Sunday, March 31, 2013

Navy identifies SEAL killed in Arizona training accident

PHOENIX (Reuters) - The U.S. military on Saturday identified the elite Navy SEAL who died in a parachute training accident in southern Arizona that also injured another SEAL.

Navy officials said Special Warfare Operator Chief Brett Shadle, 31, of Elizabethville, Pennsylvania, was killed in the free-fall training accident near Pinal Airpark, northeast of Tucson, on Thursday.

Shadle was assigned to an East Coast-based Naval Special Warfare unit, the Navy said in a statement. The second SEAL, who has not been identified, remains hospitalized in stable condition.

The office of Arizona Governor Jan Brewer said Shadle was a highly decorated member of SEAL Team 6 and had served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Members of SEAL Team 6 carried out the raid that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in May 2011.

The cause of the accident is under investigation. Brewer said in a statement that Shadle died after colliding with another SEAL in midair. She ordered flags at all state buildings be flown at half-staff on Saturday.

SEAL is an acronym for sea, air, land.

(Reporting by Tim Gaynor, Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis and Eric Beech)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-navy-seal-dies-parachute-training-accident-010402231.html

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Water Gap recreation area to burn 234 acres south of Route 206 ...

The Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area is planning a series of prescribed burns in coming weeks, Superintendent John Donahue said. About 528 acres of grasses, shrubs, and woodlands in Pennsylvania and New Jersey will be burned.

In Pennsylvania, the planned burn locations, totaling about 234 acres, include several tracts of land along River Road and just south of Route 206 near Milford.

The planned burn sites in New Jersey, about 294 acres, include tracts along Mountain Road near Flatbrookville and potentially Minisink Island.

Prescribed fire is an approved tool for natural resource management throughout the National Park System and is part of Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area's fire management program. The primary objectives of the prescribed fire program are restoration and perpetuation of scenic and cultural landscapes ? including native plant species ? reduction of wildland fuel loading, and enhancement of wildlife habitats.

Depending on favorable weather conditions, the first burns, planned for the New Jersey sites, could start next week.

Because certain prescription parameters must be met (including wind speed, relative humidity, fuel moisture and drought index), it is not possible to precisely schedule prescribed fires in advance.

Roads, visitor use facilities and hiking trails may be temporarily closed while burns are underway.
Prescribed fire is often more effective than either manual or mechanical removal of fuels.
Air quality and smoke impacts will be monitored and only small areas will be burned in order to keep smoke to a minimum.

A minimum of six firefighters and one fire engine will be on hand throughout the period while the fire burns and will patrol the area until the burn is declared out. Assistance may be provided by firefighters from other National Park Service units, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry, the New Jersey Forest Fire Service, and the Nature Conservancy.

Copies of the prescribed fire plan are available to the public and may be obtained by calling the park's chief ranger's office at 570-426-2414.


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Source: http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130329/NEWS/130329727/-1/rss01

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SHARJAH SHAKE RECIPE ? SUMMER DRINKS | Chitra's Foodbook


Sharjah shake is nothing but banana milkshake which is commonly found in kerala juice shops & bakeries..I came to know about this drink from my neighbour. She makes this very often for her sons during summer.She suggested me to try once.As I had some ripe banana lying in the pantry i tried this milk shake ..We loved it. It tasted slightly different from the usual banana milkshake.Not only the taste , but also the color .. Addition of boost and Chikki/Cashew/Badam makes the difference here.One more important thing in this recipe is , it uses frozen milk cubes Eye rolling smile.It can be made in jiffy and adding ice cream is optional ..It comes out thick without adding ice cream.It is a refreshing and a filling drink too....Adjust the amount of sugar based on ur liking..Do try this, u?ll fall in love with it Winking smile

INGREDIENTS

  • Frozen Milk ? 2 cups (400 ml )
  • Ripe small size banana ? 2 nos ( 3 if very small) ( use poovan , kadili . I used yelakki)
  • Sugar ? 1 tbsp
  • Peanut chikki ? 2 small pieces (optional)
  • Almond or cashews ? 5 nos
  • Boost / Bournvita / Chocolate Horlicks ? 1- 1.5 tbsp

METHOD

KITCHEN CLINIC

HEALTH BENEFITS OF BANANA

1. Bananas are a caloric dense fruit. Consumption of just one banana anytime through the day makes one feel energetic.
2. Banana is a food most appropriate when small but nutrient dense food has to be given in situations of extreme weight loss or extreme fever where the body becomes weak and there is food aversion.
3. They are a good source of potassium and magnesium which aid in maintaining normal blood pressure and are heart protective.
4. The high potassium content promotes bone health too.
5. Banana help counteract the urinary calcium loss caused due to increase ion potassium levels in the urine.
6. Bananas have an antacid effect and are said to protect against stomach ulcers. They contain a compound called as protease inhibitor which protects the stomach from unfriendly bacteria which cause stomach or gastrointestinal disturbances.
7. Bananas are also known to stimulate cell proliferation which thickens the stomach mucosa and is a barrier against stomach acids.
8. Conditions like diarrhea can easily dehydrate the body and deplete the electrolytes.. Consumption of banana helps to restore the lost potassium and helps maintain heart function.
9. Bananas are rich in the soluble fibre pectin. Thereby it assists healthy digestion and eases out constipation.
10. They are a rich source of fructooligosaccharides which act as a prebiotic and stimulate the growth of friendly bacteria in the intestine.? They protect us from harmful bacteria that cause gastric disturbances.
11. Fructooligosaccharides also produce digestive enzymes which improve the ability to absorb nutrients.
12. Bananas contain short chain fatty acids which are essentially needed by the cells lining the intestinal tract to stay healthy. This further improves the nutrient absorption.
13. They are a good source of carotenoids which are antioxidants and have a protective effect against chronic disease condition. They also have a high content of antioxidant phenolic compounds.
14. Banana is known to render a soothing effect. It has a compound called as tryptophan which on getting converted to serotonin improves mood.
15. It is one of the ideal foods to be eaten immediately after a strenuous workout too. The simple sugars present in them quickly provide energy and normalize the blood sugar levels.
Bananas can be eaten whole, as a part of a salad, as a healthy beverage or as an ingredient of a vegetable. It is a fruit made by god for one and all and for every age group.

Source : http://www.medindia.net/patients/lifestyleandwellness/health-benefits-of-bananas.htm

Technorati Tags: sharjah shake,sharjah shake recipe,kerala milkshake recipe,milkshakes,summer drinks,milkshake recipe,banana milk shake,banana milkshake recipe,Sharjah Milk Shake Recipe,Milk Shake using Butter Plantain,Sharjah Milk Shake Kerala Cuisine,kerala sharjah shake recipe,summer drinks recipes,summer drinks for kids,milkshake

Source: http://www.chitrasfoodbook.com/2013/03/sharjah-shake-recipe-summer-drinks.html

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N. Ireland struggles to confront Catholic Church?s enslavement of 1000s of women (Americablog)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/295537402?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Saturday, March 30, 2013

Americans back preparation for extreme weather and sea-level rise

Mar. 28, 2013 ? Images told the story: lower Manhattan in darkness, coastal communities washed away, cars floating in muck. Superstorm Sandy, a harbinger of future extreme weather intensified by climate change, caught the country off guard in October.

Unprepared for the flooding and high winds that ensued, the East Coast suffered more than $70 billion in property damage and more than 100 deaths.

Will Americans prepare and invest now to minimize the impact of disasters such as Sandy, or deal with storms and rising sea levels after they occur?

A new survey commissioned by the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and the Center for Ocean Solutions finds that an overwhelming majority of Americans want to prepare in order to minimize the damage likely to be caused by global warming-induced sea-level rise and storms.

A majority also wants people whose properties and businesses are located in hazard areas to foot the bill for this preparation, not the government. Eighty-two percent of the Americans surveyed said that people and organizations should prepare for the damage likely to be caused by sea-level rise and storms, rather than simply deal with the damage after it happens.

Among the most popular policy solutions identified in the survey are stronger building codes for new structures along the coast to minimize damage (favored by 62 percent) and preventing new buildings from being built near the coast (supported by 51 percent).

"People support preventive action," said survey director Jon Krosnick, a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and professor of communication, "and few people believe these preparations will harm the economy or eliminate jobs. In fact, more people believe that preparation efforts will help the economy and create jobs around the U.S., in their state and in their town than think these efforts will harm the economy and result in fewer jobs in those areas. But people want coastal homeowners and businesses that locate in high-risk areas to pay for these measures."

The challenges posed by rising sea levels and increasingly severe storms will only intensify as more Americans build along the coasts. A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report released March 25 predicts that already crowded U.S. coastlines will become home to an additional 11 million people by 2020.

Survey questions were formulated to assess participants' beliefs about climate change and gather opinions about the impact of climate change, sea-level rise and storms on communities, the economy and jobs.

The survey also gauged public support for specific coastal adaptation strategies and how to pay for them. "People are least supportive of policies that try to hold back Mother Nature," Krosnick said. "They think it makes more sense to recognize risk and reduce exposure."

Among the survey's respondents, 48 percent favor sand dune restoration and 33 percent favor efforts to maintain beaches with sand replenishment, while 37 percent support relocating structures away from the coast and 33 percent support constructing sea walls.

Eighty-two percent of the survey's respondents believe that Earth's temperature has been rising over the last 100 years. However, even a majority of those who doubt the existence of climate change favor adaptation measures (60 percent).

"The question is, how does public support for preparation translate to action?" asked Meg Caldwell, executive director of the Center for Ocean Solutions. "Our impulse is to try to move quickly to put communities back together the way they were after devastation. But that impulse often leads to doubling down on high-risk investments, such as rebuilding in areas likely to experience severe impacts. To move toward long-term resiliency for coastal communities, we need to seize opportunities to apply new thinking, new standards and long-term solutions."

Krosnick presented the survey results this morning at a policy briefing hosted by the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

The survey was conducted via the Internet with a nationally representative probability sample of 1,174 American adults, 18 and older, conducted by GfK Custom Research March 3-18, 2013. The survey was administrated in both English and Spanish. The survey has a margin of error of +/-4.9 percent at the 95 percent confidence level.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Stanford University.

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


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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/vifyDohQlys/130329090624.htm

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China: Landslide traps 83 in Tibet gold mine area

BEIJING (AP) ? Chinese state media say a large landslide Friday trapped 83 workers in a gold mining area in Tibet.

China Central Television cited a local official as saying the landslide occurred early in the morning and covered around 4 square kilometers (1.5 square miles) in the Maizhokunggar county of Lhasa, the regional capital.

The official Xinhua News Agency said the workers were from a subsidiary of the China National Gold Group Corp.

The reports said the landslide was caused by a "natural disaster" but did not provide specifics. It was unclear why the first news reports of the landslide came out several hours after it occurred.

Rescue efforts were under way Friday night, the reports said.

County officials reached by phone confirmed the landslide but had no further details. Calls to the company's general phone line rang unanswered.

Doctors reached at the local county hospital said they had been told to prepare to receive survivors but none had arrived. "We were ordered to make all efforts to receive the injured," said a doctor who gave only her surname, Ge, in the hospital's emergency section.

Ge said the hospital transferred some of its patients to other facilities to increase the number of beds available and that 16 doctors were on duty.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/china-landslide-traps-83-tibet-gold-mine-area-144134758.html

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Real People, Real Money - 7 Web Designers Who Earn Passive ...

You already know that as a web designer or a web developer you need passive income.?However, making money online might seem like some unrealistic fantasy: sure, maybe those ?4-hour work week? folks can chill in Thailand while the money is rolling in, but what about everybody else?

This is why I decided to show you what web designers CAN and DO to make passive income online.

How can web designers make passive income online?

Web designers who want to create streams of passive income are in a very good situation right now. Most businesses nowadays either have strong online presences or are completely virtual. What does this have to do with passive income?

It means that web designers and web developers who want to earn passive income have plenty of opportunities to do so:

  • E-books:? the supply of e-books has not yet matched the demand. Every day there are thousands of new people reading e-books on their portable devices, and many of these people want to learn web design and web development, something that you can teach them.
  • Online courses: many people are looking for instructional e-books, but the other half of these people prefer a more interactive setting. Online course providers like TeamTreeHouse and Udemy are the leading examples of this, but you can start your own course as well, just setup a simple blog and host your videos for premium memberships.
  • Apps: the amount of people using smartphones and tablets is steadily increasing, and there?s always a huge demand for new and unique applications that will either help or entertain the user.
  • Software As A Service (SaaS): more and more companies and individuals are using services to help manage their payroll, team management, storage, and the like. These services require monthly fees and are mostly automatic. Imagine developing an online system and offer it for $5 a month. Imagine how much can you earn passively using this method?
  • WordPress themes: thousands of people start their own blog daily, and many of these people use WordPress as their CMS. Just check ThemeForest.net and see for yourself how much WordPress theme authors make.
  • WP plugins: under WordPress? terms of use, plugins should be open source, and therefore free. There?s a workaround here. Offer a free edition and an extended edition that you can charge for.
  • PSD templates: There?s never too many PSD templates available out there. Developers in a hurry will grab any template that closely resembles their perfect template, tweak it a little, and use it for their clients. No need to hire a web designer!

Making money while you sleep is not something that only exists in the alternative universe of unicorns and rainbows. You, as a web designer or a web developer, can create streams of passive income for yourself, assuming that you are willing to put in ?all the time and energy required to pull it off. It?s not easy, but it?s also definitely possible.

7 web designers who successfully make money online?

There are plenty of web designers and web developers who are already taking advantage of opportunities in front of them:

1. Jacob Cass Explains How He Built A Successful Web Design Blog

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Jacob Cass is a multidisciplinary designer and art director who has worked the all kinds of clients, including the likes of Disney, Jerry Seinfeld, Red Bull, Nike and VitaminWater. He currently works as an interactive art director/designer at a NYC agency, Ammirati, while also freelancing under his business and blog Just Creative. He also runs Logo of the Day, a logo gallery website dedicated to showcasing the best logo designs around the world, and Logo Designer Blog, a blog dedicated to branding and identity design.

In this interview, Jacob Cass answers the following questions:

  • What role did Jacob?s blogging success play in his web design career?
  • How Jacob managed to build such a popular blog and a massive social media following?
  • How does Jacob earn money with Just Creative?

You can read the interview?here.

2. How Sacha Greif ?earned $15,000+ with an e-book he wrote in 3 weeks.

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Sacha Greif is a web designer who specializes in user interfaces for web and mobile apps. He has worked with clients such as Hipmunk, Le Monde, MileWise and UNESCO. Sacha runs his own start-up, Folyo and has released his own e-book, which was very well received. He also runs his own web design blog.

In this interview, Sacha explains the following:

  • How Sacha come up with the idea for his e-book ?Step by step UI design??
  • How he decided the appropriate price for this particular product?
  • How Sacha managed to get the link to his landing page on the front page of Hacker News?

You can read the interview here.

3. Chris Spooner on his blogging success

chris-spooner-design-blogs

Chris Spooner is a graphic and web designer from the UK who runs two popular design blogs Blog.SpoonGraphics and Line25.

In this interview:

  • Why did Chris decide to start his own web design blog in the first place?
  • How does he come up with ideas for blog posts and what does his writing process look like?
  • How does Chris earn money with his blogs?

You can read the interview here.

4. How Ruben Gamez turned BidSketch into a successful online business

Ruben Gamez is the solo founder of?Bidsketch?, an online proposal software website for web designers.

In this interview:

  • Why did Ruben decide to build Bidsketch in the first place?
  • How did he manage to turn his side project into a successful ?business while ?having a full time job?
  • How did Ruben know when it was the right time to quit his job and start working on his business full-time?

You can read the interview here.

5. Jarrod Drysdale explains how he ?made more than $38 000 with his e-book

jarrod-drysdale-interview

Jarrod Drysdale is a web designer who runs his own blog at Studio Fellow. During his career as a designer, Jarrod has worked with tech startups, movie studios, financial companies and consumer brands. He also wrote an e-book for startup founders ?Bootstrapping Design?.

In this interview:

  • What was the biggest lesson that Jarrod learned from his failed startup?
  • How did he test his idea before starting to write an e-book to make sure people actually wanted it?
  • What is the main reason why Jarrod?s launch was so successful?

You can read the ?interview here.

6. Jacob Gube on the explosive growth of Six Revisions

Jacob-Gube-Interview-Founder-Tips

Jacob Gube is the founder of Six Revisions, one of the most popular and fastest growing web design blogs on the Internet. He?s also a web designer and web developer who specializes in front-end development and PHP development.

In this interview:

  • How did Jacob turn Six Revisions into one of the fastest growing web design blogs on the internet without any prior experience in online marketing?
  • How does he manage the logistics of running a high traffic blog with an international team of writers?
  • What is the main reason for the explosive growth of Six Revisions?

You can read the interview here.

7. How a teenager built a profitable web design blog in one year.

Stelian_Subotin

Stelian Subotin is a web designer and a writer.

In this article:

  • Why did he decide to start his own web design blog when he was only 16?
  • How did he manage to go from zero to 650 000 unique monthly visitors in one year?
  • How did he monetize his blog and how much did he earn from it?

You can read the article here.

FAQ about Passive Income

I?m a single 20-something freelance web designer/web developer. I?ve read the ?4-hour work week?. It all sounds very appealing: I?d love to be able to travel the world without having to worry about money too much. Is it really possible for someone like me to create streams of passive income that would make this dream come true?

Yes.

You don?t need that much money to pull that off. With $2000-3000/month you can easily travel through most places in Eastern Europe, Asia, South America, and Africa. That?s of course assuming that you?re fine with traveling on a lower-end budget (no ?5-star hotels).

I?d say that your best bet is probably SaaS because it?s recurring income (as opposed to one-time purchases such as e-books or video courses).

It might take longer than you think to get to that $2000-3000/month level, though.

I have a full-time job, family, and a mortgage. I don?t want to quit my job and?backpack?through Southeast Asia. ?I want extra income to create a better life for my family. Is making money online a good option for me?

Yes, if you are willing to put in the time and energy required to create and maintain streams of passive income, which might be demanding when combined with your other obligations.

I?d even say that passive income is necessary to people who have serious financial obligations (kids, car payments, health insurance, mortgage, etc.).

You don?t want the livelihood of your family to depend on a single source of income: your job. We all saw how well that worked out for thousands of people back in 2008, didn?t we?

In my opinion, passive income is more about financial security, than it is about the ?location independent lifestyle.

How much time does it take to create a reliable source of passive income?

It depends.

You can start making a little amount of money straight away by creating WP plugins and selling PSD templates.

You will need a lot more time and knowledge if you want to make money with e-books, apps, video courses, SaaS, etc.

I?d say that it will probably take longer than you think. Don?t quit ?your job just yet.

How much time does it take to maintain a source of passive income?

It depends on what kind of system of passive income you have set up.

In general, once the system is up and running, you should be able to maintain it by spending a few hours a week or so on it, especially if you outsource many tasks related to it.

Keep in mind that often if you don?t spend time on marketing your product/service the stream of passive income dries up over time, though.

Do you need to have a blog in order to make money online?

No.

You need to find a real pain that people are experiencing right now and offer a solution that they are willing to pay for.

I?d even say that I think that blogging is often overrated for the wrong reasons. It is indeed a good way to build your personal brand and accelerate your web design career. It isn?t the easiest way to make money online though, it requires a lot of resources and time.

I?d say that if making as much money as possible is your primary goal you might be better off by creating a video course or SaaS.

Attention: making passive income online is not as easy as it might look!

Okay, so I don?t like giving people rose tinted glasses, then watching them fail, therefore I?ll be blunt with you:

Bad news: Making money online is HARD. It requires a massive time and energy investment over an extended period of time. Please don?t even start if you are not willing to face this harsh reality.

Good news: You can achieve similar results much faster than most people in these interviews. In order to do that, you need to commit to learning online marketing, which will help you avoid wasting time on all the silly mistakes that beginners make. It?s much easier to get the results you want when you know what you are doing.

The world of online marketing can be very confusing, though. You are bombarded with conflicting advice from different gurus. How do you know which people are legitimate experts and which are just con artists? That?s the problem: you don?t.

This is the reason why I?ve compiled the list of my favorite online marketing resources:

?7 websites that will help you learn online marketing from scratch?

Entrepreneurship is not easy. I?m not going to sugarcoat this: it might take you months or even years until you get your first business off the ground. Time will pass anyway, though. Why not put it to a good use?

Source: http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/design/web-designers-who-earn-passive-income/

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How To Put SEO To Work For Your Business | Content for Reprint

Author: Mishel Roserberg | Total views: 65 Comments: 0
Word Count: 850 Date:

With the right amount of knowledge, you will be able to efficiently increase web traffic through optimization of your website. Read on for more useful SEO tips.

Strive to design each page of your website in a way that makes it stand out from every other. Pay particular attention to the titles you use. These are extremely important for search engine optimization purposes. Including your keyword or phrase in the titles on your pages is important towards ranking highly on search engines.

If you have a site that is written in a non-english language, use the language meta tag. That's because search engines will rank you higher when people do a search for your content in that language.

Research any outside SEO company before signing over the work to them. Lots of SEO companies will charge too much for sub-standard work. Read online reviews and testimonials from previous companies to make sure that the company you're looking to hire is the real deal. Your wallet will thank you later.

Once you have discovered the right key phrases for your website, you should put that key phrase in your title. The first impression of your site is generated by the title, so choose it with care. This way, your site will be clicked because it most fits the search results the user typed in.

Ask yourself the question "how would somebody find my site if they were searching for it?" Then ensure that you have multiple uses of these keywords scattered through your site. Include your keywords in the titles of your pages and throughout your content, but don't overuse them. Stuffing your pages full of keywords will cause the search engines to lower your search ranking.

An important SEO tip is to keep an eye on your search rankings. It is crucial that you track your results to understand how your SEO is doing. One easy way to track your progress is by using the Google Analytics tool.

Retaining the visitors you get from search engines will not only increase your profits, but also your search engine rank. It is proven that spending more time working on a site increases the page rank. This trend has been established through metrics like Quantcast scores. When customers can chat, discuss, and interact with each other on your site, they are more likely to stay longer.

Keywords will help you improve the visibility of your sites. Coordinate your keywords with your article topics. This makes it easier for search engines to index your work. Therefore, it's easier for readers who may be trying to locate your articles. The keyword you want to focus on should appear several times in your article's text, as well as in its title and summary.

There are several options you can use to get inbound links to your website. Article writing, message forums, press releases, directory submissions and blogs can all provide your site with traffic. A great way to improve your SEO is to use good outbound links.

This will help increase your search engine rankings. The meta description appears right under the website link in many search engines, so use this text to grab a potential customer's attention. If you are using a popular CMS, you might be able to edit meta descriptions directly from the control panel.

The most important thing that you can do for your site is to make sure that you always keep the content on the site fresh and unique. People won't want to visit your website if you simply present the same old information indefinitely.

If you want to have successful SEO results, you need a site map. This will make it easier for spiders to crawl on your site. If your site is particularly large, you may need multiple maps. In general, try not to have more than 100 links on each map.

These descriptions will let your web site show up higher in search ratings. The meta description refers to the short description that appears in search results. Use important keywords and encourage your readers to take action and visit your site. Check to see if your content management software makes it easy for you to write a meta description on the same page you create your content on.

Meta tags should be as clear and descriptive as possible. Add a concise description to every meta tag on your site. This will increase click through rates.

Keyword density is vital when you optimize a web page for search engines. Focus on keeping each page's keyword content well under 20 percent.

You should now know that SEO is a very important part of internet marketing. By abiding by the advice in this article, you will be able to optimize your website. As long as your website is of high-quality, you will be more likely to receive a lot of traffic, which will lead to more profits.

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1: Understanding Online Business Success

Starting a home based business to earn income online takes a significant amount of time and energy upfront to get things going. Not seeing results immediately can be discouraging and cause people to give up too early. In this article, we look at the process of starting a home based business and working through the frustrations to be there when the sales come flowing in.

2: Why You Need To Build Multiple Streams of Income For Yourself

Being an entrepreneur and earning multiple streams of income is a dream that many have, but in reality it does take some initial hard work to achieve this. Earning multiple streams of income is the wave of the future, and here are some tips and advice for you when you are looking for ways in which to do this for yourself.

3: Article Marketing Strategy: Putting Together a "Class Schedule" For Your Article Topics

Businesses go to so much trouble when there is one sure-fire, simple, very inexpensive way to attract new clients to a business: Teach a free class. That is what article marketing is like. Your articles are just like free classes. You teach your target readers something helpful in your article. Your resource box then says, "If you enjoyed this article you can visit my website and apply what you have learned."

4: What is Cyber Marketing And Why It Is So Important For The Success Of Your Website

Cyber marketing has now become an indispensable segment of e-commerce as well as the internet and World Wide Web related topics. Cyber marketing simply refers to a technique of attracting potential customers by advertising your products or services through such means as websites, emails, and banners.

5: The Best Way To Optimise Your Website SEO For Google Panda

If you want your SEO to work you now need to concentrate on appeasing Google Panda, and to do this you need to know what Google Panda's spiders/bots will be looking for. Find out here how to search engine optimise your website for the latest Google Panda algorithm, and achieve the success you deserve.

Source: http://www.content4reprint.com/internet-marketing/how-to-put-seo-to-work-for-your-business.htm

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Lockheed Martin's technology hub brings startups closer to government needs

Lockheed Martin's technology hub brings startups closer to government needs

Wondering who would be the first to concoct a Kickstarter for governmental wishes? We suppose it's Lockheed Martin. Today, the aforementioned outfit has launched an initiative "aimed at expanding its collaboration with Silicon Valley companies to meet the diverse technology needs of the federal government." Called the Lockheed Martin Silicon Valley Alliance, the hub will reportedly "provide the federal government with greater visibility into innovative technology solutions developed locally," even going so far as to suggest that a game developer could use their resources in order to improve the realism of a military simulation system. It sounds as if Lockheed will end up being the middleman between aspiring companies and entities like the Department of Defense and NASA, essentially ensuring that whatever is built meets federal requirements. Those interested in venturing down such a rabbit hole can give the source link a look, but as always, we'd caution you to register at your own risk.

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Consumer data support sturdy first-quarter growth picture

By Lucia Mutikani

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Consumer spending rose in February and sentiment among Americans perked up this month, further signs of an acceleration in economic activity in the first quarter after a near stall late last year.

The data on Friday also showed a rebound in income growth, putting the economy in a better shape to deal with tighter fiscal policy, particularly $85 billion in across-the-board federal government spending cuts, known as the "sequester."

"The economy is in a good place now in terms of momentum and strength, and it will need it as the government spending cuts will take something off growth as the year progresses," said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ in New York.

Consumer spending increased 0.7 percent last month after a 0.4 percent rise in January, the Commerce Department said.

Though part of the increase in spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of U.S. economic activity, was because of higher gasoline prices, Americans also bought long-lasting goods such as automobiles and spent more on services.

Gas prices at the pump increased 35 cents a gallon last month.

After adjusting for inflation, spending was up 0.3 percent after advancing by the same margin in January. As a result, economists said consumer spending in the first quarter was on track to record its fastest growth pace since 2010.

"It appears that consumer spending actually accelerated in the first quarter despite the tax hikes implemented at the start of the year," said Daniel Silver, an economist at JPMorgan in New York.

Some economists bumped up their first-quarter economic growth estimates.

Barclays raised its gross domestic product forecast by 0.7 percentage point to 3.3 percent. Macroeconomic Advisers lifted their estimate by three-tenths of a point to 3.5 percent.

The economy grew at only a 0.4 percent annual pace in the fourth quarter.

A separate report showed households this month shrugged off the deep government spending cuts, focusing instead on a steady labor market improvement, which is starting to boost wages.

The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan's index of consumer sentiment rose to 78.6 from 77.6 in February.

"Consumers have discounted the administration's warning that economic catastrophe would follow the reductions in federal spending, and consumers have renewed their expectation that gains in employment will accelerate through the rest of 2013," said survey director Richard Curtin.

And they have reason to be optimistic. Income increased a healthy 1.1 percent after tumbling 3.7 percent in January.

Personal income had increased sharply in December as businesses rushed to pay dividends and bonuses before tax hikes took effect this year. That also skewed income data for January.

U.S. financial markets were closed for Good Friday and will reopen on Monday.

LITTLE SIGN OF FISCAL DRAG

A 2 percent payroll tax cut expired on January 1 and tax rates for wealthy Americans also went up. The consumer spending and sentiment reports were the latest to show little sign the tighter fiscal policy has been a major drag on the economy.

Employment growth gained steam in February, factory activity touched a 1-1/2 year high and first-time filings for jobless benefits have only increased modestly so far in March.

Last month, the income at the disposal of households after inflation and taxes increased 0.7 percent after dropping 4 percent in January.

With income growth outpacing spending, the saving rate - the percentage of disposable income households are socking away - rose to 2.6 percent from 2.2 percent in January.

The higher gasoline prices pushed up inflation, with a price index for consumer spending rising 0.4 percent after being flat for two straight months. February's increase in the PCE index was the largest since August.

But a core reading that strips out food and energy costs rose only 0.1 percent after increasing 0.2 percent in January, showing no sign of underlying inflation pressures.

Over the past 12 months, inflation has risen 1.3 percent after a similar gain in the period through January.

Core prices were up 1.3 percent, well below the Federal Reserve's 2 percent target. They also had risen 1.3 percent in the 12 months through January.

The benign inflation picture should give the U.S. central bank room to continue with its monetary stimulus as it seeks to boost job growth.

The Fed said last week it would maintain its monthly $85 billion purchases of mortgage and Treasury bonds until it saw a substantial improvement in the job market.

"This is plenty of ammunition for all those Fed officials, who currently do not want to scale back the degree of monetary accommodation," said Harm Bandholz, chief U.S. economist at UniCredit Research in New York.

"For investors this must look like Goldilocks: Better economic data and ongoing monetary accommodation at the same time."

(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani, additional reporting by Luciana Lopez in New York; Editing by Neil Stempleman)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-consumer-spending-rises-supports-sturdy-growth-picture-123723020--business.html

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Friday, March 29, 2013

Sprial galaxy: Hidden depths of Messier 77 revealed

Mar. 28, 2013 ? Messier 77 is a galaxy in the constellation of Cetus, some 45 million light-years away from us. Also known as NGC 1068, it is one of the most famous and well-studied galaxies. It is a real star among galaxies, with more papers written about it than many other galaxies put together.

Despite its current fame and striking swirling appearance, the galaxy has been a victim of mistaken identity a couple of times; when it was initially discovered in 1780, the distinction between gas clouds and galaxies was not known, causing finder Pierre Mechain to miss its true nature and label it as a nebula. It was misclassified again when it was subsequently listed in the Messier Catalogue as a star cluster.

Now, however, it is firmly categorised as a barred spiral galaxy, with loosely wound arms and a relatively small central bulge. It is the closest and brightest example of a particular class of galaxies known as Seyfert galaxies -- galaxies that are full of hot, highly ionised gas that glows brightly, emitting intense radiation.

Strong radiation like this is known to come from the heart of Messier 77 -- caused by a very active black hole that is around 15 million times the mass of our Sun. Material is dragged towards this black hole and circles around it, heating up and glowing strongly. This region of a galaxy alone, although comparatively small, can be tens of thousands of times brighter than a typical galaxy.

Although no competition for the intense centre, Messier 77's spiral arms are also very bright regions. Dotted along each arm are knotty red clumps -- a signal that new stars are forming. These baby stars shine strongly, ionising nearby gas which then glows a deep red colour as seen in the image above. The dust lanes stretching across this image appear as a rusty, brown-red colour due to a phenomenon known as reddening; the dust absorbs more blue light than red light, enhancing its apparent redness.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/ecypzfdwMAw/130328125104.htm

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Mate choice in mice is heavily influenced by paternal cues

Mate choice in mice is heavily influenced by paternal cues [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 28-Mar-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Dr. Diethard Tautz
tautz@evolbio.mpg.de
49-452-276-3390
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

Hybrid offspring of different house mice populations show a preference for mating with individuals from their father's original population

This press release is available in German.

Mate choice is a key factor in the evolution of new animal species. The choice of a specific mate can decisively influence the evolutionary development of a species. In mice, the attractiveness of a potential mate is conveyed by scent cues and ultrasonic vocalizations. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Pln investigated whether house mice (Mus musculus) would mate with each other even if they were from two populations which had been separated from each other for a long time period. To do this, the researchers brought together mice from a German population and mice from a French population. Although to begin with all the mice mated with one another randomly, the hybrid offspring of French and German parents were distinctly more choosy: they showed a definite preference for mating with individuals from their father's original population. According to the researchers, this paternal imprinting accelerates the divergence of two house mouse populations and thus promotes speciation.

In allopatric speciation, individuals of a species become geographically isolated from each other by external factors such as mountains or estuaries. Over time, this geographic separation leads to the sub-populations undergoing various mutations, and thus diverging genetically. Animals from the two different sub-populations can no longer successfully reproduce, so two new species evolve.

To find out what role partner selection plays in such speciation processes, Diethard Tautz from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology and his colleagues conducted a comprehensive study on house mice the classic model organisms of biology. "To investigate whether there are differences in the mating behaviour of the mice in the early stages of speciation, we caught wild house mice in southern France and western Germany. The two populations have been geographically separate for around 3,000 years, which equates to some 18,000 generations," says Diethard Tautz. Due to this geographical separation, the French and German mice were genetically different.

The Pln-based researchers created a semi-natural environment for their investigations a sort of "Playboy Mansion" for mice. The research enclosure was several square meters in size and was divided up using wooden walls, "nests" made out of plastic cylinders, and plastic tubes. It also featured an escape tube with several entrances, which led into a cage system nearby. "We constructed the enclosure in such a way that all animals had unimpeded access to all areas, but thanks to the structural divisions were also able to create their own territories or retreat into nests," explains Tautz. "The escape tube was a control element. If the mice retreated to it only very seldom as was the case in our experiment then we could be sure there was no overpopulation in the central enclosure."

In this central enclosure, the French and German mice had both time and space to mate with each other and reproduce. "At first, all the mice mated with each other quite randomly. But with the first-generation offspring, a surprising pattern emerged," says Tautz. When the first-generation hybrid offspring of mixed French and German parentage mated, they showed a specific preference for pure-bred mates whose "nationality" was that of their father only. "There must be some kind of paternal influence that prompts the hybrid mice to choose a mate from a specific population, namely that of their father," concludes the biologist, based on the results of his study. "This imprinting must be learned, however, meaning that the animals must grow up in the presence of their fathers. This was not the case for the original mice, which were kept in cages for a time after being caught."

"We know that mice use ultrasonic vocalizations to communicate with each other and that particularly in the case of male mice these vocalizations can reveal signals of individuality and kinship. We believe that, like birdsong, the vocalizations of the males have a learned component and a genetic component," says Tautz. Therefore, French and German mice really could "speak" different languages, partly learned from their fathers, partly inherited from them. Individual mice thus have a mating preference for mice that speak the same language as they do.

The French and German mouse populations had evidently been geographically separated long enough for preliminary signs of species differentiation to be apparent as regards mating preferences. In addition, another aspect of mating behavior also sped up the speciation process.

Although mice have multiple mates, the researchers found evidence of partner fidelity and inbreeding. The tendency to mate with relatives fosters the creation of genetically uniform groups. When both occur together, this accelerates the speciation process.

In a next step, Diethard Tautz wants to find out whether the vocalizations of the mice play the decisive role in paternal imprinting, or if scent cues are also involved. Furthermore, the biologist wants to identify the genes that are involved in mate selection.

###

Original publication:

Inka Montero, Meike Tesche and Diethard Tautz: "Paternal imprinting of mating preferences between natural populations of house mice (Mus musculus domesticus)", Molecular Ecology (2013), doi: 10.111/mec.122271;



[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


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.


Mate choice in mice is heavily influenced by paternal cues [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 28-Mar-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Dr. Diethard Tautz
tautz@evolbio.mpg.de
49-452-276-3390
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

Hybrid offspring of different house mice populations show a preference for mating with individuals from their father's original population

This press release is available in German.

Mate choice is a key factor in the evolution of new animal species. The choice of a specific mate can decisively influence the evolutionary development of a species. In mice, the attractiveness of a potential mate is conveyed by scent cues and ultrasonic vocalizations. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Pln investigated whether house mice (Mus musculus) would mate with each other even if they were from two populations which had been separated from each other for a long time period. To do this, the researchers brought together mice from a German population and mice from a French population. Although to begin with all the mice mated with one another randomly, the hybrid offspring of French and German parents were distinctly more choosy: they showed a definite preference for mating with individuals from their father's original population. According to the researchers, this paternal imprinting accelerates the divergence of two house mouse populations and thus promotes speciation.

In allopatric speciation, individuals of a species become geographically isolated from each other by external factors such as mountains or estuaries. Over time, this geographic separation leads to the sub-populations undergoing various mutations, and thus diverging genetically. Animals from the two different sub-populations can no longer successfully reproduce, so two new species evolve.

To find out what role partner selection plays in such speciation processes, Diethard Tautz from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology and his colleagues conducted a comprehensive study on house mice the classic model organisms of biology. "To investigate whether there are differences in the mating behaviour of the mice in the early stages of speciation, we caught wild house mice in southern France and western Germany. The two populations have been geographically separate for around 3,000 years, which equates to some 18,000 generations," says Diethard Tautz. Due to this geographical separation, the French and German mice were genetically different.

The Pln-based researchers created a semi-natural environment for their investigations a sort of "Playboy Mansion" for mice. The research enclosure was several square meters in size and was divided up using wooden walls, "nests" made out of plastic cylinders, and plastic tubes. It also featured an escape tube with several entrances, which led into a cage system nearby. "We constructed the enclosure in such a way that all animals had unimpeded access to all areas, but thanks to the structural divisions were also able to create their own territories or retreat into nests," explains Tautz. "The escape tube was a control element. If the mice retreated to it only very seldom as was the case in our experiment then we could be sure there was no overpopulation in the central enclosure."

In this central enclosure, the French and German mice had both time and space to mate with each other and reproduce. "At first, all the mice mated with each other quite randomly. But with the first-generation offspring, a surprising pattern emerged," says Tautz. When the first-generation hybrid offspring of mixed French and German parentage mated, they showed a specific preference for pure-bred mates whose "nationality" was that of their father only. "There must be some kind of paternal influence that prompts the hybrid mice to choose a mate from a specific population, namely that of their father," concludes the biologist, based on the results of his study. "This imprinting must be learned, however, meaning that the animals must grow up in the presence of their fathers. This was not the case for the original mice, which were kept in cages for a time after being caught."

"We know that mice use ultrasonic vocalizations to communicate with each other and that particularly in the case of male mice these vocalizations can reveal signals of individuality and kinship. We believe that, like birdsong, the vocalizations of the males have a learned component and a genetic component," says Tautz. Therefore, French and German mice really could "speak" different languages, partly learned from their fathers, partly inherited from them. Individual mice thus have a mating preference for mice that speak the same language as they do.

The French and German mouse populations had evidently been geographically separated long enough for preliminary signs of species differentiation to be apparent as regards mating preferences. In addition, another aspect of mating behavior also sped up the speciation process.

Although mice have multiple mates, the researchers found evidence of partner fidelity and inbreeding. The tendency to mate with relatives fosters the creation of genetically uniform groups. When both occur together, this accelerates the speciation process.

In a next step, Diethard Tautz wants to find out whether the vocalizations of the mice play the decisive role in paternal imprinting, or if scent cues are also involved. Furthermore, the biologist wants to identify the genes that are involved in mate selection.

###

Original publication:

Inka Montero, Meike Tesche and Diethard Tautz: "Paternal imprinting of mating preferences between natural populations of house mice (Mus musculus domesticus)", Molecular Ecology (2013), doi: 10.111/mec.122271;



[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


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.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-03/m-mci032813.php

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Thursday, March 28, 2013

Serbs in Kosovo jailed over deadly riots

MITROVICA, Kosovo (AP) ? A Kosovo court on Thursday found three ethnic Serbs guilty of storming a U.N.-run court and inciting riots that led to the death of a Ukrainian peacekeeper in 2008.

The ruling came as dozens of NATO peacekeepers backed by armored vehicles secured the area around the court. Hundreds of local Serbs briefly blocked entrances to the building with big trucks filled with dirt.

The panel of three European Union judges convicted Marijan Ilincic and Dragan Milojevic, and sentenced them to 22 and 18 months in prison, respectively. A third defendant, Zoran Cavic, was convicted of similar charges and given a 9-month sentence that was suspended for one year, according to the EU's rule of law mission in Kosovo, EULEX.

Three other defendants were cleared of all charges.

A team of defense lawyers said they will appeal the three guilty verdicts.

Hours before the court proceeding started, EULEX armed special police units escorted the judges and the prosecutor into the court house. No incidents were reported, and the barricades were removed after the verdicts were made public.

Ethnic Serbs, who dominate Kosovo's north, boycott EULEX, saying it backs ethnic Albanian separatists.

In March 2008, a crowd of ethnic Serbs stormed the court house in Mitrovica to prevent EULEX from replacing the U.N. administration. The violence was in response to Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia.

About 130 people, including some 60 U.N. and NATO peacekeepers, were wounded during several days of clashes that ensued between Serbs and international peacekeepers. Thursday's guilty verdicts involved a Ukrainian peacekeeper who died from injuries received from fragments of a hand grenade. He was part of a special police unit deployed restore control of the courthouse from the Serb rioters.

Serbia rejects Kosovo's independence.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/serbs-kosovo-jailed-over-deadly-riots-174233096.html

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David Petraeus: Too soon for a comeback?

David Petraeus resigned in disgrace as CIA director last November after an affair. Now, he suggests he's ready to get back into public life. Recent history has plenty of role models.

By Linda Feldmann,?Staff writer / March 27, 2013

David Petraeus, former Army general and head of the Central Intelligence Agency, speaks at the annual dinner for veterans and ROTC students at the University of Southern California, in downtown Los Angeles, on Tuesday. It marked Petraeus's first public remarks since he retired as head of the CIA after an extramarital affair scandal.

Reed Saxon/AP

Enlarge

After a 4-1/2 month silence, following his very public fall from grace, retired Gen. David Petraeus has signaled he?s ready to come back to public life.

Skip to next paragraph Linda Feldmann

Staff writer

Linda Feldmann is a staff writer for the Monitor based in Washington.

Recent posts

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But are we ready? Chances are, yes.

The storied general, who resigned as director of the CIA on Nov. 9 after revealing an extramarital affair with biographer Paula Broadwell, spoke Tuesday night at a dinner at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles for veterans and ROTC students.

Right up front, General Petraeus apologized for the affair, citing ?extremely poor judgment.?

"I know that I can never fully assuage the pain that I inflicted on those closest to me and on a number of others," Petraeus said, according to news reports. "I can, however, try to move forward in a manner that is consistent with the values to which I subscribed before slipping my moorings and, as best as possible, to make amends to those I have hurt and let down."

And he signaled he?s ready to move on: ?One learns after all that life doesn't stop with such a mistake. It can and must go on."

The question is, what is Petraeus?s next chapter and does it still possibly include politics? Before Petraeus?s dramatic fall, he was often mentioned as a potential candidate for president ? a line of speculation he never fully discouraged. He may be thinking more along the lines of corporate boards and lucrative speeches, but history suggests he needn't rule out a run for office. ?

After all, there is a long, bipartisan tradition in American politics of sexual indiscretion followed by redemption. Take Republican Mark Sanford, who faced emotional turmoil in 2009 as governor of South Carolina when he revealed an extramarital affair with his Argentinian mistress (now fianc?e). He served out the remainder of his term but was censured by the state legislature. He may well be on the verge of winning a special election for Congress, after coming in first in the GOP primary earlier this month.

There?s also Sen. David Vitter (R) of Louisiana, caught consorting with prostitutes in 2007, but won reelection anyway and could be his state?s next governor. Politico recently lauded his skill in reinventing himself as a Senate insider.

And then there?s former President Clinton, who survived impeachment after lying under oath about an affair, and, as an ex-president, enjoys an image as an elder statesman with public popularity ratings in the high 60s.

Petraeus, of course, has never run for office, and being a novice politician with personal baggage may be a heavy lift. But we still don?t rule out that he might give it a shot. He is still married to Holly Petraeus, admired in her own right for her work on behalf of veterans (and not present at the speech in L.A.). We can assume that she has a say in how they chart their future path. Another possibility is a high-level government appointment. But if he wants to avoid pesky reporters, he might find the private sector more agreeable.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/SLgPRsfvnHo/David-Petraeus-Too-soon-for-a-comeback

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Microsoft?s next-generation ?Gemini? Office update reportedly slated for fall release

By Brian Homewood March 28 (Reuters) - Swiss champions FC Basel, renowned for their youth development programme, face a constant battle to stop teenage players moving to English, Spanish and Italian clubs. President Bernhard Heusler told Reuters in an interview that parents often do not listen to the club when warned against taking their sons elsewhere. "We get enormous pressure from outside, including English clubs," said Heusler before adding Basel were powerless to stop their youngsters leaving before the age of 16. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/microsoft-next-generation-gemini-office-reportedly-slated-fall-001327308.html

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Popularity helps buffer Apple from Chinese state-media attacks

By Melanie Lee

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Chinese Internet users are crying foul over the perceived unfair treatment doled out to Apple Inc by state-run media which has actively criticized the smartphone maker for the past two weeks over its warranty policy.

Apple and Volkswagen AG were singled out on March 15 by state-run China Central Television in its annual corporate malpractice expose. CCTV accused Apple of having discriminatory after-sales service in China compared to the rest of the world.

Other state-run outlets have also run articles and editorials criticizing Apple. On Wednesday, the Communist Party mouthpiece, the People's Daily, ran an editorial attacking Apple for being filled with "unparalleled arrogance".

The editorial was rapidly shared by thousands of micro bloggers on Sina Corp's Weibo platform but panned by many users who discredited the newspaper.

"Shameless People's Daily jealously scolding people... A brain-dead product of the Cultural Revolution, old and so disgusting," said one micro blogger.

Other users were upset at the targeting of a foreign firm over a petty issue.

"We ordinary people feel that Apple is good and the government is trash. There's obviously an implemented warranty policy, why must (Apple) be treated differently?" said one user.

Another user asked where the newspaper was when it came to reporting on corrupt on local ministries and poisonous milk.

"Do you wish to transfer our focus? Get the ordinary people to curse and blame useless things? There's toxic air, toxic water and tainted milk...We are not fools!" said another user.

The intense push-back from Internet users indicates the strong reputation of Apple in China and shows the waning ability of China's state propaganda apparatus to manage opinion online, analysts say.

"Some users may feel that there is an agenda behind focusing on Apple that has more to do with pointing the finger at a famous international brand than the desire to highlight genuine concerns for consumers," said Torsten Stocker, head of Monitor Deloitte's Greater China consumer and retail practice.

Foreign firms are often taken to task very publicly in China where their businesses and reputations are on the line. Late last year, Yum Brands Inc's said its sales suffered after CCTV ran a report on the use of antibiotics in its KFC chickens.

That story went viral on Weibo, which has over 500 million users, and many Weibo users criticized Yum's handling of the incident. Facebook and Twitter are blocked in China and Beijing faces the constant headache on how to balance censorship while letting its citizens blow off steam.

Apple said in a statement on Saturday that it respected Chinese consumers and that its warranty policies were roughly the same worldwide with specific adjustments to adhere to Chinese law.

"Apple has come out relatively unscathed in this situation because consumers have had largely positive experiences with the brand," said Benjamin Cavender, associate principal analyst at China Market Research in Shanghai.

As for Volkswagen, CCTV said the direct shift gearbox transmission was causing some cars to speed up or slow down during driving.

Last week Volkswagen, which sells more cars in China than any other foreign firm, said it would recall 384,181 vehicles there to fix the problem.

(Editing by Kazunori Takada)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/popularity-helps-buffer-apple-chinese-state-media-attacks-094328778--finance.html

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EBay sets aggressive 2015 target, shares climb

By Alistair Barr

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - EBay Inc aims to handle $110 billion of sales on its marketplace in 2015 by expanding globally and using mobile technology to lure more shoppers, an aggressive target that drove its shares 4 percent higher on Thursday.

The forecast by eBay Marketplaces chief Devin Wenig was higher than Wall Street had expected and represents a 47 percent jump in gross merchandise volume, or GMV, from 2012's $75 billion.

GMV is a closely watched measure of eBay's performance. Doug Anmuth, an analyst at JP Morgan, had predicted 2015 GMV of $101 billion.

After bleeding market share to Amazon.com Inc for years, Chief Executive John Donahoe began a turnaround effort in 2009 that set the Internet commerce company back on track by borrowing from its larger rival's playbook.

He took what was then a muddled auctions website and made it easier for shoppers to buy new items at fixed prices and get more free shipping and returns - essentially mimicking the Amazon experience. He also embraced mobile technology, creating shopping apps for smartphones and tablets that brought in new customers.

But eBay's online marketplace is still growing less than Amazon's and some analysts are concerned its growth may struggle to keep up with the overall expansion of the online retail sector.

On Thursday, eBay's Wenig told analysts and investors that the company's core business will deliver "at least" market rates of growth.

EBay's stock rose 4.1 percent to $54.20 in the afternoon.

"They are saying they have fixed the core marketplace, and they are now positioned to drive incremental growth from local, mobile and global initiatives," said Colin Sebastian, an analyst at R.W. Baird.

CEO Donahoe said that the company would enable $300 billion of commerce in 2015, up 71 percent from $175 billion in 2012.

That forecast includes sales on eBay's online marketplace, payments processed by PayPal and other transactions touched by the company's various businesses, such as GSI Commerce.

"That's one of the ways we will measure our success," Donahoe said during eBay's investor day at its headquarters in Silicon Valley.

To get this done, eBay is focusing on three main sources of potential growth - global expansion, local commerce and mobile applications that it hopes will encourage consumers to shop more on its marketplace and use PayPal more to pay for those purchases.

EBay is aiming to increase sales in emerging markets and BRIC countries - Brazil, Russia, India and China, by four times current levels in three years, Wendy Jones, an executive overseeing the global push, said.

By the end of 2015, as much as 25 percent of eBay active users and over 12 percent of global sales will come from BRIC countries and emerging markets, she added.

EBay's top executives will give other, new three-year financial forecasts later on Thursday.

Expectations run high on Wall Street. Anmuth of J.P. Morgan, is expecting revenue of $21.16 billion in 2015 and earnings of $3.98 per share that year, versus $14 billion and $2.36 a share in 2012.

The analyst is also calling for 2015 PayPal transaction volume of $246.9 billion that year.

(Reporting by Alistair Barr; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn, Tim Dobbyn, and Kenneth Barry)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ebay-ceo-says-company-enable-300-billion-commerce-154139664--sector.html

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