Another funding raise for a collaborative consumption startup: Spain-based private sales club Privalia, which sells branded clothes and accessories at discounted prices to members in the five markets it currently plays in, has closed a new ?25m round ($32.3m). The company did not specify which round this latest raise falls under but has previously raised a total of $218m in two rounds.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street is looking for the Federal Reserve to buy a total of $1.25 trillion of assets under its latest debt purchase program intended to stimulate the economy, according to a Reuters poll conducted on Friday.
The median of forecasts from economists at 15 U.S. primary dealers - the large financial institutions that deal directly with the Fed - was for the central bank to buy $1.25 trillion of assets, which was up from a median of $1 trillion in a similar poll conducted on March 8.
The forecasts for the size of Fed purchases in the latest round of stimulus mostly ranged from $885 billion to $1.6 trillion.
The Fed bought a total of $2.3 trillion in mortgage and government debt in two prior rounds of quantitative easing in the wake of the financial crisis that hit in 2007.
Eleven of the 15 dealers expect the Fed to continue the latest stimulus program, known as QE3, into 2014, while four expect the Fed to end the program late this year.
In the March poll, nine of 15 dealers said the Fed would continue asset purchases into 2014.
All 15 of the primary dealers said the Fed would taper the size of its asset purchases before terminating them. Currently, the Fed is buying $85 billion per month of mortgage-backed securities and Treasuries and has said the duration of the purchase program is open-ended.
Earlier in the week, at the conclusion of a two-day policy meeting, the Fed said it will increase or decrease the pace of its purchases as the outlook changes for the labor market and inflation.
While all of the primary dealer economists who responded to the poll said they eventually expect the Fed to reduce the size of its monthly buying, several said it would take some very noticeable slowing in economic growth to spur the central bank to move to increase the size of purchases.
"The bar for expanding is high," said Julia Coronado, chief North American economist at BNP Paribas in New York. "To do more, the economy would really have to be in a dire situation."
The Fed reiterated this week that it intends to hold interest rates at the current ultra-low level near zero, while the unemployment rate remains above 6.5 percent, as long inflation expectations do not flare up.
Of the 15 primary dealers who answered the poll, nine expect U.S. unemployment to dip to the Fed's target of 6.5 percent in 2015, while six expect it to reach that level in 2014. In the March poll, 13 expected unemployment to dip to that level in 2015, while two said that level would be reached in the fourth quarter of 2014.
The poll was conducted on Friday after the government released data showing U.S. employers added a larger-than-expected 165,000 workers to their payrolls in April and the jobless rate fell to the lowest since December 2008 at 7.5 percent.
While the payrolls data showed more jobs were added than expected and included upward revisions to the previous two months of payrolls additions, they likely had little impact on expectations for Fed policy, said Tom Simons, an economist at Jefferies & Co in New York.
"The Fed will want to see a sustained improvement in the outlook for the labor market before making adjustments to policy," Simons said. "Given the significant volatility in recent months, we highly doubt that the Fed will be quick to adjust their outlook.
"Also, the recent decline in the inflation data suggests that the Fed will continue to be accommodative even as the labor market continues to heal," he added.
There are 21 U.S. primary dealers and not all of them responded to the Reuters poll.
(Additional reporting by Pam Niimi; Editing by Andre Grenon)
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Lindsay Lohan has checked into a rehab and will not face a probation violation for leaving another treatment facility after a few minutes, a prosecutor said Friday.
Santa Monica Chief Deputy City Attorney Terry White said he has received confirmation that Lohan has checked in to a rehab facility and he is satisfied with her location. He declined to say where Lohan is receiving treatment, but a source close to the actress who was not authorized to speak publicly said she has checked in to the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif.
The "Liz & Dick" star is required to spend 90 days in rehab as part of a plea deal in a misdemeanor case filed after a June car accident.
Lohan has also re-hired longtime attorney Shawn Holley to handle her case. White said he was in contact with Holley on Thursday evening after hours of uncertainty about the actress' whereabouts.
Attorney Mark Jay Heller told a judge during a hearing Thursday that Lohan had checked in to a different rehab facility, but the starlet left it after a few minutes.
White was given several days to investigate that facility, which a state official said was not licensed to perform residential drug or alcohol rehab treatment.
Lohan's sentence called for her to spend three months at a lockdown rehab facility and also receive 18 months of psychotherapy to avoid a return to jail.
She pleaded no contest in March to lying to police and reckless driving.
Lohan has spent time at Betty Ford before. She served another mandatory rehab sentence at the treatment center, although her stay there was not without drama. Lohan, 26, got into an altercation with a rehab worker and within weeks of her release was charged with taking a necklace from a Los Angeles jewelry store without permission.
Lohan remains on probation in the theft case.
Holley has represented Lohan throughout numerous court proceedings, but the actress opted to have Heller, a New York lawyer unversed in California law, represent her in recent months.
___
Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP
Abuse during childhood is different. A study of adult civilians with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) has shown that individuals with a history of childhood abuse have distinct, profound changes in gene activity patterns, compared to adults with PTSD but without a history of child abuse.
A team of researchers from Atlanta and Munich probed blood samples from 169 participants in the Grady Trauma Project, a study of more than 5000 Atlanta residents with high levels of exposure to violence, physical and sexual abuse and with high risk for civilian PTSD.
The results were published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Early Edition.
"These are some of the most robust findings to date showing that different biological pathways may describe different subtypes of a psychiatric disorder, which appear similar at the level of symptoms but may be very different at the level of underlying biology," says Kerry Ressler, MD, PhD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Emory University School of Medicine and Yerkes National Primate Research Center.
"As these pathways become better understood, we expect that distinctly different biological treatments would be implicated for therapy and recovery from PTSD based on the presence or absence of past child abuse."
The first author of the paper is Divya Mehta, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in Munich. The senior author is Elisabeth Binder, MD, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Emory and group leader at the Max-Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich, Germany.
Ressler, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, is co-director of the Grady Trauma Project, along with co-author Bekh Bradley, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Emory and director of the Trauma Recovery Program at the Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
Mehta and her colleagues examined changes in the patterns of which genes were turned on and off in blood cells from patients. They also looked at patterns of methylation, a DNA modification on top of the four letters of the genetic code that causes genes to be 'silenced' or made inactive.
Study participants were divided into three groups: people who experienced trauma without developing PTSD, people with PTSD who were exposed to child abuse, and people with PTSD who were not exposed to child abuse.
The researchers were surprised to find that although hundreds of genes had significant changes in activity in the PTSD with and without child abuse groups, there was very little overlap in patterns between these groups. The two groups shared similar symptoms of PTSD, which include intrusive thoughts such as nightmares and flashbacks, avoidance of trauma reminders, and symptoms of hyperarousal and hypervigilance.
The PTSD with child abuse group displayed more changes in genes linked with development of the nervous system and regulation of the immune system, while the PTSD minus child abuse group displayed more changes in genes linked with apoptosis (cell death) and growth rate regulation. In addition, changes in methylation were more frequent in the PTSD with child abuse group. The authors believe that these biological pathways may lead to different mechanisms of PTSD symptom formation within the brain.
The Max Planck/Emory scientists were probing gene activity in blood cells, rather than brain tissue. Similar results have been obtained by researchers studying the influence of child abuse on the brains of people who had committed suicide.
"Traumatic events that happen in childhood are embedded in the cells for a long time," Binder says. "Not only the disease itself, but the individual's life experience is important in the biology of PTSD, and this should be reflected in the way we treat these disorders."
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Emory Health Sciences: http://whsc.emory.edu/home/news/index.html
Thanks to Emory Health Sciences for this article.
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May 1 (Reuters) - Post position for Saturday's 139th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs after Wednesday's draw (listed as barrier, HORSE, jockey, trainer) 1. BLACK ONYX, Joe Bravo, Kelly Breen 2. OXBOW, Gary Stevens, D. Wayne Lukas 3. REVOLUTIONARY, Calvin Borel, Todd Pletcher 4. GOLDEN SOUL, Robby Albarado, Dallas Stewart 5. NORMANDY INVASION, Javier Castellano, Chad Brown 6. MYLUTE, Rosie Napravnik, Tom Amoss 7. GIANT FINISH, Jose Espinoza, Tony Dutrow 8. GOLDENCENTS, Kevin Krigger, Doug O'Neill 9. OVERANALYZE, Rafael Bejarano, Todd Pletcher 10. PALACE MALICE, Mike Smith, Todd Pletcher 11. ...
American Chemical Society past president receives science communications awardPublic release date: 3-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Michael Bernstein m_bernstein@acs.org 202-872-6042 American Chemical Society
An organization of leaders of 60 scientific societies representing more than 1.4 million members have honored American Chemical Society (ACS) past president Bassam Z. Shakhashiri, Ph.D., for decades of efforts in promoting public understanding of science. The group, the Council of Scientific Society Presidents (CSSP), has named Shakhashiri recipient of its prestigious 2013 Sagan Award for Public Understanding of Science.
Shakhashiri, 2012 president of ACS, the world's largest scientific society, is the William T. Evjue Distinguished Chair for the Wisconsin Idea at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His most recent effort in fostering public understanding of science involves leading development of the American Chemical Society Climate Science Toolkit, available at http://www.acs.org/climatescience. That online resource encourages scientists to communicate the objective scientific facts about global climate change to the public.
"Dr. Shakhashiri has long been a staunch advocate on the importance of science and scientific literacy for all people and all ages, and has a very distinguished career in promoting science and science education internationally," said Patricia Simmons, Ph.D., 2013 CSSP chair-elect. "He continues to serve as a dynamic advocate for policies that serve our society through advances in science and technology."
CSSP consists of presidents, presidents-elect and recent past presidents of the nation's main scientific societies. It is a leader in promoting science policy and science education and serves as a resource on major issues to the U.S. government, as well as news media, policy groups, and civic and professional organizations.
The award cites Shakhashiri for "Outstanding contributions and accomplishments as a recognized magnifier of the public's understanding of science." Established in 1993, it was named for the late Carl Sagan, Ph.D., who also was the first recipient. Sagan, an astronomer at Cornell University and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, became one of the world's best-known scientists by explaining the wonders of science on the television series Cosmos, in books and by other means.
Shakhashiri is noted internationally for pioneering the use of demonstrations in the teaching of chemistry in classrooms, as well as to the public in museums, convention centers, shopping malls and retirement homes and at his Science is Fun website. The Encyclopdia Britannica termed Shakhashiri the "dean of lecture demonstrators in America." He received the prestigious National Science Board's Public Service Award in 2007 for pioneering new ways to encourage public understanding of science.
During his ACS presidency, Shakhashiri organized a task force that developed the ACS Climate Science Toolkit. The toolkit is a web-based tool to enhance understanding and communication of the science underpinning global climate change. The toolkit was developed for ACS' more than 163,000 members and others.
In addition to leading development of the ACS Climate Science Toolkit, Shakhashiri organized an ACS presidential commission that examined the state of graduate education in chemistry. Its report, Advancing Graduate Education in the Chemical Sciences, the most comprehensive on that topic in years, recommended changes in the education of tomorrow's scientists to keep pace with the evolving global economic, social and political environment.
Past winners of the Sagan Award include Sylvia Earle, the National Geographic Society; Thomas L. Friedman, The New York Times; Ken Weiss and Usha McFarling, the Los Angeles Times; Court-TV; Cheryl Heuton and Nick Falacci; NUMB3RS; Popular Science; Philip G. Zimbardo, PBS; Science Times, The New York Times; John Noble Wilford, The New York Times; John Rennie, Scientific American; Richard Harris, NPR; Ira Flatow, NPR; Alan Alda, John Angier and Graham Chedd, Frontiers; Bill Nye, The Science Guy, TV program; NOVA-TV and Paula Apsell; the National Geographic Society and Magazine: Gilbert Grosvenor and William Allen; Edward Wilson, Curator, the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University; and Carl Sagan, Cornell University.
###
The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With more than 163,000 members, ACS is the world's largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.
To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society, contact newsroom@acs.org.
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American Chemical Society past president receives science communications awardPublic release date: 3-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Michael Bernstein m_bernstein@acs.org 202-872-6042 American Chemical Society
An organization of leaders of 60 scientific societies representing more than 1.4 million members have honored American Chemical Society (ACS) past president Bassam Z. Shakhashiri, Ph.D., for decades of efforts in promoting public understanding of science. The group, the Council of Scientific Society Presidents (CSSP), has named Shakhashiri recipient of its prestigious 2013 Sagan Award for Public Understanding of Science.
Shakhashiri, 2012 president of ACS, the world's largest scientific society, is the William T. Evjue Distinguished Chair for the Wisconsin Idea at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His most recent effort in fostering public understanding of science involves leading development of the American Chemical Society Climate Science Toolkit, available at http://www.acs.org/climatescience. That online resource encourages scientists to communicate the objective scientific facts about global climate change to the public.
"Dr. Shakhashiri has long been a staunch advocate on the importance of science and scientific literacy for all people and all ages, and has a very distinguished career in promoting science and science education internationally," said Patricia Simmons, Ph.D., 2013 CSSP chair-elect. "He continues to serve as a dynamic advocate for policies that serve our society through advances in science and technology."
CSSP consists of presidents, presidents-elect and recent past presidents of the nation's main scientific societies. It is a leader in promoting science policy and science education and serves as a resource on major issues to the U.S. government, as well as news media, policy groups, and civic and professional organizations.
The award cites Shakhashiri for "Outstanding contributions and accomplishments as a recognized magnifier of the public's understanding of science." Established in 1993, it was named for the late Carl Sagan, Ph.D., who also was the first recipient. Sagan, an astronomer at Cornell University and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, became one of the world's best-known scientists by explaining the wonders of science on the television series Cosmos, in books and by other means.
Shakhashiri is noted internationally for pioneering the use of demonstrations in the teaching of chemistry in classrooms, as well as to the public in museums, convention centers, shopping malls and retirement homes and at his Science is Fun website. The Encyclopdia Britannica termed Shakhashiri the "dean of lecture demonstrators in America." He received the prestigious National Science Board's Public Service Award in 2007 for pioneering new ways to encourage public understanding of science.
During his ACS presidency, Shakhashiri organized a task force that developed the ACS Climate Science Toolkit. The toolkit is a web-based tool to enhance understanding and communication of the science underpinning global climate change. The toolkit was developed for ACS' more than 163,000 members and others.
In addition to leading development of the ACS Climate Science Toolkit, Shakhashiri organized an ACS presidential commission that examined the state of graduate education in chemistry. Its report, Advancing Graduate Education in the Chemical Sciences, the most comprehensive on that topic in years, recommended changes in the education of tomorrow's scientists to keep pace with the evolving global economic, social and political environment.
Past winners of the Sagan Award include Sylvia Earle, the National Geographic Society; Thomas L. Friedman, The New York Times; Ken Weiss and Usha McFarling, the Los Angeles Times; Court-TV; Cheryl Heuton and Nick Falacci; NUMB3RS; Popular Science; Philip G. Zimbardo, PBS; Science Times, The New York Times; John Noble Wilford, The New York Times; John Rennie, Scientific American; Richard Harris, NPR; Ira Flatow, NPR; Alan Alda, John Angier and Graham Chedd, Frontiers; Bill Nye, The Science Guy, TV program; NOVA-TV and Paula Apsell; the National Geographic Society and Magazine: Gilbert Grosvenor and William Allen; Edward Wilson, Curator, the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University; and Carl Sagan, Cornell University.
###
The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With more than 163,000 members, ACS is the world's largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.
To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society, contact newsroom@acs.org.
Follow us: Twitter Facebook
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
The Geoengineers are hard at it yet again. As they sprayed the hell out of the Pacific Northwest and Northern California in recent days, causing record warmth and record low humidity, they were preparing for yet another geoengineered ?winter storm? further east. The latest in a parade of geoengineered winter storms has theatrically been named ?winter storm Achilles?. The ongoing extremely radical forcing of the Earths climate system is wreaking havoc on the environment as a whole. The example outlined below, with data from NOAA (national oceanic and atmospheric administration) and ?AccuWeather? is only the latest in a very long and growing list of completely engineered weather events. The ?weather makers? seem to have absolutely no regard for the climate chaos they are creating around the globe.
How far can they push the envelope? If the ongoing insanity of global geoengineering continues, we will likely soon enough find out as the entire climate system unravels around us all.
Amarillo TX shattered its former record high temperature on April 30th 2013, nearly reaching 100 degrees, now, snow is going to fall the very next day, May 1st, 2013.
One has to wonder just how much toxic chemical ice nucleation material it takes to create such an extreme event. Very significant HAARP readings are also evident on monitoring stations in recent days, this is certainly a component of the latest engineered ?winter storm?. The now constant use of the globes ionosphere heater installations to manipulate jet stream patterns is also throwing the entire climate/weather system of the tracks.
The ongoing atmospheric spraying programs, and the HAARP ionosphere heater installations, are not just an inconvenience, they are literally threatening the planet?s life support systems from top to bottom. This is not even to mention the completely toxic fallout of heavy metals and chemicals which are raining down on all life. These elements are ?bioaccumulative? and are building up in the environment and our bodies.
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Tags: Activism Big Brother Big Corp chemtrails depopulation Earth Changes Geoengineering globalist agenda National Emergency new world order Science and Technology
May 3, 2013 ? How powerful was February's meteor that crashed into Russia? Strong enough that its explosive entry into our atmosphere was detected almost 6,000 miles away in Lilburn, Ga., by infrasound sensors -- a full 10 hours after the meteor's explosion. A Georgia Tech researcher has modified the signals and made them audible, allowing audiences to "hear" what the meteor's waves sounded like as they moved around the globe on February 15.
Lilburn is home to one of nearly 400 USArray seismic/infrasound stations in use in the eastern United States. They are part of a large-scale project named "Earthscope," an initiative funded by the National Science Foundation that studies Earth's interior beneath North America. The stations are mainly deployed to record seismic waves generated from earthquakes, but their sound sensors can record ultra long-period sound waves, also known as infrasound waves.
The human ear cannot hear these infrasound signals. However, by playing the data faster than true speed, Georgia Tech faculty member Zhigang Peng increased the sound waves' frequency to audible levels. The Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology's Data Managment Center provided the data.
"The sound started at about 10 hours after the explosion and lasted for another 10 hours in Georgia," said Peng, an associate professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. He's confident that the sound is associated with the meteor impact because a slow propagation of the sound waves can be seen across the entire collection of USArray stations, as well as other stations in Alaska and polar regions.
"They are like tsunami waves induced by large earthquakes," Peng added. "Their traveling speeds are similar, but the infrasound propagates in the atmosphere rather than in deep oceans."
Scientists believe the meteor was about 55 feet in diameter, weighed more than 7,000 tons and raced through the sky at 40,000 miles an hour. Its energy was estimated at 30 nuclear bombs. More than 1,500 people were hurt.
Using the same sonification process, Peng also converted seismic waves from North Korea's nuclear test on February 12 and an earthquake in Nevada the next day. Each registered as a 5.1 magnitude event but created different sounds. The measurements were collected by seismic instruments located about 100 to 200 miles from each event. For further comparison, Peng has also created a seismic recording of the meteor impact at a similar distance.
"The initial sound of the nuclear explosion is much stronger, likely due to the efficient generation of compressional wave (P wave) for an explosive source," said Peng. "In comparison, the earthquake generated stronger shear waves that arrived later than its P wave."
Peng says the seismic signal from the meteor is relatively small, even after being amplified by 10 times. According to Peng, this is mainly because most of the energy from the meteor explosion propagated as the infrasound displayed in the initial sound clip. Only a very small portion was turned into seimsic waves propagating inside Earth.
This isn't the first time Peng has converted seismic data into audible files. He also sonified 2011's historic Tohoku-Oki, Japan, earthquake as it moved through Earth and around the globe.
The seismic and sound data generated by the meteor impact and other sources can be used to demonstrate their global impact. Scientists are also using them to better understand their source characterizations and how they propagate above and inside Earth.
Whilst a degree of physical fitness is obviously desirable, orienteering also requires critical-thinking and problem-solving skills.
This book provides a perfect introduction to a sport that offers the chance to run cross country and test competitors against the land, the map and themselves.
It covers the basics of orienteering and establishes some historical perspective on the sport which is especially important for beginners who are unfamiliar with the various activities involved.
It then goes on to discusses issues such as fitness, nutrition and safety practices, tools and equipment before focusing on orienteering skills, techniques and processes involved and actual competition.
The confidence developed by completing a course independently is a priceless resource for adults and children alike, but perhaps most importantly, orienteering is a lot of fun.
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Not long ago, Pad & Quill announced the latest addition to their exquisite line of iPad cases, the Aria. If you're familiar with Pad & Quill, you already know that these are some of the finest cases you can find for your iPad, and the Aria is no exception. Made with robust stitching from Full Grain American leather and hand finished wood, the Aria provides multiple self propping angles for viewing and a magnetic on/off feature when the case closes. You simply can't beat Pad & Quill when it comes to quality, and these are cases that would please even the most discriminating iPad owners.
We are happy to team up once again with Pad & Quill to offer our readers a chance at winning one of these amazing cases! To enter, head over to the links below and check out the Aria line, then come back here and let us know which color combination is your favorite, and which iPad you have. We will choose two lucky winners and announce it here on the blogs, so be sure to check back next week to see if you're a winner. And if you don't want to wait around to see if you've won, you can use coupon code MOR88 right now to save 15% off any case at Pad & Quill. The coupon is only good for a limited time, so be sure to use it soon if you're interested. Good luck everyone!
Like Punxsutawney Phil's shadowgazing, we can rightfully expect a new Call of Duty game to be announced annually and available at the holidays. Also like our groundhog friend, the only annual questions we must ask are in the details -- what is this year's Call of Duty about, and who's making it? It turns out that this year's Duty development, unsurprisingly, falls on Infinity Ward's shoulders -- the folks who created the much lauded Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare -- and it's named "Call of Duty: Ghosts." The first-person shooter is arriving on a whole mess of platforms this November 5th, including Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, but also PlayStation 4 and the next Xbox -- given that we don't know release dates for the PlayStation 4 and the next Xbox, it stands to reason that Ghosts will arrive on a different date for those platforms. It's also likely we'll see a handheld version on Nintendo's 3DS made by someone other than Infinity Ward, but we've got no direct word on that just yet. More ambiguous, Nintendo's Wii U isn't listed, but it stands to reason it'll head that way as well (the last series entry, Black Ops 2, got a Wii U version).
The "Ghosts" in the title references ... well, we're not entirely sure. Previous CoD games featured a character named "Ghost" fairly prominently, though the plurality indicates a game about more than one individual. Infinity Ward head Mark Rubin calls Ghosts "a new sub-brand" in the CoD franchise, and it's getting a new (unnamed) game engine to boot -- another indicator that previous characters aren't involved. We're holding out hope that the often overserious, dramatic tone of previous CoD games is being completely thrown out in favor of a goofy game about hunting ghosts. The bullets pass right through their ethereal form! Run for your life! We'll hear more about Call of Duty: Ghosts at Microsoft's big next-gen console unveiling on May 21st, so hold tight. The first teaser video is just below the jump.
It is important to develop a sound web marketing strategy to succeed. Failure to develop said strategy can result in loss. This article will help you develop a successful Internet marketing strategy.
Flashy, dazzling websites might be a good idea in theory and might even attract some people, but the more distracting your site is, the harder it will be to keep visitors for the long haul. Remember, you have just a few seconds to grab a visitor?s interest when they arrive at your site, so making a good first impression is key. If your site can?t quickly grab your visitor?s attention, they will click away to search elsewhere.
Internet marketing goes beyond the Internet. Invite bloggers to conferences so you can meet them in person. That builds sense of community with your brand and the bloggers, and they will feel motivated to talk about you and your company.
TIP! You should link your website everywhere you can. If you are active on a message board, include a link within your signature block.
When you take time and learn the fundamentals of web designing you will succeed. There is a wealth of information on the Internet to help you learn CSS, HTML, and other web design specifics. Try and dedicate 30 minutes a day and in a few weeks you should know some good basics to apply to your webpage.
Creating an effective user interface where customers can view your products is important for variety and overall success. Keep in mind that variety in a page is good, but you still need to maintain good page structure.
Make effective use of email in your business. Come up with informative, intriguing newsletters for your customers. Your subscribers should not feel as if they are being spammed, but rather as if they are receiving something of value. Newsletters keep your business in customers? minds months after they buy something, and subtly invite them to return for a second purchase.
TIP! Earn more subscribers to make bigger profits. Try split testing to see what sort of web design works the best.
When making your website, try to make it visibly appealing with as much interesting content as possible. You will want to impart informative knowledge, quickly, to your customers so they can make an educated buying decision. Stay away from unnecessary information or repetitive content. It will only make your readers less interested in what you have to offer.
Don?t overlook direct marketing in conjunction with your Internet promotion. Reach out to your potential and existing customers with traditional methods, such as telephone or fax. A lot of the needed information can be acquired by consulting the actual yellow pages or the phone books available online.
Instead of building a big, sloppy site, start small and focus on quality first. Search engines are built to pay more attention to sites that have 10,000-20,000 pages, rather than to sites that have a million or more pages.
TIP! A comprehensive online marketing strategy should make use of social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and others. These sites allow you to stay in constant touch with your customers, and allow an easy way to contact them to let them know about promotions or updates.
Make useful information available to your readers on the internet to promote your small business. You need to make your articles high quality and different. It is important to keep your site updated so that users will always have the newest information about your business.
Internet marketing differs from other types of marketing in some distinct ways. For example, what if search engines stopped emphasizing title keywords in their ranking systems? If this happens, you will have to shift your focus to other attention seeking behaviors, such as video marketing.
Make a video demonstration showing how to use your product and showcasing its advantages. This is often a much more direct and unambiguous way to convince potential customers of the product?s value. Show all the benefits of the product and other features that may not be advertised. You will be able to show the video on your blog or company social media sites.
TIP! Make answering your visitors? questions a high priority. People who visit your site want to know about it, if you do not have good content and answers they will go elsewhere.
For creating high traffic and great SEO, always make sure you are carrying unique, original content all the time. This is very important to retailers who are in industries that have heavy competition online. It is critical that your website stands out. You want to be unique and set yourself apart from the other sites, as that is the only way to attract additional customers to your site.
Do your research on your competitors on the Internet to see what they are doing and how it works for them. Find out what is and what isn?t working for them. There is a lot that you can get from watching others. This can help your business more forward and not repeat any mistakes that others have made.
You can generate site traffic and drum up enthusiasm by distributing a well-written press release. If you can easily write a clear and useful press releases, you can find several online sources that will publish them to specific niche markets. This is a very simple way to increase your profile.
TIP! Making your site stand out is a great Internet marketing advantage you can use. With such a large number of websites on the Internet, it is important that your site stand out.
A great marketing took is providing a place on your site for users who want to post a review. The real responses that your customers post will get you more sales in the long run and get you more traffic.
Customers always appreciate a freebie, so offer rewards for ordering by a certain date or time. You could offer them expedited or free shipping, or perhaps a free gift wrapping service. For instance, at Christmas you could offer to ship the product already wrapped with Christmas themed wrapping paper at no charge. This is a great way to entice people to buy your products.
Solicit referrals from your customers by offering incentives. You can transform one sale into three by just giving people a free sample or a discount for referring three friends to your site. Customers are always up for getting something for nothing, the more sales you will get, the more people visit your site.
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WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama's prospects for a sweeping legislative victory this year now rest almost solely on the immigration overhaul working its way through Congress. But immigration's tricky politics have created a dilemma for a president fighting for an issue he considers central to his legacy.
If Obama is too closely aligned with the legislation, it could scare away Republicans wary of appearing to hand the president a win. But if he stays on the sidelines and the overhaul runs into trouble on Capitol Hill, Obama likely will be criticized for not using his presidential powers to fight for votes, as he was following the recent failure of gun control measures he championed.
In the coming weeks the White House will test whether Obama can take on a more public role in the immigration debate after largely ceding the issue to Congress for much of the year. The president will ramp up his immigration-related travel this spring and summer, including a trip this week to Mexico and Costa Rica. The White House also is planning to use Spanish-language media to bolster public support for a comprehensive bill.
Still, Obama signaled during a White House news conference Tuesday that his primary talking point will be that he's backing a bill drafted by the Senate's so-called Gang of Eight, a group of four Democrats and four Republicans.
"I've been impressed by the work that was done by the Gang of Eight," Obama said. "The bill that they produced is not the bill that I would have written ? there are elements of it that I would change ? but I do think that it meets the basic criteria that I laid out from the start."
Immigration reform gained little traction in Congress during Obama's first term, in part because of opposition from GOP lawmakers. But the November election changed the political calculus for some Republicans, who watched Hispanic voters overwhelmingly side with Obama and Democrats as they increased their share of the national electorate.
At the request of the Gang of Eight, Obama kept a low-profile as the Senate working group set about the delicate task of crafting a draft bill earlier this year. The potential damage caused by White House involvement was underscored when a copy of Obama's own draft bill was leaked in February, raising suspicions among Republicans about his motivations and threatening to upend the effort.
But now that the Gang of Eight bill is public and is winning some Republican support, White House advisers say there's less risk in Obama taking on a larger public role in the debate too.
The focus on immigration in the capital comes as rallies are expected in dozens of cities around the country Wednesday in what has become an annual cry for easing the nation's immigration laws.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a favorite of conservatives and potential GOP presidential candidate in 2016, is one if the bill's architects, as is Arizona's Republican Sen. John McCain. And even in the Republican-led House, where an immigration overhaul faces a steeper challenger, the Gang of Eight measure has won praise from House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis.
The bill would strengthen border security, allow tens of thousands of new high- and low-skilled workers into the country, require all employers to check their workers' legal status and provide an eventual path to citizenship for some 11 million immigrants now here illegally.
The measure is similar to the immigration principles Obama outlined in January during a visit to Las Vegas, his only immigration-focused trip of the year, though there are key differences. For example, the Senate bill makes the pathway to citizenship contingent on securing the border, which Obama opposes, and does not recognize gay couples, which Obama supports.
Many immigration advocates say they support Obama getting more involved in the debate as the draft bill weaves its way through the Senate Judiciary Committee, and likely to the Senate floor.
"He needs to be an advocate and push for the bill in the Senate to make sure this gets done," Eliseo Medina of the Service Employees International Union said of the president. "We need continued sustained pressure from all facets."
McCain also welcomed the prospect of a more proactive Obama, saying the president is committed to being heavily engaged. But the Arizona Republican, who has spoken with Obama about the immigration negotiations several times in recent weeks, added that the president "doesn't want to harm the passage of the bill either. And I believe him."
But some Republicans remain suspicious of the president's efforts and say he's trying to sink the bill in order to use the legislative failure for political gain.
"I think the president wants to campaign on immigration reform in 2014 and 2016," Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said in an interview with CBS News. "I think the reason the White House is insisting on a path to citizenship for those who are here illegally is because the White House knows that insisting on that is very likely to scuttle the bill."
Obama advisers insist he would rather be able to claim victory on the immigration overhaul that has eluded him than use a failure as leverage in the midterm elections ? a proposition that has no guarantee of working in his favor.
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Associated Press writer Jim Kuhnhenn contributed to this report.
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Follow Julie Pace on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jpaceDC
Apr. 30, 2013 ? The Herschel observatory, a European space telescope for which NASA helped build instruments and process data, has stopped making observations after running out of liquid coolant as expected.
The European Space Agency mission, launched almost four years ago, revealed the universe's "coolest" secrets by observing the frigid side of planet, star and galaxy formation.
"Herschel gave us the opportunity to peer into the dark and cold regions of the universe that are invisible to other telescopes," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters in Washington. "This successful mission demonstrates how NASA and ESA can work together to tackle unsolved mysteries in astronomy."
Confirmation the helium is exhausted came today, at the beginning of the spacecraft's daily communication session with its ground station in Western Australia. A clear rise in temperatures was measured in all of Herschel's instruments.
Herschel launched aboard an Ariane 5 rocket from French Guiana in May 2009. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., built components for two of Herschel's three science instruments. NASA also supports the U.S. astronomical community through the agency's Herschel Science Center, located at the California Institute of Technology's Infrared Processing and Analysis Center in Pasadena.
Herschel's detectors were designed to pick up the glow from celestial objects with infrared wavelengths as long as 625 micrometers, which is 1,000 times longer than what we can see with our eyes. Because heat interferes with these devices, they were chilled to temperatures as low as 2 kelvins (minus 271 degrees Celsius, or 456 Fahrenheit) using liquid helium. The detectors also were kept cold by the spacecraft's orbit, which is around a stable point called the second Lagrange point about 930,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) from Earth. This location gave Herschel a better view of the universe.
"Herschel has improved our understanding of how new stars and planets form, but has also raised many new questions," said Paul Goldsmith, NASA Herschel project scientist at JPL. "Astronomers will be following up on Herschel's discoveries with ground-based and future space-based observatories for years to come."
The mission will not be making any more observations, but discoveries will continue. Astronomers still are looking over the data, much of which already is public and available through NASA's Herschel Science Center. The final batch of data will be public in about six months.
"Our goal is to help the U.S. community exploit the nuggets of gold that lie in that data archive," said Phil Appleton, project scientist at the science center.
Highlights of the mission include:
Discovering long, filamentary structures in space, dotted with dense star-making knots of material.
Detecting definitively, for the first time, oxygen molecules in space, in addition to other never-before-seen molecules. By mapping the molecules in different regions, researchers are learning more about the life cycles of stars and planets and the origins of life.
Discovering high-speed outflows around central black holes in active galaxies, which may be clearing out surrounding regions and suppressing future star formation.
Opening new views on extremely distant galaxies that could be seen only with Herschel, and providing new information about their high rates of star formation.
Following the trail of water molecules from distant galaxies to the clouds of gas between stars to planet-forming solar systems.
Examining a comet in our own solar system and finding evidence comets could have brought a substantial fraction of water to Earth.
Together with NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, discovering a large asteroid belt around the bright star Vega.
Other findings from the mission include the discovery of some of the youngest stars ever seen in the nearby Orion "cradle," and a peculiar planet-forming disk of material surrounding the star TW Hydra, indicating planet formation may happen over longer periods of time than expected. Herschel also has shown stars interact with their environment in many surprising ways, including leaving trails as they move through clouds of gas and dust. More information is online at http://www.herschel.caltech.edu , http://www.nasa.gov/herschel and http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Herschel .
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Another funding raise for a collaborative consumption startup: Spain-based private sales club Privalia, which sells branded clothes and accessories at discounted prices to members in the five markets it currently plays in, has closed a new ?25m round ($32.3m). The company did not specify which round this latest raise falls under but has previously raised a total of $218m in two rounds.
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The latest in a parade of geoengineered winter storms has theatrically been named ?winter storm Achilles?. The ongoing extremely radical forcing of the Earths climate system is wreaking havoc on the environment as a whole. The example outlined below, with data from NOAA (national oceanic and atmospheric administration) and ?AccuWeather? is only the latest in a very long and growing list of completely engineered weather events. The ?weather makers? seem to have absolutely no regard for the climate chaos they are creating around the globe.
Whilst a degree of physical fitness is obviously desirable, orienteering also requires critical-thinking and problem-solving skills.
