Being Overwhelmed is Way Scarier Than a Paranormal Activity Movie

By Kate Clancy?| October 31, 2012 |??2

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Want a little lesson in the life of a scientist? On my plate right now:

• Proposal reviews: OVERDUE
• Book chapter: OVERDUE
• Two revise and resubmits: one OVERDUE, one not (yet)
• Manuscript review: SUBMITTED LATE
• Proposal revision to mock panel: only a matter of time before OVERDUE
• New grant proposals: WAY BEHIND SCHEDULE
• Workouts: NOT HAPPENING with husband out of town and sitters unavailable
• Emails to me these days: GO INTO A BLACK HOLE UNLESS YOU WRITE A SECOND TIME AND ARE ON FIRE
• Kiddo?s Halloween costume: NOT QUITE DONE AND THE CLOCK IS TICKING
• Blog post: well, at least I got something done.

A number of deadlines and personal difficulties (like single parenting due to husband travel, being in the derby mini off-season and thus unable to hit anyone, teaching and service ridiculousness) have made this an especially scary Halloween.?That list frightens me more than any movie.

Here is a very random list of links I?ve enjoyed over the last week or so that helps things look up:

About the Author: Dr. Kate Clancy is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Illinois. She studies the evolutionary medicine of women?s reproductive physiology, and blogs about her field, the evolution of human behavior and issues for women in science. Find her comment policy here. Follow on Twitter @KateClancy.

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The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.

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National student election picks Obama as next president

An online poll taken by millions of American students that has picked four presidential elections correctly says Barack Obama will defeat Mitt Romney on Election Day.

obamaromneyOneVote project is maintained by Channel One, the education media service, and its polls in 1992, 2000, 2004, and 2008 correctly picked each election?s winner.

We don?t have the state-by-state details, but Channel One tells us that President Obama won the matchup with Romney by a 50 percent to 44 percent margin.

Middle- and high-school students across the country filled out ballots last week, which were inspected in the classroom by their teachers.

The final results are listed at onevote.channelone.com.

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The OneVote project mimics other institutions in the mainstream voting world. Teams of students work on videos throughout the fall, which classes watch as students prepare to research issues.

The candidates have student ?surrogates? who write about their parties, and there will be a post-election spin room where the results are argued about and analyzed.

The results from past elections, though, varied greatly from this year?s election.

For example, in 2000, Bush won the student election with 58.9 percent of the 877,497 middle- and high-school students who voted. The biggest issue to students then was crime and violence.

In 2004, Bush won again with 55 percent out of 1.4 million student votes. He even won Pennsylvania and had a near sweep of the swing states.

In 2008, Obama won with 58.5 percent of the student vote, according to OneVote?s press release. The economy was the biggest issue, followed by the war in Iraq.

Currently, the economy is the biggest issue on students? minds, based on survey data from OneVote.

Also Read

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/national-student-election-picks-obama-next-president-160212030.html

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Obama aims to project leadership as storm hits

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama the candidate stepped aside Monday so the commander in chief could take over.

In the waning days of his re-election bid, the president scraped two days of campaigning and retreated from the trail. He hunkered down at the White House to oversee the government's response to the East Coast superstorm ? and to project presidential leadership.

"The election will take care of itself next week," Obama said, speaking to reporters at the White House after hastily flying back to Washington from Florida, one of the handful of states the two campaigns are contesting the hardest.

Obama aides insisted that was not only the right decision, but also an easy one. Even with Obama locked in a tight race with Republican Mitt Romney, the president would have risked appearing to put politics over the public's safety had he pressed on with his travel plans. And that could have been enough to turn off some still-persuadable voters at a critical juncture in the campaign.

Now Obama has the opportunity ? and the responsibility ? to show the type of command in a crisis that only the president can offer. While Romney can make symbolic gestures, like canceling his own campaign events Monday and Tuesday, he doesn't have the power to provide tangible assistance.

"The president has real responsibilities and those responsibilities come first," said David Axelrod, the president's chief campaign strategist.

Of course, Obama's response to the storm still had plenty to do with politics. And he used both his words and his actions to sharpen the contrast between a candidate running for president and a candidate who already is president.

After returning to the White House Monday morning, Obama walked through the rain straight into the Oval Office. He convened a meeting with top government officials in the Situation Room. And later, standing behind a podium bearing the presidential seal, he appealed to politically divided Americans to put their differences aside during the storm.

"We look out for our friends, we look out for our neighbors and we set aside whatever issues we may have otherwise to make sure that we respond appropriately and with swiftness and that's exactly what I anticipate is going to happen here," he said.

Much of what Obama planned to do this week at the White House ? hold briefings, authorize federal funding and stay in touch with officials in states affected by the storm ? could have easily been done from the road. The White House sets up secure Internet and phone connections wherever he travels and many of his briefings, even when he's in Washington, are done over the phone or video conference.

Some aides mentioned that to the president as they contemplated how they would balance Obama's robust campaign travel schedule with the impending storm. But those discussions didn't last long. Obama told advisers he needed to be at the White House.

"This is one of the circumstances where in his view it makes the most sense for him to be in place in the White House," press secretary Jay Carney said on Air Force One's bumpy flight straight into the storm.

Obama's team had planned to kick off the final full week of campaigning with a trio of joint rallies with former President Bill Clinton. The two presidents were supposed to spend Monday dashing from Florida to Ohio to Virginia rallying Democratic supporters and trying to sway the small swath of undecided voters.

Even as it became clear the storm might disrupt some of those plans, the president did everything he could to squeeze in just a little more time on the campaign trail.

Obama moved up a flight to Orlando, Fla., where his first event with Clinton was scheduled, from Monday morning to Sunday night in order to get ahead of the storm.

But even before Air Force One departed Washington, the Virginia event was canceled. By the time the president's plane landed in Florida, aides scraped the second stop in Ohio and planned for the president to get back to Washington early.

The campaign made one last attempt early Monday to salvage the Florida event, weighing whether they could start early and still get back to Washington safely. But they quickly gave in to the storm, sending Clinton to the Florida event on his own and Obama back to Washington.

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

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-aims-project-leadership-storm-hits-194830747--politics.html

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For many prostate cancer patients, web sites are too difficult to read

ScienceDaily (Oct. 29, 2012) ? Ninety million American adults read below high school levels, so the National Institutes of Health recommends that patient-education materials be written at the fourth-through-six grade level.

But a Loyola University Medical Center study has found that only 4.8 percent of web sites describing prostate cancer were written below a high school reading level. The median reading level was 12th grade.

"This is probablematic for one-third of Americans who seek to further educate themselves using online resources," senior author Gopal Gupta, MD and colleagues wrote. The study is published online ahead of print in the Journal of Urology.

Gupta and colleagues identified 62 web sites by searching for "prostate cancer" "prostate cancer treatment" and "prostatectomy" on Google, Yahoo and Bing search engines. Researchers used word processing software to test the readability of the first 300 words of each web site.

To assess readability, researchers used the Flesch-Kincaid test, which measures the reading grade level, and the Flesch reading ease test, which assigns a readability score of 0 to 100. The tests are based on formulas that incorporate total number of words, sentences and syllables.

Sixty-three percent of the sites were written above a 12th grade reading level, and the median Flesch reading ease score for all sites a relatively difficult 38.1. (The Flesch reading ease score ranges from 0 to 100. A web site with a score of 90 to 100 would be easily understood by an 11-year-old; a score of 60-to-70 would be understood by 13-to-15-year-olds; and scores lower than 30 would be suited to college grads.)

Web sites with the easiest readability scores were News-Medical Net (8th grade level), Consumer Reports.org (8.9), Family Doctor.org (8.95), UPMC Cancer Centers (9.2) and NIH Pubmed Health (9.8).

"It was discouraging to find that only 4.8 percent of these sites had information written for those below a high school reading level," Gupta and colleagues wrote. "No sites in our study were written at the level recommended by the NIH (4-6th grade). Given that nearly one-third of the U.S. population reads below high school level, this raises the concern that many patients will have difficulty comprehending online information about prostate cancer treatment options."

Prostate cancer is among the more difficult topics for patients to comprehend. There are at least four options (surgery, radiation beam therapy, radiation seeds and active surveillance). Each option has pros and cons, which vary according to the patient's age, tumor type, overall health, etc. Doctors may find it difficult to simplify technology-based treatments, anatomical descriptions and medical terminology. And some terms doctors take for granted, such as "erection" and "impotent," might not be understood by patients with low health literacy.

Researchers concluded: "Clinicians should be aware that some of their patients may not be able to read online information and should consciously guide patients with low literacy to not only high-quality web sites, but also sites that are easy-to-read, to prevent confusion and anxiety after being diagnosed with prostate cancer."

Dr. Gupta is an instructor in the Departments of Urology and Surgery and the Oncology Institute of Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. His special interests include urologic oncology and robotic and minimally invasive surgery.

Co-authors are of the readability study are Chandy Ellimoottil, MD, (first author); Anthony Polcari, MD; and Adam Kadlec, MD.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Loyola University Health System, via Newswise.

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

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

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/eQrTK3W8xYM/121029154255.htm

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PST: Massive news for US soccer fans

Any announcement involving English Premier League and its broadcast destinations qualifies as ?big news.? But Sunday?s big news of NBC Universal acquiring exclusive U.S. rights is, as our English friends abroad might say, ?Massive!?

First, it?s a remarkably exciting time for domestic soccer watching. (And for ProSoccerTalk, which is an NBC Universal product. But more on that later ?)

Fox Soccer Channel, the previous home for EPL rights, for all the great games and analysis it delivered, could never match the market penetration of the NBC networks. That means that more soccer fans can now share in more of the ongoing EPL greatness ? and make no mistake, it is glorious. ?More viewers can attach themselves to the quality, history, passion and star value that makes the English Premier League product the world?s best by most standards.

If you look at what NBC production quality has brought to Major League Soccer ? this is coming from voices in the industry and around the media, not just from me ? it?s easy to get excited about NBC?s plans for EPL production and promotion. NBC has devoted tremendous resources to its MLS productions, and the quality shows. There is zero reason to believe more of the same isn?t ahead for the globe?s top soccer league.

Second, NBC?s win is an unfortunate loss for Fox Soccer Channel, another setback to the network that has meant so much to domestic soccer supporters over the last decade or so.

There was a time when fans in the United States had very few options for watching top-flight soccer; Fox Soccer Channel has been there over the last 10 years or so, supplying safe harbor (providing that your cable system offered it.)

So fans are surely feeling a pang of bittersweet over the news. I am, personally.

What others are saying about today?s big news:

SI.Com?s Richard Deitsch has lots of facts and figures, including the strong numbers for last year?s final EPL matchday.

Source: http://prosoccertalk.nbcsports.com/2012/10/28/more-on-sundays-nbc-english-premier-league-news/related

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5 Free Features That Will Make Your Website More Appealing to ...

Websites are becoming increasingly important for the success of a business online. Whether you sell products on your website or simply use your site to provide information about your services, good design and website functionality can help boost your sales and grow your business on the web.

Here are five free website features that you can take advantage of to improve your design and enhance your functionality and make your website more attractive for customers.

1. Zopim Live Chat

You have probably come across live chat and support feature on many professional websites. Have you ever wondered what it takes to implement this on your own website or blog?

There are several free tools that you can use to offer a similar functionality on your website. Zopim is one of them, and it is free to use. Furthermore, it is very easy to integrate on your website. All you need to do is create a free account and adding a few lines of Javascript code on the HTML code of your website. It is a great way to increase leads on your website.

2. Add This Social Sharing Floating Bar

Addthis is one of the most widely used website plugins that allows customers to share your content on social media. It support multiple social networks and saves you the time and hassle of integrating each one separately. AddThis offers several social sharing plugins. The floating bar option is one of the most popular and deserves a special mention.

It lets you add visually appealing social sharing buttons on your website, and can help boost sharing. It is very easy to integrate. Simply visit the website, use the ?Generate code? button and add the code to your website.

3. Disquss Comments

Disqus is one the leading commenting platforms for websites and blogs. If you want to offer commenting on your website content or wish to upgrade your existing comment system with a new more powerful one, then you should consider Disquss. It is used by some of the largest brands on the web. Disqus integrates seamlessly with a few quick steps and works on every website, no matter what platform you use.

4. Social Login (Login Radius)

Social login allows users to login or register on your website with their favourite social account. Studies have shown that customers prefer social login over guest registrations. There are sevral plugins that allow this but most are paid. Login Radius on other hand free to use.

With LoginRadius, your users can log in with their existing IDs such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, LinkedIn, etc. and also share your content in their social networks. This will also remove all the hassle of registration and the chore of remembering another set of username and password. Through our service, you will also learn more about your user with the rich user profile data we collect and our unique social analytics.

5. Google Translate

Websites today attract visitors from across the world. Making your website content available in multiple languages is an easy way to make your website more accessible and appealing to a global audience. Google free website translation service is an easy way to achieve this. Adding it your website allows users to view your website in over 30 major languages.

What About You?

Do you use any of the free features above on your website? Perhaps you would like to suggest another free tool that can make a website more appealing for customers. Please add your response by leaving a comment below.

If you like this article, please share it!

Source: http://www.kronikmedia.co.uk/blog/free-website-features/5400/

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Crew of Argentine ship seized in Ghana fly home

ACCRA (Reuters) - Nearly 300 crew members of an Argentine training vessel seized in Ghana flew home on Wednesday after spending weeks in dockside limbo where their ship was detained on behalf of creditors seeking money lost on defaulted bonds.

The ARA Libertad, a tall sailing ship with a crew of more than 330, was detained in Ghana's eastern port of Tema on October 2 on a court order obtained by NML Capital Ltd, which claims Argentina owes it $300 million from defaulted bonds.

The cadets boarded a chartered Air France flight in Ghana's capital Accra bound for Buenos Aires, taking off after a four-hour delay, according to a Reuters witness.

A statement posted on the website of Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez said they will arrive home on Wednesday evening and would return to training on November 5 following medical checks.

"When they return from their break, the midshipmen will resume training that will allow them to meet the objectives necessary to graduate as planned on December 8," the statement read.

Immigration officials processed 279 sailors for departure on Wednesday. A skeleton crew required for the essential maintenance of the ship remained behind.

Argentina's Foreign Minister Hector Timerman launched a diplomatic offensive in New York on Monday, urging top United Nations officials to pressure Ghana to release the ship.

The government of Argentina has rejected claims for debt repayment by NML Capital and other companies pursuing the South American nation in U.S. courts over its massive 2002 debt default, calling them "vulture funds."

Argentina's defense ministry initially filed a motion contesting the detention claiming sovereign immunity for the military vessel, but a court in Accra upheld the seizure as legal.

A senior Ghanaian official said the government had no influence over the decision of the court and had encouraged Argentina to pursue the matter via the proper legal channels.

"The Ghana government is not a party to the dispute and will not be drawn into it," the official said, asking not to be named.

"They have appealed as advised and this means they are ready to participate in the legal process," he said.

President Fernandez ordered the 326 sailors to evacuate the detained ship at the weekend claiming their human rights were violated because a judge had prohibited fuel deliveries required to run plumbing and emergency equipment.

(Reporting by Kwasi Kpodo, Additional reporting by Hugh Bronstein in Buenos Aires; Writing by Joe Bavier; Editing by Michael Roddy)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/crew-argentine-ship-seized-ghana-fly-home-203323826--sector.html

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Why Miami-Dade schools won prestigious Broad Prize for urban districts

Miami-Dade County Public Schools has been steadily chipping away at the achievement gap. After being a finalist four other times, the district won the Broad Prize for Urban Education on Tuesday.

By Amanda Paulson,?Staff writer / October 23, 2012

In this photo provided by The Broad Foundation, Miami-Dade County Public Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, right, celebrates with United Teachers of Dade President Karen Aronowitz, left, Eli Broad, second left, and Miami-Dade Board of Education Chair Perla Tabares Hantman after Miami-Dade wins the 2012 Broad Prize for Urban Education, Tuesday, in New York.

Diane Bondareff/The Broad Foundation/AP

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In Florida?s Miami-Dade County Public Schools, schools are slowly but steadily chipping away at the achievement gap, especially for Hispanic and black students.

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The district, which on Tuesday was awarded the Broad Prize for Urban Education, has increased black and Hispanic graduation rates at a faster rate than other urban districts in the United States; has increased the percentages of Hispanic and black students reaching the highest achievement levels; and has increased the percentages and scores of students participating in college-readiness exams more than other districts.

It?s the fifth time that Miami-Dade has been a finalist for the prestigious Broad Prize, which honors urban districts for their success in reducing achievement gaps for low-income and minority students, as well as for high overall performance and improvement in student achievement.

That sustained recognition, says Miami-Dade superintendent Alberto Carvalho, shows that the district?s success ?is not a flash in the pan.?

?What I?m proudest of,? Mr. Carvalho adds, ?is that we were able to achieve this remarkable feat ... with one of the most diverse communities of America, marred by incredible poverty, and we were able to do it in the midst of the worst recession in America since the 1930s.?

In fact, Carvalho says that he believes the district was able to leverage the tough economic conditions to get some things accomplished that might have been tougher in more-prosperous years. Among other things, he managed to reduce administrative spending by 58 percent, and he was able to refocus spending and support on classrooms and programs that had student learning at the center.

?We put the kids front and center of everything we do,? Carvalho says.

Among the specific gains that Broad cited in recognizing Miami-Dade:

? The district?s Hispanic students outperformed peers in other districts in reading and math at all school levels. They also outperformed in elementary and middle-school science.

? The graduation rates for black and Hispanic students both increased by 14 percent between 2006 and 2009.

? In 2011, the number of Miami-Dade Hispanic students performing at the highest achievement levels on state tests ranked in the top 30 percent, compared with Hispanic students in other Florida districts.

Achievement gaps for low-income and minority students have been a persistent and intractable problem in US education ? a main reason that the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation has made success in addressing that gap a focus of their annual prize, which is the largest education award in the country given to school districts.

As this year?s winner, Miami-Dade will get $550,000 of the $1 million prize, to be used in college scholarships for high school seniors. The other three finalist districts will each get $150,000 in scholarship money.

This year, those districts were Corona-Norco Unified School District in California, Houston Independent School District, and the School District of Palm Beach County in Florida. All these also made significant progress in raising student achievement and closing the achievement gap.

?We have a lot of challenges out there, but we have a lot of hope,? says philanthropist Eli Broad, citing as particular reasons for optimism developments like the new Common Core standards, adopted by almost all states; and ?blended learning? opportunities, in which teachers combine face-to-face teaching with computer-mediated methods.

This year, Mr. Broad notes, his foundation inaugurated a new prize for charter-school management organizations, and he was excited that the first winner ? YES Prep Public Schools in Houston ? has ?totally closed the [achievement] gap.?

In announcing the winner, Education Secretary Arne Duncan highlighted what he sees as the too-often unequal opportunities for students in America. He reflected on a recent visit to Topeka, Kan. ? where Brown v. Board of Education originated ? and asked, today, ?how many systems have schools that are truly equal and are not separate??

?If we?re serious about closing the achievement gap, we have to close what I call the opportunity gap,? Secretary Duncan said. ?The Broad Prize shines a spotlight on success. We have to celebrate success, but most importantly we have to replicate it.?

Indeed, a major purpose of the prize is to encourage other urban districts to replicate the techniques that winning districts have found to be successful. Carvalho, the Miami-Dade superintendent, says he sees no reason why other districts can?t do some of the things Miami-Dade has.

The 350,000-student district is heavily minority and low-income: About 90 percent of its students are either Hispanic or black, 74 percent qualify for free or reduced lunch, and 21 percent are English-language learners.

?Cracking the code in Miami today is launching scalable, replicable solutions for America?s children,? says Carvalho.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/Jnc00l09Uy8/Why-Miami-Dade-schools-won-prestigious-Broad-Prize-for-urban-districts

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Syrian government indicated will accept holiday truce: Russia

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has indicated to Russia that it will accept U.N.-Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi's proposal for a holiday ceasefire in Syria, Moscow's U.N. envoy said on Wednesday.

"We have had indications that they (Syria's government) are accepting the proposal of Mr. Brahimi," Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters after a closed-door meeting of the 15-nation Security Council during which Brahimi briefed council members via video link from Egypt.

The Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha begins on Friday.

(Reporting By Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Sandra Maler)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-government-indicated-accept-holiday-truce-russia-170512636.html

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Prasugrel may reduce cardiovascular events among patients managed medically after an angiogram for acute coronary syndrome

ScienceDaily (Oct. 24, 2012) ? A study has found that the anti-clotting medication prasugrel reduced cardiovascular events among patients who present with an acute coronary syndrome and are managed medically after an angiogram is performed to determine coronary anatomy. Results of the TRILOGY ACS trial, Angiographic Cohort were presented October 24 at the 24th annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) scientific symposium.

Dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) with aspirin and a P2Y12 platelet inhibitor is beneficial in patients with unstable angina (UA) or non-ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI). Because a substantial fraction of these patients do not undergo revascularization after angiography, their optimal DAPT strategy is unknown.

The TRILOGY ACS trial compared prasugrel with aspirin versus clopidogrel with aspirin in the primary cohort of 7,243 UA/NSTEMI patients less than 75 years old who were medically managed without revascularization and had at least one high-risk criterion. The primary results of this study, presented at the European Society of Cardiology earlier this year, did not show any benefit for prasugrel with aspirin versus clopidogrel.

Patients were enrolled in 52 countries from June 2008 through September 2011 with median follow-up of 17 months. Those who weighed more than 60 kg were treated with a 10 mg maintenance dose of prasugrel versus 75 mg of clopidogrel; patients less than 60 kg received 5 mg of prasugrel.

Angiography was not required for enrollment, but if performed, evidence of coronary disease had to be demonstrated (at least one lesion > 30 percent stenosis or prior percutaneous coronary intervention/ coronary artery bypass graft surgery). Approximately 43% of the patients had angiography performed and coronary anatomy determined before being triaged to medical therapy. ?

Overall, in the TRILOGY ACS Trial, prasugrel did not reduce cardiovascular events among patients managed medically for ACS.

However, when treated with prasugrel compared to clopidogrel, patients who were triaged to medical therapy in the trial following angiography tended to have:

• Lower rates of the combined endpoint of cardiovascular disease/heart attack/stroke
• Lower rates of heart attack, stroke alone, and recurrent ischemic events
• Higher rates of bleeding

"Though hypothesis-generating, these results are consistent with previous trials and suggest that when angiography is performed and coronary disease is confirmed, the benefits and risks of intensive antiplatelet therapy exist whether medical therapy or percutaneous coronary intervention is elected," said Stephen D. Wiviott, MD. Dr. Wiviott is a senior investigator with the TIMI Study Group, associate physician, Cardiovascular Division at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and associate professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

The results of the TRILOGY ACS Angiographic Cohort trial will be presented on October 24 in Miami, Florida.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Cardiovascular Research Foundation, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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

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

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/health_medicine/heart_disease/~3/Tudye-sv05g/121024141641.htm

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Heavy Equipment & Tools, Home Improvement: Grubbycup's ...

Grubbycup?s Garden Notes (The Path of the Garden) (Kindle Edition)
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Source: http://heavy-equipment-tools-home.blogspot.com/2012/10/grubbycup-garden-notes-path-of-garden.html

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How Much Is A 'Like' On Facebook Worth For A Company's Share Price?

Investors and financial analysis firms are increasingly looking at "sentimental analysis." They analyze things such as Facebook "likes" and Twitter messages to gauge a company's social popularity.

iStockphoto.com i

Investors and financial analysis firms are increasingly looking at "sentimental analysis." They analyze things such as Facebook "likes" and Twitter messages to gauge a company's social popularity.

iStockphoto.com

High School was not a particularly awesome time in the life of Arthur J. O'Connor. That social fairy dust that some people seem to have, he didn't have it.

"I was a wallflower. I was a nerd," O'Connor says. "I was incredibly intimidated by everybody."

Well, whatever he lacked in cool, O'Connor had in brains. He went on to work a couple decades on Wall Street in risk management and then enrolled in a Ph.D. business program. That's where he wrote a paper that's gotten quite a bit of attention: The Power of Popularity: An Empirical Study of Fan Counts and Consumer Brand Stock Prices.

"My theory was, it's like in high school," he says. "Does being really popular help you win friends [or] help you enhance your performance? And it turns out that yeah, popularity does seem to help brands."

To test this, O'Connor tracked 30 brands with the most followers on Facebook, including Abercrombie and Fitch, Adidas, Aeropostale, American Eagle Outfitters and Best Buy among others.

O'Connor tracked the likes of those companies on Facebook for a whole year, while at the same time tracking their daily share price. What he found astonished him.

"A 99.95 percent of the change could be explained by the change in fan counts," he says. He found that the overwhelming majority of the change in company's stock price correlated to the Facebook likes that day or that period.

It's not that Facebook likes caused shares to rise or fall, but the admiration a company gets on social media seems to be a good clue about stock market performance.

Naturally, people on Wall Street are interested, and many of them are already buying so-called "sentiment feeds" and folding them into the algorithms they use to buy and sell stocks. It's kind of like a digital mood ring.

"Typically, our clients are hedge funds and institutional money managers that would look at interpreting this data in different strategies," says Rich Brown, head of financial analytics at Thomson Reuters, one of the largest providers of sentiment analysis.

Thomson Reuters' supercomputers regularly scan 4.5 million news and social media sites for data on what people are saying about a company. Tweets with words like "love" get a positive score. "Disappointment" and "jerks" get negative scores.

So computers can read the news and opinion like people do, but much faster. So does that really give anyone an edge?

"I'm not yet convinced that this is particularly the right approach," says James Liew, who teaches finance at NYU Stern Business School and has a small hedge fund. He studies sentiment analysis, but he's not using it to invest. Not yet anyway.

"A lot of the research that's coming out right now is funded by the sentiment providers," he says. "So they're looking and they're trying to sell this data ... and so the research tends to be a little bit on the biased side."

Liew says it is possible someone is getting rich off of tweets and Facebook posts, but you probably won't hear about it. Because when people on Wall Street are making tons of money, they don't tend to proclaim it on Twitter.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2012/10/23/163434283/how-much-is-a-like-on-facebook-worth-for-a-companys-share-price?ft=1&f=1019

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US to aid Beirut bomb probe amid Lebanon violence

Hussam Shebaro / Reuters

A Sunni Muslim gunman with a weapon rides a motorcycle through the streets of Kaskas in Beirut, Monday, after a night of tension.

By NBC News staff and wire reports

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has pledged to help Lebanon investigate Friday's deadly car bombing in Beirut, as parts of the city were engulfed in violence that some observers say heralds the spread of civil war from neighboring Syria.?

She spoke with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati?on Sunday to reiterate U.S. condemnation of the attack - which?killed intelligence chief Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hassan - calling it "heinous",?State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said.

---

"The secretary emphasized the United States' firm commitment to Lebanon's stability, independence, sovereignty and security," Nuland said in a statement.

PhotoBlog: Tension on Beirut streets as political crisis deepens

"She noted the importance of political leaders working together at this sensitive time to ensure that calm prevails and that those responsible for the attack are brought to justice,? the statement said.

Protesters rushed the prime minister's office Sunday in Lebanon, ripping up barbed wire and hurling rocks. The situation, which started as a peaceful protest, has become a standoff between protesters and the military. It has also triggered concern that Syria's civil war is spreading. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports.

Nuland said Clinton and Mikati agreed that the United States "would provide assistance in the investigation of the bombing."

Syria blamed by Lebanese opposition
Opposition leaders and their supporters accuse Syria of being behind Friday's attack, and say Mikati is too close to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his Lebanese ally Hezbollah, which is part of Mikati's government.

Thousands turned out Sunday in downtown Beirut's Martyrs' Square for Hassan's funeral, which also served as a political rally. Violence erupted after an opposition leader demanded that Mikati step down to pave the way for talks on the crisis.

"The Syrian regime started a war against us and we will fight this battle until the end," said Anthony Labaki, a 24-year-old physiotherapist.

Mahmoud Zayyat / AFP - Getty Images

Huge blast explodes in a central Beirut street injures dozens, kills at least eight.

Sunday's clashes fed into a growing political crisis in Lebanon linked to the conflict in neighboring Syria.?Israeli news site Haaretz reported that the clashes "raised the specter of the nation once again becoming torn apart by civil war."

A group marched to the prime minister's office, then overturned barriers, pulled apart barbed wire coils and threw steel rods, stones and bottle at soldiers and police.

Security forces responded by shooting into air and firing teargas, forcing the protesters to scatter.

"Lebanon is in the eye of the storm," said Fawaz A. Gerges, head of the Middle East Center at the London School of Economics. "The fact that the protesters came close to storming the parliament shows how deep the crisis of the state is and how weak the leadership has become."

Fire exchanged in southern Beirut
On Sunday night, gunmen armed with rifles and rocket-propelled grenades exchanged fire in southern districts of Beirut, security sources told Reuters, and residents could hear the sound of ambulance sirens.

There were no immediate reports of casualties from the clashes in the capital, but in the northern city of Tripoli a 9-year-old girl was killed by a sniper and several people were wounded in clashes.

PhotoBlog: Violence erupts in Beirut after slain official's funeral

Gunmen have been patrolling the streets in Tripoli, scene of previous clashes between Sunnis and Alawites sympathetic to different sides in the Syria war.

Opposition leader Saad al-Hariri urged supporters to refrain from any more violence.

"We want peace, the government should fall but we want that in a peaceful way. I call on all those who are in the streets to pull back," Hariri said on the Future Television channel.

Sectarian tensions
Sunday's events highlighted how the 19-month-old uprising against Assad has sharpened deep-seated sectarian tensions in Lebanon, which is still scarred from its 1975-90 civil war.

Sunni-led rebels are fighting to overthrow Assad, who is from the Alawite minority, which has its roots in Shiite Islam. Lebanon's religious communities are divided between those that support Assad and those that back the rebels.

Hassan, 47, was a senior intelligence official who had helped uncover a bomb plot that led to the arrest and indictment in August of a pro-Assad former Lebanese minister.

A Sunni Muslim, he also led an investigation that implicated Syria and the Shiite Hezbollah in the 2005 assassination of Rafik al-Hariri, a former prime minister of Lebanon.

Damascus and Hezbollah have condemned Hassan's killing.

NBC's Paul Nassar describes the scene after a bomb killed 8 people in Lebanon Friday.

But mourners at Martyrs' Square on Sunday accused Syria of involvement and called for Mikati to quit. One banner read "Go, go Najib" echoing the slogans of the Arab Spring.

"We came for Lebanon's future," said mourner Rama Fakhouri, an interior designer. "And to show that we will not be scared."

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

More world stories from NBC News:

Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/22/14608889-us-pledges-to-aid-beirut-bomb-probe-amid-lebanon-violence?lite

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Guiomatic says its white-label travel guides are supersizing OTA ...

Offering B2B solutions, Spanish startup?Guiomatic?sells a widget that any B2C travel company can add to a website to enable users to create customised, up-to-date travel guides.

The company pulls information from feeds from sources like Wikitravel, Yelp, Eventful,?plus static sources of data to?produce guides that cover more than 10,000 travel destinations, such as?Prague?and Shanghai,?in up to six languages.

Guiomatic white-labels the technology and the guidebooks and sells them to online travel companies, which can use the guide-generating widgets to either increase brand loyalty, raise brand awareness, or boost ancillary revenue.

Some clients offer the guidebook as an extra in online shopping carts, and, to date, an average of 20% of customers have bought the guides, says Guiomatic.

Some companies insert the guide-generating platform as a?widget (which consumers use to insert their names, dates of travel, and destination), connecting via an API and using their own format.

Other companies don?t use the widget and instead send the guide as a PDF or ePub attachment, without having the customer fill anything out.

Some use it to raise brand awareness on Facebook.

High conversion rates

So far, Guiomatic has created travel-guide-generating platforms for several travel companies.

Exhibit A:?Despegar,?Latin America?s top online travel agency (OTA).

In September 2011, Despegar began sending the guidebooks to customers who booked their newest vacation package to Canc?n.

Despegar sends each customer who books a flight, hotel, or package access to the travel guide generating platform. To date, nearly one out of three customers have downloaded a guidebook.

Enjoy Car Hire?has a?conversion ratio of 28%, with guides at a?typical selling cost of ?3.

A Facebook page branding tool, too

Online travel agency?eDreams?added a white-label Guiomatic Facebook tool its Facebook fan page?for creating edreams-themed guidebooks, which users can download for free in exchange for ?a like? of the page.

Of all the users who downloaded guides, 40% were already fans,?which means 60% were not fans and decided to become eDreams fans in order to gain access into the travel guide generating app.

After users download the guide, they are asked if they would like to search flights for the destination and dates they entered in the widget. If the user clicks, they are redirected to the eDreams website. About?15% of users end up clicking and get redirected

With the Guiomatic Facebook app, once a user likes your brand, the company get your username, email address,?where the user is interested in going, and on what dates of travel -?so they can later send the qualified leads targeted promotions.

So far, Guiomatic?s biggest account landed so was?car hire company?Dollar/Thrifty UK, which this summer?began to use its brand loyalty solution. But?now that Hertz has acquired Dollar/Thrifty, the contract is on hold.

Guiomatic Travel Technologies?is privately funded. Key support comes from two important Spanish seed investors, Andres Torrubia, founder of Trymedia and FixR, and Eduardo Manchon, founder of Panoramio (which was acquired by Google years ago).

The five-person start-up in Alicante?thinks of its customer base today as top travel agents, brokers and airlines.

You can demo its technology?here.

Q&A with CEO Jos? Luis Perez Gonzalez:

How is the way you are solving this problem more special or effective than previous attempts you or the market has seen before and how different do you have to be to succeed??

Guiomatic is the only digital travel-guide publisher whose sole focus is the B2B market. It?s also the only company that has been able to offer travel companies the opportunity to have their very own exclusive real-time, 100% white label travel guides at a low cost.

Most traditional guidebook publishers have B2C models, and selling their content to businesses for a low-cost would be cannibalise the core revenue streams for these companies.

Guiomatic also has a unique revenue model. It charges companies on?a cost-per-unique-user model. Companies only pay one fixed fee per customer, regardless of how many travel guides the customer may download.

Why should people or companies use your startup?

It?s a no-brainer. ?We are the only company that makes real-time white-label travel guides as a value added product specifically designed for travel companies.

We integrate and design travel guides with content and aesthetics exclusively tailored to their brands for free of charge.

We allow companies to add and eliminate any content they wish. ?They can later sell the guides in their shopping cart for extra revenue or give them away for free to increase brand loyalty or step-up brand awareness on social media.

Better yet, as a technology company we are able to gather business intelligence on each user that enters the travel guide generating platform and this intelligence can be used later for more targeted promotion and up-sell of travel company?s products.

What is your main competitor?

Traditional guidebook incumbents Lonely Planet, Rough Guides, Frommers, and Fodor?s are now offering travel guides for download. However their main focus is a B2C model, meaning they?re focused on reaching consumers directly.

These brands do offer B2B white-label solutions, yet their B2B content is not real-time, is expensive, and is not well tailored to the needs of travel agencies and airlines.

Arrivalguides is a competitor that?offers low-cost travel guides to businesses.?

But Arrivalguides? product is not like a traditional travel guide (fewer than 10 pages of short summaries of destinations), and its guides are not real-time (meaning not edited to provide information based on specific dates of travel), don?t offer event listings, and are not 100% white-label (meaning Guiomatic can?add any info the company wants? custom chapters, advertising, etc.)

Arrivalguides? product is weak and it does not offer much customisation for the brands it works with or personalisation for consumer end users. It also works on a flat fee and not per-use basis, which can hinder acceptance by travel companies.

Another flaw with Arrivalguides: A travel company could never sell their guides as exclusive, high-margin ancillary products as their guides are not of much quality and Arrivalguides gives the content away for free on its B2C site.

One more difference: Unlike Guiomatic, Arrivalguides;s content cannot be seen on every electronic device as they are not in the ePub format.

Other than going viral and receiving mountains of positive PR, what is the strategy for raising awareness and getting customers/users?

We are targeting travel companies via connections we had already established during our previous careers in the travel industry. ?We also have a presence at travel trade shows like WTM, ITB Berlin and FITUR Madrid. ?We make a lot of contacts by word of mouth and by using LinkedIn.

What other options have you considered for the business and the team if the original vision fails??

So far, our vision seems to be working well. We already work with big names like Decolar, Edreams, Enjoy Car Hire,?and?Dollar Thrifty.

In the near future we plan to launch Guiomatic Express, a plug and play option which will offer less customized and more express options for smaller companies who would like to use our services.

We are also starting to negotiate with e-book readers to offer the travel-guide generating platform which could be included free with purchase of their electronic device.

What mistakes have you made in the past in business and how have you learned from them?

Our founders were a couple of engineers working in a residential apartment, and they started working on the technology in 2009, showcasing the core technology at the?BBVA Open Talent Contest.

Our first thought was a direct-to-consumer offering. We spent a year with the travel guide generating platform available to the public for free on?our site.

We did not know how to make a business out of it, we just thought it would be cool for travellers to get all they needed to know in one trusty real-time guidebook.

In early 2011, we settled upon a B2B business model, In June 2011 our company became legal and began booking revenue with its first customer, Enjoy Car Hire

Once we identified the B2B model, we started the business, and we quickly closed the free guides on our consumer-direct site.

What is wrong with the travel, tourism and hospitality industry that requires another startup to help it out?

Helping travellers prepare their travellers trip after booking has been left up to the internet and to traditional guidebooks.

Taking an interest in helping customers prepare their trip has now proven to be a unique strategy to either capture new customers, keep current customers or increase ancillary revenue

Tnooz view:

Guiomatic?s focus on going where the money is through a B2B model seems astute.

It enables OTAs to differentiate themselves by offering something competitors don?t (travel guides).

OTAs can use the guidebook-generating platform to collect valuable business intelligence (to relpace irrelevant emailed newsletters with targeted offers for qualified leads for specific destinations and dates), and to increase brand awareness (such as by using the guides as a giveaway in exchange for a ?Facebook like.?

At this point, marketing and sales seem to be the weakest points. If all of their criticisms of rival company?Arrivalguides are true, then it is surprising how many big players have?incorporated Arrivalguides? products?into their websites and Facebook fan pages.

Sometimes, the best product doesn?t win, while the best-marketed one does. We haven?t compared the quality of Arrivalguides? product with Guiomatic?s, but in terms of strategy, the competitor is doing a better job at sales. [As Tnooz has reported, it recently signed?online content agreements with?British Airways?and?Ryanair].

Perhaps Guiomatic needs to make a key sales and marketing hire.

Snap poll:

?

?

NB: TLabs Showcase is part of the wider TLabs project from Tnooz.

Related posts:

1. Off Exploring rolls up mobile, SEO and social media benefits into white label travel app
2. White-label travel provider Switchfly attracts $15M in new funding
3. Reed Exhibitions to white-label iM@ mobile destination guide in Orlando

Source: http://www.tnooz.com/2012/10/23/tlabs/guiomatic-says-that-its-white-label-travel-guides-are-supersizing-ota-conversion-rates/

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Tighter Than A Tick (talking-points-memo)

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

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/257421902?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Hulu Plus Coming To Windows 8, Featuring Multitasking ?Snap View? And One-Touch Access To Shows From The Start Screen

Tablets and PCs sporting the new operating system will also have access to some broadcast TV content from Hulu Plus, as well. On the company?s blog today, Hulu announced that it will be launching its Windows 8 app on October 26, the same day that devices running the Microsoft operating system will finally become available.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/rXMxTdkX7GY/

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(MV) Grand Masquerade - Lectre Mansion: 27th of October

Synopsis: <Grand Masquerade: Come one and come all, on the 27th of this Month a masquerade shall be held at Lectre Mansion. Everyone welcome, only requirement is to dress up and bring an escort. As part of this you shall taste of a great brew that I have had in the family for years. This event is not exclusive, but I promise you now, you will talking about this for years to come. I welcome you all to come to the event of the season. Just dress up, dance and have a fabulous time!>

This will take place at Lectre Mansion and you must have an escort (your own creation or someone else character) and also be dressed in some costume.

The host of this lavish night is Elijah Alexander Kenton

See this area for poster later

Place yourself on the invitation list by going into chat and going into character you wish to use and type this.

/quest accept 1292

I've posted this in roleplayer wanted, but since nearer to event, I shall make it an interest check now.

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when they cry out protect us.
The locals scream and shout a bit,
but we don?t let that affect us.
We?re here to lend a helping hand
in case they don?t elect us.
How dare they buy our products
yet still they don?t respect us.

Billy Bragg - The Marching Song Of The Covert Battalions

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/skO9w5kPHp8/viewtopic.php

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In race to 270, it may come down to 106 counties

LEESBURG, Va. (AP) ? How Virginia goes in the presidential election may come down to voters who live amid the small wineries, affluent subdivisions and Civil War battlegrounds of Loudoun County.

Voters in the tony Hamilton County suburbs around the humming riverside economic engine of Cincinnati may tip the balance in Ohio.

To win Florida, either President Barack Obama or Mitt Romney probably will have carried Hillsborough County, where the urban seaport town of Tampa bleeds into communities of Spanish-speaking voters and retired Midwesterners.

Those areas are vastly different, yet each is full of fickle voters and bound by a proclivity to swing between Republican and Democrat every four years. All are main targets as the president and his Republican challenger look for enough victories in enough states to reach the 270 electoral votes needed to capture the White House.

The race may come down to an even narrower slice of the electorate than the nine most contested states: Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin. The outcome probably will depend on what happens in the 106 counties that Republican George W. Bush won in 2004 and that voted Democrat Obama in 2008, according to an Associated Press analysis.

The AP reviewed the vote returns in those nine states during the 2000, 2004 and 2008 elections to identify the counties that have swung between the parties and were most likely to do it again on Nov. 6.

These counties are home to people such as Matt Blunt, a 42-year-old IT manager from Sterling, Va., in Loudoun County, outside Washington. Blunt voted for Obama in 2008, hoping he could change Washington's bitter tone, but now backs Romney.

"What I see in Romney is the stronger potential for leadership than we've seen in the past four years," Blunt said, adding that Obama "hasn't lived up to the promise."

In these counties more than anywhere else, voters' phones ring every night with automated telephone surveys. Every day, glossy mailers hit their mailboxes. Televisions crackle day and night with campaign ads.

In fact, voters in the Cincinnati, Tampa and northern Virginia TV markets have been subjected to presidential campaign advertising totaling $127 million, almost one-fifth the total spent nationwide this year.

"There's more ? and more concentrated ? contact with voters in these counties that swung back and forth in these states than anybody," said Charlie Black, a veteran Republican presidential campaign strategist and informal Romney adviser.

In a race where any bit of an advantage could make the difference, the campaigns go to all this trouble to sway a tiny fraction of the electorate. In 2008, there were 6.2 million votes from those 106 counties; that was not even 5 percent of the roughly 137 million who voted for president.

There is no single reason to explain why these counties seem to shift with the political wind. Their voters are far from monolithic, having little in common other than their voting patterns.

In most of these places, there are few truly undecided voters, forcing Obama and Romney to subdivide the electorate in their attempt for any edge.

In northern Virginia, for example, Obama is reaching out to newcomers and younger veterans. Romney's pitch is stronger toward retired military members, sportsmen and social conservatives.

In counties in the West, Obama is courting educated women and Hispanics. Romney is attempting to make inroads with both, but is more focused on businesswomen and small-business owners.

As a whole, voters in these counties are less racially diverse than the nation, with a smaller percentage having with a college education.

One such area is working-class Sandusky County, Ohio, where the automotive industry's rebound has pushed the county's unemployment below the state average. The list also includes parts of southern Virginia with a substantial African-American population and North Carolina's Research Triangle.

If there's one area where these counties are linked, it may be that many have a wide segment of working-class white voters, an important group for Romney and one that Obama has struggled with.

In the hunt for 270, Obama starts with more states and electoral votes in his column. Romney must take back from the incumbent some states that Obama carried four years ago, including North Carolina and Virginia, which had been reliably Republican until 2008.

In Virginia, public and private polls show Obama narrowly ahead. Internal Republican polls have shown Romney leading in Loudoun and Prince William counties. Over time, these once reliably Republican counties have become more politically diverse, as younger, well-educated, racially and ethnically diverse voters have flocked to Washington's suburbs. Obama won four years ago by aggressively going after them and the state's robust African-American electorate.

Romney can win Virginia by taking Loudoun County away from the Democrats, holding down Obama's likely edge in other Washington suburbs, and running up big numbers in rural southern Virginia and the conservative Tidewater area.

In Ohio, Romney needs Hamilton County, especially the Cincinnati suburbs, to offset Obama's edge in Cleveland, Columbus and Dayton. Obama needs to trim Romney's advantages in the suburbs and southeastern Ohio's coal country.

The dynamic is similar in Nevada's Washoe County. It's home to Reno, a gambling mecca at the foot of the Sierra Nevadas that is a diverse mix of people, including retired and active-duty military from the nearby Naval air base, Hispanics and transplants from northern California.

If Romney stands a chance of carrying Nevada, he needs to cut into Obama's edge in Las Vegas and run up big margins in the vast ranching and mining country elsewhere. But he stands little chance of beating Obama in Nevada without Washoe County, which accounts for 15 percent to 20 percent of the state's vote.

While Obama has concentrated his Nevada efforts on Las Vegas, Romney has focused aggressively on Washoe County's veterans, and for good reason.

"Washoe is a county where Republicans need to win to have a chance in Nevada," Democratic pollster Paul Maslin said.

But some swing-voting counties don't look like they may be swinging back any time soon.

The best example is Osceola County, a bedroom community to Orlando, Fla., that has experienced an influx in the past decade of Puerto Ricans, Hispanics who are U.S. citizens.

The shift of these typically Democratic-leaning voters, as well as other Spanish-speaking voters in Colorado and Nevada, is part of longer-term trend going in the Democrats' favor and spreading into other neighboring states over the coming generation.

While it bodes well for Democrats in the future, there are no guarantees for Obama this year.

___

Schneider reported from Florida.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/race-270-may-come-down-106-counties-135724363--election.html

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Video: Celebrate like royalty: Party tips from Pippa Middleton

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/49493488/

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Market Leads for Sure Profits Online | School Fundraisers

A way to make a little extra money online is to sell leads and referrals. It works essentially in the same way as affiliate internet marketing, but you are paid on a CPA ( cost per action ) basis.

The partner might be offline, or in another internet business.

The pricetag per action could be via pay per click : when a visitor to your internet site clicks on a link in your webpage that sends them through to landing page on your companion internet site, or where you get paid for each sale your better half makes. Obviously there is a lot of trust has to be established using these methods.

For online businesses, sites such as CJ.com and DirectLeads.com have an inventory of shops who are prepared to pay for each visitor you send who subscribes or signs up. Some net corporations will pay for leads who take part in free product trials and special offers. These last ones can be profitable as they have high opt-in rates as the subscriber does not have to purchase anything. Conversion rates can be much seriously better than standard pay per sale programs. A couple of the biggest companies offering this program will pay anywhere between seven cents and $15 per action, but generally is around one or two greenbacks per action. You need to be in a position to show that your internet site gets 1 hundred visitors a day to enter their programs. Selling referrals is a nice way of making some additional revenue from your internet site.

If you have an organization that generates thousands of leads, it makes sense to sell them in bulk to one of the many firms that will be ecstatic to buy them. Banks, insurance companies, debt consolidation companies and loan companies get a lot more leads than they can use usually because they cannot help the individual with his requirements. The firms will buy these leads, process and resell them to anybody in an identical business which will need them.

Many people sell leads on online auction websites like eBay and through Craig?s List ? though you must ask lots of questions about these leads. They ought to be fresh and relevant to your market obviously. If you need to sell leads thru a web company they?re going to ask questions and if your leads all turn out to be duds the company won?t look great in the eyes of the clients, so it is a two-way street. A certain amount of leads in any batch are going to be no good, because folks move, change their roles and emails, that is expected.

Purchasing high qualified and centered leads can be an expensive business too. They should be acquired from reputable lead brokers.

By miles the best way to get leads for your own business is by generating them yourself, only you can gauge the relative quality of each lead whether they?re hot, hot or cold leads. Find out how to generate the best leads possible and then you can look into ways to sell leads that you now do not have a use for. Don?t let them clutter up your hard drive ? there?s money in them there leads!

But here?s the catch-22. You have to generate leads in order to sell leads.

Click now to discover exactly how to make that occur the easy way.

The following is where you can find out more. Sell Leads.

Source: http://4myo.com/market-leads-for-sure-profits-online/

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Designer Lagerfeld calls French president "idiot" over taxes

PARIS (Reuters) - Fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld has accused President Francois Hollande of destroying France's economy by imposing painful taxes on the rich, calling the Socialist leader an "idiot".

The creative director of French fashion house Chanel, whose clients are largely the wealthy who stand to be most affected by Hollande's tax hikes, likened the president to Spanish Socialist former prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

"This idiot will be as disastrous as Zapatero was," Lagerfeld said in an interview with the Spanish edition of glossy fashion magazine Marie Claire published on Friday.

He added a famously blunt celebrity voice to criticism from business leaders at tax rises Hollande is slapping on companies and the wealthy in trying to reduce France's big public deficit.

Officials at the Elysee presidential palace were not immediately available for comment.

Hollande has aimed to avoid increasing the already weighty tax burden on low- to middle-income households in his 2013 budget but is struggling regardless with approval ratings that have slid to as low as 41 percent from above 60 percent when he was elected in May, replacing conservative Nicolas Sarkozy.

Lagerfeld, known for eccentric comments and unconventional looks, and a darling of rich fashionistas who snatch up Chanel's pricey creations, said the rich were being singled out by Hollande, who has set a 75 percent income tax on with an annual income of at least one million euros ($1.31 million).

"It's a disaster. He wants to punish (the rich) and of course they leave and no one invests," he said. "Foreigners don't want to invest in France and that's just not going to work."

Business lobbies say that, rather than raising taxes, the government should be easing the heavy labor charges limiting the competitiveness of French companies and contributing to a surge in unemployment above 10 percent.

The government says it intends to look at ways of boosting competitiveness but has ruled out the sweeping cuts to labor charges that business leaders are seeking.

Lagerfel, a white-haired German designer rarely seen without dark glasses, high collar and gloves, sniffed that most French products were ignored by the buying public.

"Outside of fashion, jewellery, perfume and wine, France isn't competitive," Lagerfeld said. "The rest of our products don't sell. Who buys French cars? I don't."

In February, Lagerfeld weighed in on the election race between Hollande and Sarkozy, saying he was bored by it and no longer believed in politics. "I think countries should be run like big companies," he said.

Hollande is under pressure to show France has the fiscal rigour required to help the euro zone escape from a three-year sovereign debt crisis, while trying to keep election promises to tackle unemployment, which is likely to rise further with a spate of industrial sector lay-offs.

($1 = 0.7638 euros)

(Reporting by Alexandria Sage in Paris and Paul Day in Madrid; Editing by Catherine Bremer and Mark Heinrich)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/designer-lagerfeld-calls-french-president-idiot-over-taxes-141435533.html

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