while he was ... indisposed. "I was going number two," he tells the camera crew. While sitting on the toilet, he heard the motion-activated faucets start running. He says he asked aloud if there was a ghost in the room. Bagans gives him a fist bump for investigating the supernatural while "taking a dump."
With this, Bagans conducts a s?ance to contact his inner 5-year-old. In an effort to re-create the scene that brought out the hand-washing ghost, he pops a squat in the bathroom and asks the ghost to show itself. No ghost appears. John explains: "You have to dump." Whether the spirit was there, no one's bowels were willing. The matter is dropped.
Per protocol, Bagans and his crew spend the whole night in the station with a man he describes as both a "hard-core skeptic" and a "full-blown skeptic." The crew spends the night trying to find ghosts on unused floors of the building. They find a spot where they think a ghost is and try to make it move a ball. No dice. Back on the main floor, they freak out when they see some movement inside Pierpont's. Alas, it's just two employees working at the restaurant, unaware that the show requires an empty building.
With that information, Bagans labels the investigation "contaminated." And because this is reality TV on a shoestring budget, not science, Bagans and the ghost bros don't stick around to try it again. If there are ghosts in Union Station, they know how to keep a secret.
Tags: Zak Bagans, Ghost Adventures, Ghost bros, Pierpont's, Union Station
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SEOUL (Reuters) - One of the more bizarre joint ventures in car-making is set to come to an end following the death of the head of South Korea's Unification Church which it is to give its stake in the Pyeonghwa Motors operation to North Korea.
Pyeonghwa, which produces models based on ageing Fiat SpA designs as well as those of Brilliance China Automotive Holdings, is the sole carmaker in isolated North Korea, although few of its impoverished citizens are able to afford its products.
"Pyeonghwa Motors' South Korean side is planning to pull out from the joint automaker and donate its 70 percent stake to the North," said a source familiar with the transaction, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the issue.
Spokesmen for the church were not immediately available for comment.
Sun Myung Moon, the founder of the Unification Church and a sprawling business empire, died in September aged 92. He was born in what is now North Korea
The church's joint venture with North Korea, set up in 2002, was one of the few to survive a freeze in relations between the North and South following the shooting of a South Korean tourist in 2008 by North Korean troops.
"The Unification Church's Moon made a will to give back the auto business with the North before he passed away. It is not because its business wasn't doing well," said the source.
Pyeonghwa produces about 2,000 vehicles a year, according to the source, in a country where most independent estimates say that gross domestic product per capita is less than $2,000.
Other estimates put Pyeonghwa's output at 1,000 cars a year or less.
While many North Koreans can only dream of owning a car, it appears that the country's top leadership prefers something a little more upmarket.
When leader Kim Jong-il died in December last year, he took his final journey atop an aged Lincoln Continental, which was accompanied by a fleet of black Mercedes sedans.
Pyeonghwa is based in the North Korean city of Nampho and the company says on its website (http://www.pyeonghwamotors.com/eng/) that its 10.76 million square foot factory has the capacity to produce 10,000 vehicles a year.
It listed sales as 1,873 vehicles in 2011.
North Korea has vowed to become a "strong and prosperous nation" by 2012, although initial expectations that its youthful new leader Kim Jong-un would open the country for more business appear to have been dashed.
Investors from China, the North main diplomatic and economic backer, have complained that they have been shaken down while doing business there.
(Writing by David Chance; Editing by Robert Birsel)
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Over the past seven years, Stifel Financial Corp Chief Executive Ronald Kruszewski has impressed Wall Street with a series of acquisitions that quintupled the regional brokerage's revenue and rewarded shareholders with a nearly four-fold increase in returns over the last five years.
Still, some investors view Kruszewski's latest deal, to buy money-losing investment bank KBW Inc , as a much riskier proposition. Some question the wisdom of spending $575 million to build out a middle-market investment banking business at a time when tougher financial regulations are posing a threat to profits of giants such as UBS AG and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Moreover, after years of expansion, Stifel's board is starting to worry that Kruszewski may be overextended. Before announcing the KBW deal on November 5, the board was mulling whether to appoint a senior administrator or president to help him run the company, according to one director. Kruszewski is currently chairman and president, as well as chief executive.
"We talk about him moving too fast, and whether we have the infrastructure to move as fast as we're moving," said Robert Lefton, a psychologist who has been on Stifel's board for 20 years.
But he stressed that the board supported the KBW deal and was very happy with Kruszewski, who has been CEO for 12 years and is Stifel's largest individual shareholder with a 1.6 percent stake worth more than $26 million.
"He has a very clear sense of where he's heading," Lefton said. "When he came aboard, we were a struggling little regional firm barely eking out a living. He has put together what he told us he would."
Another board member echoed Lefton's comments. "Even if there is a modest recovery, (KBW) will be a very smart acquisition because he bought it off the bottom," said Robert Grady, a Stifel director and former Carlyle Group partner. "I wouldn't bet against him."
Kruszewski, 53, has said he wants to better balance revenue between the St. Louis-based company's retail and institutional brokerages. The deal to buy KBW, which specializes in advising small banks and thrifts on mergers and capital-raising, takes him closer to that goal.
If he succeeds, Stifel will be able to compete with Jefferies Group Inc - whose market value is twice Stifel's $1.6 billion - to raise money for companies with revenue of $100 million to $1 billion. Big banks like Goldman and Morgan Stanley largely ignore this middle-market segment.
Unlike Kruszewski's previous acquisitions, KBW brings complex integration issues. Stifel already has dozens of bankers, analysts and salespeople serving financial companies, so employees are worried that the merger could bring job cuts.
"He is already pretty exposed to the institutional securities business, and ... financial services is not a great business right now," said Susquehanna Financial Group analyst Douglas Sipkin. "He is a very smart guy, but it doesn't make a lot of sense to me."
In addition, money managers who trade through both Stifel and KBW do not want to pay twice for research and other products, so parsing the benefits of the merger becomes difficult.
"To distinguish between the two from Stifel's business perspective is going to be tricky," said Mark Kuzminskas, director of equity trading at Robeco Investment Management.
In an interview, Kruszewski defended the KBW deal, and said it and the 2010 purchase of Thomas Weisel Partners, which specializes in banking for technology companies, are core components of his middle-market corporate strategy.
"I'm not predicting that next year is going to be a blowout year for financial companies, but I'm not being reckless," he said. "Institutional (brokerage) is much more cyclical and, of course, you take a lot more risk. It is also a high profit-margin business when things are working."
Investors do not appear to be convinced. At Monday's close, Stifel shares had declined 2.9 percent this year, compared with an uptick of 1.1 percent for the NYSE Arca Securities Broker/Dealer Index.
CRAFTY NEGOTIATOR
Kruszewski, the son of a fireman from South Bend, Indiana, has an accounting degree and, according to people who have worked with him, a steel-trap mind for absorbing new data and translating it into action.
He demonstrated discipline earlier this year, passing on the acquisition of Morgan Keegan from Regions Financial Corp because the price was too high, Lefton said. Raymond James Financial Inc later purchased the Tennessee-based brokerage.
"At the beginning of every year, I have no idea what we'll do," Kruszewski said. "Strategic planning is for people who have too much time on their hands. Our plan is to be in a position to take advantage of opportunities."
KBW was one such opportunity. The company had lost more than $60 million since the financial crisis of 2008 and was cutting 15 percent of staff. It was also weighing radical changes in its operations after another down year for financial services deals and capital-raising, a person close to KBW said.
Kruszewski drove a hard bargain. He required about 95 key employees to waive change-of-control clauses that would have let them sell their shares, and he compelled them to sign noncompete agreements. He also won control of $250 million of cash on KBW's balance sheet to help finance the cash-and-stock transaction.
You never want to negotiate against that man," said Scott McCuaig, the retired president of Stifel Nicolaus, the company's principal brokerage subsidiary. "He gets his hands dirty and works deals until they come to fruition. Nobody is going to snooker him."
(Reporting by Jed Horowitz and Olivia Oran; Editing by Paritosh Bansal and Steve Orlofsky)
ScienceDaily (Nov. 26, 2012) ? A low intake of folate and vitamin B12 increases the risk of melancholic depressive symptoms, according to a study among nearly 3,000 middle-aged and elderly Finnish subjects. On the other hand, non-melancholic depressive symptoms are associated with an increased risk for the metabolic syndrome. Based on these new observations, melancholic and non-melancholic depression may be separate depressive subtypes with different etiologies in terms of proinflammation and diet. The study was the first to look at these depressive sub-types separately.
"The findings have practical implications in the care of patients with depressive symptoms. For example, it may be wise to avoid medication causing weight gain among patients with non-melancholic depression, whereas melancholic depressive symptoms may call for a closer look at the quality of the patient's diet," says Mr Jussi Sepp?l?, MD, Chief of the Department of Psychiatry of the Hospital District of Southern Savo.
Melancholic depression involves typical depressive symptoms, such as a depressed mood. Non-melancholic depression is characterized by other types of symptoms, such as low self-esteem and feelings of worry and anxiety.
Among subjects with the highest folate intake, the risk for melancholic depressive symptoms was almost 50 per cent lower than among those with the lowest intake. In addition, among those with the highest vitamin B12 levels, the risk for melancholic depressive symptoms was almost three times lower than among those with the lowest levels. Both findings are new. A similar association with non-melancholic depressive symptoms was not observed.
Another novel observation is that the risk for the metabolic syndrome was twofold among those with non-melancholic depressive symptoms, as compared to those with melancholic symptoms or those with no depressive symptoms.
Mr Sepp?l?'s doctoral thesis "Depressive symptoms, metabolic syndrome and diet" was published at the University of Eastern Finland. The study was conducted as part of the Finnish Type 2 Diabetes Prevention Programme. The findings were originally published in Journal of Affective Disorders.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Eastern Finland, 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:
Jussi Sepp?l?, Hannu Koponen, Hannu Kautiainen, Johan G. Eriksson, Olli Kampman, Satu M?nnist?, Pekka M?ntyselk?, Heikki Oksa, Yrj? Ovaskainen, Merja Viikki, Mauno Vanhala. Association between folate intake and melancholic depressive symptoms. A Finnish population-based study. Journal of Affective Disorders, 2012; 138 (3): 473 DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2012.01.007
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
ScienceDaily (Nov. 27, 2012) ? Water repelling molecules are said to be hydrophobic. The hydration -- or formation of water interfaces around hydrophobic molecules -- is important for many biological processes: protein folding, membrane formation, transport of proteins across an interface, the transmission of action potentials across membranes. It is involved as well in the process of creating mayonnaise, or in the fact that you can get rid of fat with soap. Hydrophobic interfaces although long studied, are poorly understood.
Here's an amusing kitchen-table experiment to illustrate waters unusual properties: put a drop of pure insulating oil in a glass of pure, non-conducting water, and create an electric field using two wires hooked up to a battery. You'll see the oil move from the negative to the positive pole of the little circuit you've created. You have created charge in a mixture that was neutral, and a huge amount of it too, judging from the speed at which the droplets move. The same thing happens for gas bubbles in water; the phenomenon of charging applies to all hydrophobic/water interfaces.
A century of debates
It's not a new discovery; scientists have observed the phenomenon in the middle of the 19th century. But despite more than a century of research, the reason why such a huge electric charge exists is still the subject of heated debate.
In an article published this week in Angewandte Chemie -- a journal of reference in the field -- EPFL scientist Sylvie Roke challenges a hypothesis put forward last spring in the same journal. With experimental proof to back her up, the holder of the Julia Jacobi chair in photomedicine makes her case: the phenomenon is not caused by the inevitable "impurities" present in oils, as her colleagues claim, but rather by certain intrinsic properties of the water molecules involved.
Show the unseeable
For proof, Roke turns to the technologies in which she is an expert -- nonlinear optics and light diffusion. Using carefully filtered lasers channeled through a complex circuit of mirrors and lenses, she "hits" her sample -- barely a drop -- and measures the wavelength of the light that escapes from it. With this she can detect whether or not there are nanoscopic molecules on the interface between the oil and the water.
The precision of the observations "shows that negative charges exist even in a total absence of surface impurities, and thus the explanation put forward by my colleagues, which was derived from charge measurements and chemical titrations of the bulk liquids, doesn't hold up," says Roke. "We have developed a unique apparatus that can distinctly measure the interfacial structure of a layer on the sub-nanometer length scale that surrounds a droplet of oil in water. Thus, we can 'see' what is on the interface, and do not have to deduce it from comparing bulk properties, which is far less accurate."
Disproving a hypothesis isn't enough to explain a phenomenon, however. Roke is studying a promising avenue, that explores the intrinsic quantum nature of the water molecule itself, which might be responsible for the phenomenon. "The measurements we've made as part of this refutation could be used to try and prove this explanation," she says. "It's fascinating, because quantum effects (the smallest of the smallest) might be responsible for macroscopic charging effects that influence so many properties that relate to the functioning of the human body."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Ecole Polytechnique F?d?rale de Lausanne, 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:
Kailash C. Jena, R?diger Scheu, Sylvie Roke. Surface Impurities Are Not Responsible For the Charge on the Oil/Water Interface: A Comment. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2012; DOI: 10.1002/anie.201204662
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.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street slipped on Monday, pulling back from last week's gains, as retailers fell on concerns about heavy discounts at the start of the U.S. holiday shopping season and the overhang of the "fiscal cliff" kept investors wary of making big bets.
The Nasdaq outperformed to close higher, led by gains in eBay and as Apple continued its bounce back.
The Standard & Poor's 500 cut most of its losses during the session and managed to stay above the psychologically important 1,400 level. It also remained above the 200-day moving average, maintaining its long-term uptrend.
The S&P 500 consumer discretionary index <.gspd> fell 0.5 percent after the start of the holiday shopping season over the four-day Thanksgiving weekend. Target, one of the largest retailers by market value, fell 2.6 percent.
"The concern is big retailers are discounting so much, sales look better, but at what cost?" said Angel Mata, managing director of listed equity trading at Stifel Nicolaus Capital Markets in Baltimore.
Bucking the retail trend, shares of eBay closed at their highest in almost eight years, rising 4.9 percent to $51.40, as the online marketplace notched strong sales on "Cyber Monday." Amazon gained 1.6 percent to $243.62.
The White House threw cold water on a proposal of avoiding the looming "fiscal cliff" of spending cuts and tax highs by limiting tax deductions and loopholes, instead of allowing tax rates to rise for the richest Americans.
Investors are hoping for advances in talks over the $600 billion in spending cuts and tax hikes scheduled to begin next year, which threaten to drag the U.S. economy back into recession.
Indications of progress in talks, or just political willingness to negotiate, contributed to the market's recent rally. Major indexes last week gained 3 to 4 percent, with the Dow above 13,000 and the S&P above 1,400 for the first time since November 6.
Those gains represented a turnaround from recent losses founded on worries about Washington's ability to solve budgetary problems.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> fell 42.31 points, or 0.33 percent, to 12,967.37. The S&P 500 <.spx> dropped 2.86 points, or 0.20 percent, to 1,406.29. The Nasdaq Composite <.ixic> gained 9.93 points, or 0.33 percent, to 2,976.78.
About 5.2 billion shares changed hands on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and NYSE MKT, below the daily average so far this year of about 6.49 billion shares.
On the NYSE, roughly 13 issues fell for every 10 that rose, and on Nasdaq nearly six rose for every five that fell.
In the other major worry for the market, euro zone finance ministers and the International Monetary Fund made their third attempt in as many weeks to agree on releasing emergency aid for Greece, with policymakers saying a write-down of Greek debt is off the table for now.
"There's no catalyst to continue the rally we saw last week, though Greece would have been important if we weren't dealing with the fiscal cliff," Stifel Nicolaus' Mata said.
Shares of Knight Capital Group Inc jumped 13.3 percent to $2.82 following reports that rivals might be preparing to bid for part or all of the trading firm.
Apple Inc has asked a federal court to add six more products to its patent infringement lawsuit against Samsung Electronics , including the Samsung Galaxy Note II, in the latest move in an ongoing legal war between the two companies. Apple shares were up 3.2 percent at $589.53.
(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Leslie Adler)
The Quakertown inhabitants are the luckier ones due to the medical facilities that they have got through the services of Dr. Deborah Ramanathan who is a licensed medical practitioner to practice in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Virginia. She has spent her whole life in helping people in resolving their health issues. Quakertown Family Medical Center is available to help people in their hours of health trouble and acute pains.
As Dr. Ramanathan is a licensed personality, she would do her all out efforts to help the health related problems of versatile nature. People living in this town or from other parts of the state or country may visit this place to get cure for their health issues.
There are a number of medical fields for which people can get treatment and the fields include adult care, pediatric care, well baby care, well child care, episodic illness, minor disease care, blood pressure monitoring, work related injury care, chronic condition management, adolescent care, gynecologic exams, and weight monitoring. Quakertown Family Medical provision can provide a host of opportunities to people to make it sure that everything is done with great concern at this place. If you have been treated in a hospital, and want to get hospital follow-up care, Quakertown Family Medical Center is ready to help you in this regard. This place is specifically suitable for post hospitalization. Hospital treatment is always costly, but the treatment, here, is available at cost-effective rates. You can come here with the confidence that the doctor will treat you with full care.
Quakertown Family Medical treatment allows you to get everything according to the requirements of health department of the state. As the doctor is well-practiced in these fields, she examines patients by using her skill in this field. There are not many health centers other than this one. If you live here, you can avail the opportunity that is accessible here.
The medical center is especially suitable for people who want immunizations of some sort. It is a place for providing medical facilities at cost-effective rates to people who want help in this regard. Moreover, the amenities, available here, are managed by the doctor herself. She is available daily to the clients? needs, and will attend them if they take an appointment one day prior to their visit. She may attend them even on the same day if the patient is having an emergency. The hospital is loaded with state-of-the-art medical gear to handle patients, and to examine them against different known diseases of the world. She will provide these facilities to her patients with full zeal. Of course, she earns from the center, but at the same time, she provides them with medical facilities of varying kinds.
Quakertown Family Medical Center allows you to get everything according to the need of the hour. It is a center for general treatment and care. So, people from all walks of life, and having different kinds of diseases, may come here to get treatment.
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Oh the joy of being home for Thanksgiving break. Sleeping in, no rush to be on time to school, hanging out with the kids. What?s that you say? ?They?re bored? Climbing the walls?
Ah the, B word.
Over the years my children have heard, ?You can?t be bored only boring?, this receives rolled eyes and sighs. ?Find something to do?, which means that I have to find something for them to do. This year I rolled out ? Oh bored means you haven?t thought of something to do yet?, which seems to be better received than ?I can find you something to do, like laundry, or cleaning the baseboard, how does your: closet, under the bed, play area?..look?? or the least favorite ?Oh hi ?Bored, I need help with??
?
Shh, can I tell you a secret? Bored is good, some research suggests that it?s nots only healthy but necessary. Bored means only that your mind is restless, seeking to be entertained. What a wonderful ?opportunity to begin to let your mind wander, to mull, consider, imagine, mentally create, reflect and daydream. Pre-technology we had time to be bored and think quiet thoughts. Heidegger says that ?profound boredom? produces the possibility for what he calls ?the moment of vision in which the full situation of an action opens itself and keeps itself open?.
That?s all well and good, but what about here in the trenches while you?re trying to clean the house and truss a turkey? ?To help with What to DO Now? ?Here is a list of 73 and counting things to dothat I have created, received from workshop parents or culled ?from many different sources.(sources unfortunately long forgotten to give credit) Adding to this list makes it richer for everyone so please share any with me that you may have.
Have a tickle party. Wrestle and roll around with your kids.
Pull out board games. Make an annual Christmas gift of a new family board game
Have some friends over ? life without TV is a lot easier when you do it in a group. Try to organize your turn-off with another family or through your child?s school. Marie Winn?s influential book The Plug-in Drug: Television, Children, and Family (Penguin USA) is packed with reasons to live TV-free.
Let the kids take every cushion off the sofa and build a fort. Crawl through once or twice yourself. Serve lunch to the explorers in the tent, or let them sleep in it at night. I have wonderful memories of my mother letting my sister and I ?campout? in our bedrooms.
At the risk of being obvious ? read! Take the kids to the library to stock up before your set goes off and lay in a mountain of books. The older ones can read to the little ones when your voice gives out.
Share a skill with your kids ? do you knit, sew, tie flies, play an instrument? Spend some time passing your knowledge on.
Take a class together. Isn?t there something you?d both like to learn to do?
Go ice-skating?or Roller Skating? have hot chocolate after or lemonade
Get to know the museums and historical societies in your town.
Stock up on books and stories on tape. There?s an extraordinary selection available for the youngest to the oldest these days. Try the Chinaberry catalog (www.chinaberry.com) for some great selections.
Have a family letter writing party. And no, not using e-mail, but pens, paper, markers ? remember them? If your children are too young to write, have them draw on the front and then dictate a letter to you to write on the back. Grandma, Grandpa, and faraway friends will be thrilled.
Set out a lot of good dress-up stuff and let your kids play with each other?If there is trouble coming up with ideas have them act out a book or give them prompts
Be a star ?Turn on the music, give them play microphone and let the concert begin
Teach the kids all the card games you know.??Uno, Go Fish, Old Maid, Concentration, there are many games out there for all age groups. A few books to help out are ?101 Best Family Card Game (Sterling, 1994) by Alfred Sheinwold. For younger children, ?Card Games for Little Kids (Workman, 2000) by Gail MacColl.
Bake something ? even the youngest can help with simple cookie recipes.
Build a Fairy House gather rocks, twigs, moss, shells, any natural item will work and build those fairy?s house.
Buy inexpensive eyeliner pencils and let them draw on the mirrors. Yes, it washes off.
Cook ?together.?The library is full of children?s cook books.
Get crafty ? there are tons of books with terrific craft projects in them. Get one, get some felt and get to work.
Do something for someone else ? spend that afternoon you would have spent watching TV?culling old toys to give to less privileged children or with older kids, working with a community group or church or synagogue to help folks in need.
Can we fix it? Fix that leaky faucet, sew those ripped pants. Turning off the set gives you time to do some of those household projects you?ve been ignoring. Let your kids hand you wrenches, or work on their own sewing (or for the little ones, lacing) projects.
Face paint ?Save that Halloween face paint and let them face and arm paint
See some live shows ? community theater, a dance performance, a music concert. Introduce your kids to the excitement and spontaneity of entertainment that?s not taped.
Play outside. Even if it?s cold outside, bundle up and go for a walk. Make a snowman or go sledding if there?s enough white stuff around. Time spent outside every day is key to life beyond television.
Get photographic?Digital cameras let every budding photographer have fun. Print the one you love and frame them. It?s a wonderful way to see your child?s world through their eyes.
Take an evening walk together?Watch as the sun sets at different times and moves across the horizon as the year passes.
Practice ?the art of Conversation
Plant a garden ?If you don?t have space for a large garden, you can use a large pot (or 1/2 barrel) filled with soil. Flower gardens are great, but so are vegetable gardens. Three things that seem to be the best for young children to plant are fast-growing radishes, tall sunflowers, and pumpkins for carving or mini ones for enjoying.
Have a beauty salon day ?I can remember my father letting my sister and I ?doll? him up
Go to the park?Bring bread to feed the ducks, if there are any to feed!
Pick up litter in your neighborhood or at a park?Wear thick gloves.
Bake Bread
Play an old-fashioned game?Duck, Duck Goose, Ring Around the Rosies, London Bridge, etc. Your local library probably has a book or two that lists various games and their rules. Invite the neighbors over to play.
Have relay races?Egg toss, 3-legged race, ball (or egg) on a spoon, etc
Wash the car?Especially good for a hot day, ?on cold days pull into the garage and let them vacu?m or dust away!
Pick flowers and deliver them to a neighbor?Make their day!
Play reverse musical chairs?Take a chair away just before the music starts each time, just as in regular musical chairs, but no one ever goes ?out.? Instead, those who are without a chair to sit on must sit on someone?s lap. Soon the pile-ups will have everyone laughing too much to play anymore!
Blow up a couple of balloons?This is an inexpensive way to have a lot of fun, and planned games are unnecessary, as they?ll be tossing them around and having fun before you could say anything anyway! Fancy a game of : Across the bed balloon ?ping-pong?, don?t tough the ground?..
Tell a never-ending story ?Have one person start the story, then another continues, then another, and so on. You can just tell it or tape-record it instead of writing it down. To make a funny story, have each person write down just one paragraph of a story separately. Give them a subject or a few starter words, then put them together to make one story.
Write special notes to each other?Leave notes on the recipient?s pillow for them to find at night. Tuck them into Dad?s suit pocket or mom?s wallet. This is a good way to keep the kids writing during school breaks.
Have a treasure hunt?The treasure could be something small and simple, such as stickers, candy, or even just a picture of a treasure box full of jewels. Let the kids each take turns hiding a treasure and drawing up the map
Put a puzzle together?Set it out on a table where it?s not in the way and make it a week project. Stop to sit and put a few pieces in.
Throw a family dance party?Blow up a couple of balloons, stick in a CD or plug-in the iPod and have some fun! Don?t worry if someone doesn?t really know how to dance, just move. I know someone who will call out ?group dance party? and we all dance, crazy silly no matter where we are for one minute then continue on as if nothing ever happened.
Go to the library?Make this at least a weekly event. Get both individual books and a family book that you will read from together each day. Even older children who know how to read usually enjoy hearing stories, and you can talk about the books as a family as well. Bonus, they will fill up time on their own reading or looking at picture books. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Put on a family play?The kids write the script and design the costumes. Keep it simple. When the play is ready, perform it for Grandma or some willing neighbors. Be sure to pass out tickets to the event, and assign someone to be the ticket-taker.
Play tic-tac-toe using sidewalk chalk, or Hopscotch There is a ?sidewalk paint ?by Crayola that will wash away
Play ?Name that Tune??One person chooses a song that everyone knows and hums or plays the first four notes. If no one can guess the song, then five notes are hummed, then six, and so on. This can be a good travel game, provided the players can hum loudly enough for everyone to hear.
Hold cooking classes?Teach the kids how to follow a recipe and cook meals, but also have some fun cooking desserts. Have a contest to see who can make up the best original recipe, then let everyone enjoy eating their creations. (easy way to entertain during dinner prep)
Make up a news report and tape it?Don?t forget the commercials!
Make homemade ice cream or popsicle
Get a book of science experiments and try some
Chalk??Sidewalks aren?t the only place you can chalk. Hang a chalkboard or paint one on the wall in the house or garage or even the front of the fridge.
Learn something new together?A foreign language, karate, square dancing, knitting, flower arranging, etc.
Ride the bus?If riding the bus is not something that they regularly do, the kids will probably get a thrill out of doing it. You can entice older kids to come along if the ride includes a stop at the ice cream store!
Fly a kite, Float a Boat?Go to the park or a school field.
Volunteer in the community?Most communities have abundant opportunities for giving service, and should have at least a few that are appropriate for younger children (as long as you are there to supervise them).
Make homemade greeting cards?Make a whole boxful of assorted cards for various occasions to use the rest of the year. Or make Christmas cards now to give later, or to sell in the fall to earn a little Christmas cash.
Have a watermelon seed spitting contest?For the brave, try a pie eating contest!
Build a model house?Use toothpicks and gum drops, or pretzels and peanut butter.
Make place-mats for dinner?Color a picture and laminate, make them for holidays, birthdays or gifts
Have a Fun bath?Tint the water, blow the bubbles, paint the walls with bath paint or water-color. This has served me well as a down time, I let them play in the bath and talk on the phone or skim a magazine.(if your child is of the age to play ?in the bath of course with out your full attention needed)
Bubbles?Never ever fails, even with grownups
Paint with water?One paint brush, one tub of water, one child one area of dry warm cement = one masterpiece?
Sand wood, Pound Nails Find a felled tree stump or log, small hammers and nails, kindergarten age and up.
Meditate together
Homemade play dough?
Ask your child to think up an idea
Play flash light hide and seek
Journal together Give each person in the family a blank page book and add 5 things a day you are grateful for, by writing or drawings, pasting photographs,or ?magazine pictures into it. This book could be brought out at Thanksgiving to read aloud, or as a reminder when the ?gimmies or nothing ever good happens to me rear their ugly head.
Collage together?Make family vision board, art piece,or ?scrapbook
Make Scrap Soup?Give your child a large pot a wooden spoon and all the scraps from your chopping board as you cook. (No raw meat please)
Bring nature indoors Make a nature table that features seasonal items such as acorns or pinecones, spring flowers or seashells
(Reuters) - A man shot and killed one Alabama sheriff's deputy and critically wounded another when they went to his home near Fairhope on a report that he was acting aggressively toward family members, authorities said on Saturday.
The shooter, Michael Jansen, also was killed in the exchange of gunfire on Friday afternoon, the Baldwin County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.
Baldwin County Sheriff Huey Mack told reporters that the deputies responded to a report that Jansen had "been confrontational with some family members" and were speaking with him at his home near Fairhope, about 15 miles southeast of Mobile.
"While the deputies were on scene and talking to the individual, the individual produced a handgun and began firing at the deputies," Mack told reporters.
A third deputy at the scene was not wounded.
The two deputies suffered multiple gunshot wounds and were taken to USA Medical Center in Mobile, where Deputy Scott Ward was pronounced dead and the second deputy, who has not been identified, was listed in critical condition, the sheriff's office said.
Ward served as a sheriff's deputy for 15 years.
"I'm very proud of him, it's a big loss," Mack told reporters. "But he was doing his job and we'll pull together in a time like this and we'll honor his memory by carrying on."
The shooting is being investigated by the Baldwin County Major Crimes Task Force, he said.
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Vicki Allen)
You have approximately ten seconds to get the attention of a viewer. After hooking them, they will be sure to finish watching the video. What can you do to hook them? This will be dependent upon your audience, your niche and the focus of the video.
TIP! You have a small window of time to get attention from viewers. The 15 seconds that start your video must count.
Perhaps you have grown weary of traditional marketing strategies. There are other ways to market that will attract new customers. Do you know what video marketing is? If it isn?t, you should try it. This form of marketing is one of the best methods of reaching out and connecting with others. Read on to discover some great tips to make your video marketing campaign a successful one.
Watch the videos of other businesses before you make your next video. Set aside your professional views on marketing and consider your preferences from the viewpoint of a paying customer. Then take note of the reasons you feel that way about the product. Have your family and friends do the same thing. Use this information to make a successful video.
TIP! Don?t expect to post a video on YouTube and have the whole world watch it instantly. You must market it via your website, emails to loved ones, and your social media sites.
Be open to new ideas. It is important that you stand apart from the masses. If you are the same as your competitors, you will not stand out or make an impact in your industry. Set yourself apart from the rest of the pack. Ask your customers and friends for some fresh ideas.
Don?t be scared by video marketing. Creating quality videos is easy as long as you have a camera and a good tripod. You can show people how you manufacture products, demonstrate your products, or just talk to them directly.
TIP! Do not ignore the power of YouTube. Start your video marketing campaign here.
There is still work to do even after you?ve set up your transcripts and keywords. Make sure that your content is interesting to the viewer. If you?re not able to do this, you really need to rework your strategy.
Weekly podcasts are another great strategy. Podcasts are a very popular way to find new information out. Do not let this conduit pass you by. A lot of people will want to watch your podcast.
TIP! You shouldn?t insist on your videos being neat and perfect. You needn?t have the latest video equipment in order to have a successful video marketing strategy.
When you are posting marketing videos you want to choose your titles carefully. A relevant and powerful title can help draw viewers to the videos. It?s what gets people to view the video in the first place. Take some time to brainstorm titles that are creative if you want your video marketing to be successful.
Screenshot your website and include it in the video. This allows users to see the setup of your website. Screenshots also can be used when showing a how-to video. Save screenshots from your computer, and use editing software to compile them into your video.
TIP! Don?t forget optimization. As you put your videos on different sites, come up with a separate title and description for them all.
The most popular searched topics on the internet are ?how-to? items. When you make a video tutorial, the people that wish to learn about that skill will seek out videos like yours. This means you?ll always have visitors in your niche. People will be more interested in what you are offering if they think of you as an expert.
When you hear people talk about keeping things real, they also mean in your videos. The more you?re honest and sincere, the more you?ll help people that are viewing to feel comfortable with you. The less you seem like you cannot be trusted, the less people will like your video and probably won?t share it.
TIP! Create longer videos that take your viewers deeper into topics. Short videos can be aimed at a broad audience.
Impart knowledge that you have picked up over the years. You won?t be giving out your secrets, but you can share some behind the scenes stuff. Demonstrate why you are the best in your field by describing your products and how you operate. They will have the desire to learn all about your product.
If you are utilizing video marketing, greet customers in a nice way. Introduce yourself and tell people about what your business is all about. Say goodbye in a friendly way, too.
TIP! Make a video that discusses your business and product. Make free offers that will entice them and show them what they can get if they sign up.
If you have a budget to promote your videos, then choose to have your video show up on related sites. Do not allow your video to be spam. Use surveys to find out which sites your customers visit regularly.
The key to success in video marketing is to share it as widely as possible. Send it to your friends and loved ones. Start a blog on your website about the subject. Spread your link to customers you currently have, through snail mail and through electronic mail. Don?t forget to use social networking sites to get the word out. Tell people!
TIP! As you begin to make more videos, your following will increase. You should always be uploading new videos for your viewers to come back and see.
When you know more about this marketing, you can see all that you can do. You can achieve lots of great results when it comes to growing your customer based through video marketing. This is a good strategy for building your customer base and improving your business.
Keep your messages clear in your videos. Prepare yourself so you do not wander off topic. Make an outline and stick to it. If you can concentrate your efforts on the task at hand, you will find it easier to achieve the desired results.
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Charles Green Skpe: ExtremeCashSystems E-Mail: ExtremeCashDepot@msn.com
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Tagged with: video marketing
Filed under: Marketing
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Charles Green Skpe: ExtremeCashSystems E-Mail: ExtremeCashDepot@msn.com 
