Virtual superheroes more helpful in real world, too

Jan. 30, 2013 ? Having virtual super-powers in a game may incite people to better behavior in the real world, according to research published January 30 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Robin Rosenberg and colleagues from Stanford University's Virtual Human Interaction Lab.

Participants in this study were placed in a virtual environment and either given the power of flight or rode as passengers in a helicopter. They were then assigned one of two tasks: help find a missing diabetic child or tour a virtual city. The researchers explain that regardless of which task they performed, "Participants who were given the power to fly like Superman in virtual reality were more helpful afterward, out of virtual reality, compared to participants who were passengers in a helicopter in virtual reality."

The researchers suggest that embodying a superpower in virtual reality may prime players to 'think like superheroes' and thus facilitate subsequent helpful behavior in the real world. Alternately, the authors also suggest that participants who could fly in the game may have felt like more active participants than those who passively sat in the helicopter while performing tasks, and this more active involvement may have induced their subsequent behavior.

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Journal Reference:

1. Robin S. Rosenberg, Shawnee L. Baughman, Jeremy N. Bailenson. Virtual Superheroes: Using Superpowers in Virtual Reality to Encourage Prosocial Behavior. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (1): e55003 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0055003

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/SUGqJMmfbG0/130130184151.htm

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Pakistan's top court squashes rumors, orders elections as planned

The order comes amid rumor that the military and judiciary want to force out a civilian leader and delay the elections that will mark the first time a civilian government in Pakistan?has completed a full term.

By Mehreen Zahra-Malik,?Reuters / January 31, 2013

In this June 2012 file photo, Pakistan's prime minister, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, waves in Islamabad, Pakistan. Pakistan's Supreme Court has ordered the arrest of Mr. Ashraf as part of a corruption case involving private power stations, officials said Tuesday.

B.K. Bangash/AP/File

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Pakistan's powerful Supreme Court on Thursday ordered imminent general elections to go ahead as planned in a bid to quash fears a fledgling democratic process is about to be derailed.

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The order came amid speculation that the military is working with the judiciary to force out a civilian leader and delay the elections that will mark the first time a civilian government in Pakistan?has completed a full term since independence in 1947.

"The executive, both civilian and military, shall not take any action or steps that are tantamount to deviation from the election," Chief Justice?Iftikhar Chaudhry?ruled.

"Deviation from the constitution or introducing any other system not recognised by the constitution shall not be acceptable."

The general election is expected in May.

This month, a firebrand cleric,?Tahirul Qadri, camped outside parliament with thousands of supporters calling on the government to step down.

The timing of Qadri's return from six years in?Canada, just a few months before elections are due, and his role in supporting a 1999 coup by former?army?chief?Pervez Musharraf, had raised fears that the?army?was using him to bring down the government and provide a pretext to hand-pick a caretaker cabinet.

Under Chaudhry, the?Supreme Court, which has final say on interpreting the constitution, has been embroiled in a long-running showdown with the government that has laid bare institutional tension plaguing a country that has developed nuclear weapons but has yet to agree on how it should be run.

The military, which has ruled Pakistan?for about half of its 66 years as an independent nation, has not hidden its disdain for the government of President?Asif Ali Zardari, but has said it does not wish to seize power this time round.

The judges' eagerness to rewrite the rules of Pakistan's?power game have won it support among those who see the judiciary as the only realistic hope of holding their leaders to account.

Editing by Nick Macfie and Robert Birsel

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/lzJeZj1DEPE/Pakistan-s-top-court-squashes-rumors-orders-elections-as-planned

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Providing the Right Information for Call Centre Workers

Managing a call centre is about getting results, and the people on the front line making the calls need the right information if those results are to be achieved.

This information includes:

• Sales training
• Performance feedback
• Product knowledge
• Motivational training
• Hands-on training.

Sales training

Cold calling requires a thick skin, determination, patience, a personable nature and plenty of confidence in your own ability. It also requires training and call centre operatives should receive induction training that covers the basics of the system they will be using, as well as comprehensive and ongoing sales training.

Feedback

Performance feedback is an invaluable learning tool. Call centres today have sophisticated contact management software at their disposal that lets them analyse a recorded phone conversation and determine weaknesses in an operative?s performance.

An example of this is phonetic search software that allows you to search for particular words and phrases in a conversation, which may indicate problems in the operative?s call style or approach. Playing the operative examples of successful calls is also the kind of information they need to improve.

Product knowledge

Call centre operatives need to know what they are talking about. They must be provided with detailed information about what they are trying to sell, in order to be able to convince a customer of its merits. This knowledge can be imparted through training sessions, product manuals and ? more often now, thanks to the sophistication of modern call centre software ? access to instant information they can call up on their screens.

Motivational training

Cold calling is all about percentages. While a majority of callers may say ?no?, it is the small percentage that says ?yes? that matters. Because operatives face rejection and even hostility on a daily basis, keeping them motivated is a very important part of managing a call centre team.

Teamwork and mutual support are the keys to maintaining morale and they need to become a part of your company culture. Encouraging operatives to focus on the goals and rewards and how they can achieve them will help to keep negativity at bay and staff retention rates high.

Hands-on training

Rather than being forced to sit through lectures, operatives should be given training ?in the field,? as the best way to learn something is always to do it yourself. Practical training could include role-playing, where particular scenarios are played out and the operatives? performances are discussed and analysed by the group.

Another practical training method is to allow them to listen in on your best operatives at work and have those operatives share their methods for success. A new operative with a role model or mentor to look up to and learn from will also do far better than one who is dropped in at the deep end and left to sink or swim.

Information is knowledge and knowledge is power. The best way to empower your call centre workforce is not to overload them with information, but to give them the right information that they can use to improve and ultimately deliver the results you need.

Source: http://www.telegate.com.au/blog/index.php/providing-information-call-centre-workers/

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Facebook Beats, But Slowing Mobile Gains Hit Stock

Facebook (FB) earnings rose for the first time since its IPO, but shares retreated late Wednesday as mobile user and ad growth slowed.

The social networking giant's adjusted fourth-quarter profit rose 13% to 17 cents a share. Analysts had expected a third straight quarter of flat earnings.

Revenue for Menlo Park, Calif.-based Facebook climbed 40% to $1.59 billion, edging views. Sales had grown 32% in each of the prior two quarters.

"We aren't operating to maximize our profits this year," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told analysts on Wednesday. "We're doing what we think is best...?View?Enlarged?Image

"There were a lot of expectations, and they confirmed that it's a great quarter with a little bit of upside," said Wedge Partners analyst Martin Pyykkonen. "But it wasn't a crushing number."

Most on Wall Street were eying mobile advertising figures, as Facebook continues to refine its targeted ads for users on cellphones and tablets.

'Mobile First' Isn't Enough

Mobile revenue accounted for 23% of all ad sales at Facebook vs. 14% in Q3. But some views had been for at least 30%, or a less-specific "significant increase," as RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Mahaney expected.

"But we're really early in the mobile space and they have a good service, good sponsored stories and traction," said Pyykkonen. "It won't be a success overnight, so I'm happy with 23%."

Shares initially fell 10% after hours, but pared their late trading loss to about 4%. The stock rose 1.5% in the regular session.

Mobile monthly users grew 57% vs. a year earlier, a slowdown from Q3's 67% gain.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg told analysts on the post-earnings con ference call that Facebook is now a "mobile first" business and it will build new apps in 2013.

"We aren't operating to maximize our profits this year," he said. "We're doing what we think is best to grow our platform."

Analysts Still Bullish

Still, Zuckerberg said Facebook is building new multimedia mobile advertisements to add to the text-based ads it started posting in users' mobile "News Feed" in Q2 2012.

It's still "very early" for predictions on how much it will grow in the coming quarters, wrote JPMorgan analyst Doug Anmuth. But it does look like it's doing well so far, wrote Anmuth.

"We continue to believe that Facebook's ad platform is more differentiated in mobile than desktop," wrote Anmuth, who rates Facebook as overweight. "And the company will continue to push high-quality ads toward the mobile news feed."

Mobile revenue could top desktop revenue by 2014, Anmuth says.

Desktop advertising showed a "slight acceleration" in Q4, Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Youssef Squali wrote in a post-earnings note. It grew 41% vs. 36% in Q3.

Total Facebook user growth slowed to 25%, to 1.06 billion. Year-over-year growth had been 26% in Q3 and 29% in Q2.

Facebook's adjusted operating profit margin was 46%, down from 55% a year earlier. That reflects heavier spending as the company takes product development seriously, says Pyykkonen.

Facebook earlier this month rolled out "Graph Search," a social search that analysts view as a challenge to Google (GOOG) Search.

Zuckerberg reiterated Wednesday that Graph Search is "not a Web search." But it could boost Facebook users in 2013, even though it doesn't yet have any monetization, he said.

"Down the line, if we do this well, this could become a meaningful business for us," he said.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/InternetTechnologyRss/~3/7pAdkOJlwIE/facebook-earnings-rise-mobile-growth-slows.htm

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ShoeDazzle Is Bringing Subscriptions Back, This Time At $9.95 A Month For Free Shipping, Discounts, And Other Perks

The next phase of ShoeDazzle's evolution will involve bringing back one of the founding premises of the e-commerce site: subscriptions. But the company's new subscription plan, which will be rolled out in the coming weeks, varies significantly from its old $39.95 a month plan. It's not only cheaper, at $9.95 a month, but it gives users new perks for participating.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/t8CyuvIYJYY/

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Greater transparency needed in publishing information from clinical trials, experts say

Jan. 29, 2013 ? An initiative from the drugs regulator, the European Medicines Agency, to commit to releasing all of the information from clinical trials once the marketing authorization process has ended, which has been greeted with cautious optimism by proponents of access to data but with much less enthusiasm by the pharmaceutical industry, sparks an interesting debate on the role of medical journals in publishing drug data, according to the Editors of PLOS Medicine.

Writing in an Editorial, the Editors state: "As 2013 begins, it is clear that critical times lie ahead for the publishing of clinical trials, which may define the relationship between pharmaceutical companies and the public for many years to come."

The Editors argue: "It is no longer going to be the case, if it ever was, that a trial report published in a journal will be sufficient as the record of a trial -- and if journals are not careful, such reports will become unnecessary as well."

The Editors continue: "So in addition to this being a critical time in the relationship of pharmaceutical companies to society in general, it seems that this is a good time to renegotiate the relationship between pharmaceutical companies and medical journals."

As data become more available for reanalysis, the Editors explain that report of a trial sanctioned by the pharmaceutical company and published in a journal will no longer be considered the definitive report of the trial. Instead, this report will become just one part of the large volume of information available around a trial, to be considered in conjunction with all analyses and data.

Over the course of 2013 as EMA defines the terms of reference for the release of data the importance of journal articles' reports of a trial will change. According to the Editors, "Some journals will find this harder to adjust to than others, especially those whose business model is heavily dependent on reprints of pharmaceutical companies' versions of trial reports."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Public Library of Science.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. The PLOS Medicine Editors. Getting More Generous with the Truth: Clinical Trial Reporting in 2013 and Beyond. PLOS Medicine, January 29, 2013 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1001379

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/PPSWFR34ors/130129190249.htm

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A safer way to vaccinate

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Vaccines usually consist of inactivated viruses that prompt the immune system to remember the invader and launch a strong defense if it later encounters the real thing. However, this approach can be too risky with certain viruses, including HIV.

In recent years, many scientists have been exploring DNA as a potential alternative vaccine. About 20 years ago, DNA coding for viral proteins was found to induce strong immune responses in rodents, but so far, tests in humans have failed to duplicate that success.

In a paper appearing in the Jan. 27 online issue of Nature Materials, MIT researchers describe a new type of vaccine-delivery film that holds promise for improving the effectiveness of DNA vaccines. If such vaccines could be successfully delivered to humans, they could overcome not only the safety risks of using viruses to vaccinate against diseases such as HIV, but they would also be more stable, making it possible to ship and store them at room temperature.

This type of vaccine delivery would also eliminate the need to inject vaccines by syringe, says Darrell Irvine, an MIT professor of biological engineering and materials science and engineering. "You just apply the patch for a few minutes, take it off and it leaves behind these thin polymer films embedded in the skin," he says.

Irvine and Paula Hammond, the David H. Koch Professor in Engineering, are the senior authors of the Nature Materials paper. Both are members of MIT's David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. The lead author of the paper is Peter DeMuth, a graduate student in biological engineering.

Gradual vaccine delivery

Scientists have had some recent success delivering DNA vaccines to human patients using a technique called electroporation. This method requires first injecting the DNA under the skin, then using electrodes to create an electric field that opens small pores in the membranes of cells in the skin, allowing DNA to get inside. However, the process can be painful and give varying results, Irvine says.

"It's showing some promise but it's certainly not ideal and it's not something you could imagine in a global prophylactic vaccine setting, especially in resource-poor countries," he says.

Irvine and Hammond took a different approach to delivering DNA to the skin, creating a patch made of many layers of polymers embedded with the DNA vaccine. These polymer films are implanted under the skin using microneedles that penetrate about half a millimeter into the skin ? deep enough to deliver the DNA to immune cells in the epidermis, but not deep enough to cause pain in the nerve endings of the dermis.

Once under the skin, the films degrade as they come in contact with water, releasing the vaccine over days or weeks. As the film breaks apart, the DNA strands become tangled up with pieces of the polymer, which protect the DNA and help it get inside cells.

The researchers can control how much DNA gets delivered by tuning the number of polymer layers. They can also control the rate of delivery by altering how hydrophobic (water-fearing) the film is. DNA injected on its own is usually broken down very quickly, before the immune system can generate a memory response. When the DNA is released over time, the immune system has more time to interact with it, boosting the vaccine's effectiveness.

The polymer film also includes an adjuvant ? a molecule that helps to boost the immune response. In this case, the adjuvant consists of strands of RNA that resemble viral RNA, which provokes inflammation and recruits immune cells to the area.

Eliciting immune responses

In tests with mice, the researchers found that the immune response induced by the DNA-delivering film was as good as or better than that achieved with electroporation.

To test whether the vaccine might provoke a response in primates, the researchers applied a polymer film carrying DNA that codes for proteins from the simian form of HIV to macaque skin samples cultured in the lab. In skin treated with the film, DNA was easily detectable, while DNA injected alone was quickly broken down.

"The hope is that that's an indication that this will translate to large animals and hopefully humans," Irvine says.

The researchers now plan to perform further tests in non-human primates before undertaking possible tests in humans. If successful, the vaccine-delivering patch could potentially be used to deliver vaccines for many different diseases, because the DNA sequence can be easily swapped out depending on the disease being targeted.

"If you're making a protein vaccine, every protein has its little quirks, and there are manufacturing issues that have to be solved to scale it up to humans. If you had a DNA platform, the DNA is going to behave the same no matter what antigen it's encoding," Irvine says.

###

Massachusetts Institute of Technology: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice

Thanks to Massachusetts Institute of Technology for this article.

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

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/126497/A_safer_way_to_vaccinate

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Entourage Movie Officially in the Works

Entourage ended its HBO run in 2011 and like Sex and the City, the next logical step is to make the jump to the big screen. It took nearly two years, but the movie is finally going to happen. Deadline reports that Warner Bros has give the movie the green light.

Series creator Doug Ellin will direct from a script he wrote. The cast members from the series are in the process of being gathered for the movie, so expect Adrian Grenier, Kevin Connolly, Kevin Dillon, Jeremy Piven, et al to return to reprise their roles.

According to Ellin, the movie will take place six months after the events in the series' finale.

Mark Wahlberg, one of the show's executive producer, revealed late last year that Ellin had completed the script and hoped to shoot the movie this spring. He may be right about the schedule even though no start date has been announced.

"It's going to get back to the basics, kind of like the beginning of the series. We had very strong female characters, but we want the guys to get back to just being guys. I think they were all weighed down by these strong women towards the end of the series, so we are going to get them going crazy. Everyone wants to see them get nuts again," Wahlberg said.

If the movie is anything like the TV series, expect lots of celebrity cameos and, hopefully, it won't turned into anything like Movie 43.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1926755/news/1926755/

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Private firms reportedly near deal for Hostess Twinkies

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Private equity firms Apollo Global Management LLC and C. Dean Metropoulos & Co are near a deal to buy snack cake brands including Hostess Twinkies and Donettes, two sources familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

A deal for roughly $400 million, part of Hostess Brands Inc's bankruptcy process, could be announced as soon as Tuesday, said one of the sources, who declined to be identified as the discussions are not public.

The so-called stalking horse bid by the private equity firms would serve as the baseline offer for the business, which also includes Dolly Madison bread and Hostess cupcakes. It could still be topped by others at an auction.

Dean Metropoulos, No. 360 on the Forbes 400 list of America's wealthiest people, is a packaged foods veteran who was once the joint owner of brands such as Duncan Hines baking mixes, Vlasic pickles and Swanson frozen dinners. In 2010, his firm bought Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, the no-frills brew popular with young East Coast hipsters.

His son Daren, a principal at the firm, confirmed earlier this month that they were working on a bid. Neither Daren, nor a spokesman for Apollo were immediately available to comment on Tuesday. Hostess declined to comment.

Apollo, founded by banker Leon Black, has invested in consumer companies before, including in CKE Restaurants and Claire's Stores Inc.

Hostess was granted permission by a U.S. bankruptcy court judge in November to wind down its business and liquidate its assets after a strike by a baker's union crippled the 82-year-old company's operations.

The sale of assets, which range from Twinkies and Wonder bread to real estate and baking equipment, is being run by Perella Weinberg Partners. The lead banker on the sale, Joshua Scherer, has said there was great interest from many parties in the assets.

Earlier this month, Hostess chose a $390 million offer by Flowers Foods , maker of Tastykake products, as the stalking horse bid for several brands including Wonder bread.

On Monday, Hostess said it chose McKee Foods Corp, maker of Little Debbie snack cakes, as the initial bidder for its Drake's cakes, which include Ring Dings, Yodels and Devil Dogs. It also chose United States Bakery as the lead bidder for four of its smaller bread brands plus bakeries, equipment and depots.

Hostess also filed a motion on Monday to stop paying retiree benefits to its former employees, saying that its lenders only agreed to fund the benefits through February 2013 due to a delay in the appointment of a retiree committee.

(Reporting By Martinne Geller in New York; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Bernard Orr)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/apollo-metropoulos-near-deal-hostess-twinkies-source-170059961--sector.html

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Home Improvement Tips That Can Work For Everybody

Fitted furniture is a terrible investment, unless you are entirely certain that you won?t be selling the home at any time in the future. While it is stylish and adds storage space, it costs a lot and you can?t take it along if you move.

TIP! Putting in another bathroom will add a great deal of value to your home. It is easy to understand that an additional bathroom is handy, particularly when each bathroom is on a different floor of the home.

If you enjoy doing things on your own, you may want to explore the world of home improvement. The following article shares tips for any do-it-yourselfer when it comes to home improvement.

In terms of renovating your roof, use white tiles or other similarly-hued materials. Light colors tend to reflect the rays of the sun while darker colors will absorb the heat and cause higher energy usage. This can save you quite a bit on your power bill.

If you live near woods or fields, you might want to protect your property with a good fence. The fences will prevent wild animals from entering your property.

When planting trees and shrubs, do not plant them too close to your house. Leaks and cracks can be caused if roots dig through the foundation of your home. If they are too close, move them away. Most trees can be transplanted to somewhere else in the yard without much effort.

A signed contract for your home improvement project should ideally include both your signature and that of the contractor. If you have the time and the funds available, have the contract legally reviewed. The contract should include warranty information, work to be completed, total costs and when the work will be finished.

TIP! Use wallpaper if you don?t like the way paneling looks. Wallpapering your home is a very simple and inexpensive way to add a new look to any room.

Add a ceiling fan to your home. A ceiling fan can be installed quickly and inexpensively. Keep your room cool with out air-conditioning and cool it more efficiently when the air-conditioning is on with a ceiling fan and save yourself some money.

Switch to a floor lamp to free up space on your nightstand or end table. The floor lamps can be moved to different areas of the room because they are free standing. Find a lamp that has a design that fits your personality.

TIP! You can make your home more appealing by painting your garage door. The harsh heat of summer and the icy cold of winter both take a toll on the look of any garage door.

A new mailbox can help add instant curb appeal to your home. You will notice that your mailbox makes your house look more up-to-date, which gives it curb appeal. Follow all city regulations when installing the new mailbox. You could finish this project in a few hours at most.

Invest in a snake for your drains. It will not be necessary for you to purchase drain cleaners so frequently in the future. Drain snakes aren?t for people who are inexperienced, so you might need a plumber to show you how it is used for the first time. Make sure the snake is the correct size, or you may damage your pipes when you use it.

TIP! Use aluminum foil to cover electrical outlets prior to painting. It is much easier to use foil, rather than tape, and it protects your covers from the mess.

Taping the trim is essential during painting projects. Paint can drip and run, no matter how carefully you paint. Tape the trim to keep the paint off. Once the paint reaches the trim, you?ll have to paint over it.

Balance the blades on your ceiling fan. Strive to improve the amount of noise in your home. A ceiling fan can use balance help when it is noisy and wobbling. Tightening all the screws on the fan?s moving parts, such as those connecting the blades with the arms and the arms to the motor housing, can curtail annoying noises and correct wobbles. Give your fan blades a thorough cleaning while you adjust the fan?s balance.

TIP! Don?t make improvements that are impractical. For instance, having an uncovered deck in Arizona or a sun room that has no ventilation in Michigan would be nonsensical renovations that will have potential buyers questioning your house upkeep decisions.

When improving your house, take the neighborhood?s character into consideration. If your home is the only Victorian in an neighborhood of saltbox cottages, it will look out of place. A remodel that will blend to the houses in the neighborhood will have a better chance to sell when it is time to move on.

It is amazing what a difference crown molding can make on your walls! Crown molding introduces a little visual interest to an otherwise plain wall and can significantly improve the appearance of a whole room. Not only is crown molding affordable, but it?s also easy to put in.

TIP! Employ colors that are analogus in places you rest. Analogous means the colors are harmonious on the color wheel, one next to the other, like violet to blue and red to orange.

Any payment schedule that you set up with a home improvement contractor should be based on work completion rather than certain time periods. This gives you the power to remove the contractor from the project if the work is not up to par to what you want without them requesting money due to incomplete projects.

Always be safe. For example, hardhats protect you in the event of an accident. This can ensure your safety and health while you work.

TIP! When you imagine your completed outdoor home improvement project, ask yourself if the changes you?re making will look out of place in the neighborhood. If it will stand out from the rest, are you willing to irritate your neighbors by following through? Aesthetically pleasing changes are more desirable than abnormal ones.

A room can receive a great face-lift simply from a coat of paint. Take a look at the different paint chips at your local home improvement store. There are thousands of beautiful, exciting and elegant colors to choose from. If you do not enjoy your new paint, redo it!

Implement a safety strategy by discussing escape routes with your family. If you have a fire or earthquake, your natural inclination is going to be to panic. Determining a safe path to exit the home can help ensure that everyone remains safe. These simple improvements can increase your homes value, as well as help protect your family.

TIP! Motion detectors should be installed near the entrance to your home. This lowers your electricity costs by automatically switching off the outdoor lights when no one needs them.

One fantastic way to improve the function and value of your house is to install a filter system for your tap water. This is actually a simple improvement you can in a few hours. Units can be placed under the sink to filter the water.

To maintain hot water while traveling through pipes during the winter, you should insulate all plumbing. To insulate your plumbing, pick up some weatherizing tape and use it on your pipes. The tape plugs into your home?s electrical supply and keep the pipes above the freezing point.

TIP! Try to prepare and plan for your home improvement project. If you are painting rooms in your home, you should always cover the furniture before you begin painting.

If your living room is carpeted, do not leave the drapes open at all times. Your carpets can become bleached by being exposed to too much sunlight, and your hardwood floors can fade. Using furniture to block the sun?s damaging rays or only opening the drapes when the sun?s light is less intense can help to preserve your carpet.

You can use old shoe boxes to add additional storage space. Use any wallpaper you have left, or any fabric, to cover the boxes with. This can be a great way to add some drama to your rooms, as well as a nice storage solution.

TIP! Confirm that a contractor is insured by calling their insurance company before using their services. It?s not uncommon for some contracting companies to flash outdated insurance paperwork at customers in the hopes that customers won?t notice the company is no longer insured.

A fence installed around your back yard, or even a section of your yard can serve several purposes. This will prevent your loved ones from getting into contact with stray or wild animals. It can also help contain your own dog. There are many fencing designs that can help improve your home.

You can increase your home?s value by putting in a reliable water filtration system. That is a simple project which can be completed in just a few hours. One especially good choice is a system that can be positioned under your sink in the kitchen to filter all your water.

Your real estate agent can give you great advice as to what home improvement projects to take on, if you want to add value to your home. They know what people are looking for and what helps sell a house.

Be sure to add personal touches, but don?t go so far as to make your place ?that? house. For example, it is undesirable to have odd additions such as a widow?s walk on your home unless this is typical of your neighborhood. Having the home look too unusual will make it much more difficult to sell.

If you plan on doing more than one project, think carefully about their order. Start with your cabinets if you?re redoing your floor and cabinets. Starting with the cabinets will ensure that you?re not damaging an already replaced floor with falling debris. Make a detailed plan prior to beginning any improvement, and you?ll save yourself some headaches.

Are you tired of your bedroom furniture? Try sanding and refinishing your bedroom set. You can save a lot of money by refinishing the furniture you already have. The new stain can be just about any color you want.

Taking the tips and advice you have learned here, you will be able to work more efficiently at creating the home you?ve always dreamed of. Before long, you will be completing projects faster than ever before and attempting more difficult tasks that are sure to make your home more functional, beautiful, and more organized.

Posts related to Home Improvement Tips That Can Work For Everybody

Source: http://www.home-improvement-plans.com/home-improvement-tips-that-can-work-for-everybody/

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Why Your Boss Might Be the Only Thing Between You and the Flu

All over the media, we hear public health experts explain ways to limit the flu outbreak. Get a flu shot, they advise, wash your hands?and if you get the flu, stay home until 24 hours after your fever?s gone. ?

It makes sense. During the H1N1 flu, more than seven million people caught the bug from coworkers who came to the job sick.

The Most Vulnerable Pay a High Price for Flu Infection?

But the recommendation to take a sick day is more complicated for 44 million people in this country who don?t earn any of these days. In fact, for many, including workers like my friend Denise, a cashier in Milwaukee, it?s a choice between a health crisis and a financial crisis. ?Since I?d been sick twice this year?one day each time?I was told I?d be suspended for three days if I stayed home,? Denise said. ?That amounted to about $240 before taxes. So even though I had the flu, it was go in or [stay home and] not make the rent. I sat as a cashier all day touching customers? groceries. People kept asking me why I was working. All I could say was that my boss made me.?

Some management consultants acknowledge that sick workers may spread the flu to coworkers out of fear that they?ll be fired if they stay home to recover. ?The economy is still on shaky ground and many workers continue to be worried about losing their jobs,??said John A. Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., an outplacement consulting firm. ?Of course, this has significant negative consequences for the workplace.?

Post Your Symptoms at Flu Near You

The fear is real.?University of Chicago researchers?found nearly one in four workers reported that he/she or a family member had been fired, suspended, punished, or threatened with being fired for taking time off due to personal illness or to care for a sick child or other relative. And job loss isn?t the only fear. In this economy, who can afford to lose even one day?s pay? Ask the people who serve our food, clean our offices, and care for our young or elderly. They?re among those?half the workforce and three quarters of low-wage workers?who lack paid sick days.

As a Miami cook put it, ?Every penny goes somewhere. I have no choice but to suck it up if I?m sick.?

More than one-third of flu cases are transmitted in schools and workplaces. Those same Chicago researchers asked respondents, ?Have you ever had to go to work when you were sick with a contagious illness like the flu?? Nearly 70 percent of those lacking paid sick days answered, ?Yes.?

Flu Is Packing a Punch Across the Nation

Studies show that when sick workers stay home, the number of people affected by pandemic flu can be reduced by 15 to 34 percent, according to Jonathan Heller, director of Human Impact Partners.

Public school teachers and nurses will tell you how often children come to school sick, or can?t get picked up if they fall ill during class because their parents have no paid sick time. They?ll describe the heartbreak of having a child say, ?Please don?t call my mom. She?ll get in trouble if you do.? They?ll give you examples of kids?sometimes as young as eight years old?who miss school to care for a younger sibling.

To avoid the spread of germs, we have to ensure that no one will lose income or a job for staying home sick.?

How to Avoid the Flu: 8 Easy Ways Not to Get Sick

Corporate lobbyists want to rig the system so it works only for them. But from coast to coast, working people have created large and diverse coalitions ?restaurant workers and restaurant owners, those who fight asthma and those who fight poverty, faith leaders and advocates for marriage equality and many more?who know that together we can change the rules so they work for everyone.

And from coast to coast we?re winning. In 2006, San Francisco established a paid sick leave policy that now gets?favorable reviews?from most employers. In 2007, Washington, D.C. followed suit. Milwaukee voted overwhelmingly for paid sick days in 2008 (Scott Walker and crew later axed it). In 2011, Connecticut became the first state to pass paid sick days, as did the city of Seattle; Philadelphia extended it to workers covered by the municipal living wage ordinance. Soon Philly?s City Council will vote again to cover everyone. Across the country, Portland?s City Council is moving a sick days bill right now. New York City and several states, including Massachusetts, Maryland, Vermont, and Washington, are all considering bills as well.

You can make a difference by telling elected officials what this policy means to you:

Take part for your kids:?Make sure your child doesn?t have to sit next to a classmate with the flu whose mom or dad couldn?t risk staying home.

Take part for yourself: Even if you have paid sick days, you don?t want to be served flu with your fries.?

In an economy where more and more families are living paycheck-to-paycheck, we need paid sick days to make sure that a public health crisis doesn?t become an economic crisis.?

Have you had to go to work when you were ill because you had no paid sick leave? Did you fear losing your job? Do you know someone who's had to work when sick??

?

Related Stories on TakePart:

? Would You Get a Flu Shot Made from Insects?

? Researchers Are Closing In On a Method to Predict Flu Outbreaks

? Flu Vaccines in Grade Schools Significantly Curb Illness

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Ellen Bravo is the executive director of the?Family Values @ Work Consortium.

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Watch Family Values at Work's video about the Participant Media film "Contagion."

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These are solely the author's opinions and do not represent those of TakePart, LLC or its affiliates.

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/why-boss-might-only-thing-between-flu-195622971.html

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Being The Best You Possible With Self Improvement - ProjectPB ...

Stepping on the path toward personal development will make you feel great and confident about your life. To achieve your goals, you must draw on different sources of inspiration and motivation. You will find many great tips that will help you out.

A great self help tip to deal with anxiety is to accompany a friend to the movies. This is a good way to push yourself out of your comfort zone. You can be social with your friend before and after the movie and will have to be around strangers, but you won?t have to be overly social and can recharge during the movie. Eventually, it will be second nature to be around a large amount of people.

Create a fund specifically for emergencies. Many people think that a credit card counts as an emergency fund. Putting back a few dollars weekly can build an emergency fund quickly. This fund can be crucial in both your immediate and distant future as you work toward decreasing debt, rather than accumulating it.

TIP! Always have the attitude that you are worth it when working on your personal development plan. Always remember that you owe yourself your best effort.

Instead of talking about your accomplishments, ask some other people about some of the things they have accomplished and what they are most proud of. You can learn a lot about others from this, and have an opportunity to learn about things other people have done that warrant respect and admiration.

Focus on changing just one thing about yourself at any given time. You may wish to improve several different things about yourself, but you are more likely to succeed if you stick to one self-improvement project at a time. By slowly introducing things one at a time, it is much easier to stick with these personality changes in the long-term.

Ease your worries. Worrying is creating a situation in your head that has not happened, and in most cases, will not happen. Put your worries aside by imagining the very worst thing that could happen and developing a plan on how to deal with that situation, should it occur. Doing so will allow you to feel ready for what may come.

TIP! Are you having trouble finding a mate? Perhaps you should try the Internet. These days, 40 percent of couples meet via the Internet.

A necessary component of self improvement is an understanding of your life?s ambition. You need to set some goals for the long haul; they can put things into perspective.

If you want to enhance your approach to self improvement, learn to be humble. As you acknowledge that you are small and insignificant in this universe, the more that you realize your lack of knowledge. A humble attitude puts you in the right mindset to learn new things and develop as a human being.

If you are not able to deal with your own life, you cannot help the ones around you. Whether you?re just starting your personal development plan or are well down the road and regardless of whether you?re succeeding or failing, you have to set aside time for yourself to rest, relax, and regroup.

TIP! If you want to improve, write your goals down. For example, if you wish to become more confident in your life, write that down.

Always try do do the best you can at whatever you do. Your drive should lead the way on the path to success. Do not worry if you are not the best at what you do: the important part is to enjoy it and inspire others. Try to boost your worth in your field of work, and enjoy the benefits your self-esteem will get from it.

Your mental health can be directly influenced by the physical heath of your body. Develop a regular fitness routine and follow a nutritious, satisfying diet plan. If you want a healthy mind, make sure it resides in a healthy body.

Always retain your sense of humility. In the cosmic overview, humans are just a small blip. No single individual is omniscient, yet each individual possesses some grain of unique and valuable knowledge. Remember this and stay open for new chances to learn. Keep an open mind and you will always find new things others can teach you.

TIP! Ego and self esteem can suffer as a result of failure when one is striving to make strides in the area of personal development. Failure is just a learning experience incognito.

Try to live your life with your faith and love reflected in your actions. They stem from one another; you must have love to have faith. Thus, it is important to always act on your faith and show your love. Do good deeds for those who need it, and make your faith actually mean something by loving yourself and your peers.

Finding ways to live a healthier life will also help you in your self improvement endeavors. People feel better physically and mentally when in the best shape. When you radiate health you are feeling strong and mentally alert. You will spend less time on health issues and more time enjoying your life. Make better choices, dedicate yourself to it.

None of us can say that we haven?t made mistakes from time to time. One of the biggest mistakes that we often choose to ignore is our choice in foods. Admit your poor choices, and move on with your life.

TIP! If you experience anxiety in social situations, ask a friend to join you at the movie theater. This allows you to be in a social setting without the added pressure of talking to a lot of people.

Focus on making your time spent working as productive as possible. The best way to do that is to take breaks more often. This might seem counterproductive, but having constant breaks will help you recharge and unwind, so that you will get a lot more things done when you go back to working.

Even if you use just one of the preceding tips, you will definitely see improvement in your life. Sometimes you will need to be working hard, but you can do this knowing you have been given some great advice that will help you along.

Whatever you might think you need in life, remember that nothing takes place without action. Choose to take real action, everyday, towards your goals and dreams, instead of just watching others from the sidelines. Being alive means learning, exploring, and forever enhancing your own personal development.

TIP! Learn to recognize which obstacles are keeping you away from your goals. Most people don?t know where to start.

Try to stay as comprehensive as possible when learning about Self Improvement. This is why it was important to research this article and get all the information you can about Self Improvement. This will help to facilitate the learning process with Self Improvement.

Source: http://www.projectpb.net/blog/index.php/personal_development/being-the-best-you-possible-with-self-improvement-2/

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With The Proper Planning, Weekend Breaks Don't Have To Be Costly

Due to current economic conditions in the United Kingdom and beyond, individuals and families alike frequently look for ways to cut costs without sacrificing their comfort. This is especially true as they search for a good value for money hotel. Maidenhead is located along the banks of the lovely Thames River. There, it's possible to find accommodation that's both suitable for a time away, and kind to the budget.

Find Out What's Nearby

Often, a list of amenities is one of the simplest ways to identify a good value for money hotel. Maidenhead accommodation choices might feature an on-site restaurant or lounge, along with meeting facilities.

When you feel that everything you need is readily accessible, you'll set yourself up for a relaxing stay that's productive, too. Whether you're up for exploring all the areas offerings, or spending a night in your room with a good book, high-quality accommodation makes all the difference when it comes to creating memorable weekend breaks. Maidenhead visitors often find that choosing a centrally located accommodation option helps them stick more closely to their budget and save time, as well.

Steps Away From Scrumptious Food

Although travellers gravitate towards different activities depending on their preferences, it would be practically impossible to find someone who is not eager to indulge in gourmet meals for a good portion of their trip. Tantalizing entres satisfy hunger and also cultivate a renewed appreciation for being in the company of special people.

With that in mind, an accommodation option that includes a restaurant could easily be defined as an excellent value for money hotel. Maidenhead visitors who can access tasty meals without having to leave the premises enjoy a powerful combination of convenience and luxury.

Find Low-Cost Attractions

Whilst planning weekend breaks Maidenhead travellers will find that many attractions in the area are very reasonably priced. Some are even free of charge.

The area is gifted by beautiful views of the river, plus numerous public parks. During pleasant weather, consider packing a picnic lunch and heading out to enjoy the day. This activity isnt expensive, but it's enjoyable all the same.

Clearly there are many factors that go into creating a good value for money hotel. Maidenhead is a popular destination for people who want to have fun as they adhere to a practical budget. Plan a trip there today and see how its possible to book comfortable accommodation, participate in pleasant excursions and feast on mouth-watering cuisine.

Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/With-The-Proper-Planning--Weekend-Breaks-Don-t-Have-To-Be-Costly/4406752

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Why Can't We Use Cell Phones on Airplanes?

What could your iPhone do that would possibly effect the flight? Source: Flickr

Anyone who has flown on an airplane should be familiar with the common pre-flight reminder to turn off cell phones on flight. For many people, this may seem silly or superfluous. What could your iPhone do that would possibly effect the flight? There are those who have left their phones on during flights and, having landed safely, are convinced that this Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) regulation is unnecessary. While neglecting to turn off your cell phone will not bring down the plane, there is a reason that flight crews require you to leave mobile phones off during our flights that goes beyond inconveniencing you.

Every electronic device emits radio waves, either by design or unintentionally. The waves emitted by electronic devices span most of the radio spectrum. The electronic systems used for navigation and communication on modern airplanes are known as avionics. Avionics rely heavily on radio waves, similar to those emitted from personal electronic devices, to connect to GPS satellites and to communicate with people on the ground Theoretically, an electronic device, or a group of electronic devices, might be emit radio waves powerful enough to interfere with those associated with the plane?s avionics.

This raises a couple of questions: Why must passengers keep their phones off at all times while other devices can be used after take-off and landing? Is it possible for electronic devices, like pacemakers or hearing aids, to cause problems as well? As it turns out, the strength of the waves emitted from various devices is the most important factor in determining what can be used on an aircraft. Cellular phones emit relatively strong radio waves in order to reach cell towers and connect with other phones. On the other hand, a device like an MP3 player is not designed to send out radio waves and emissions are comparably much smaller. As for medical devices, thorough FAA testing has proven that pacemakers and hearing aids are safe for air travel.

Neither the FAA nor the FCC has found conclusive evidence that has directly linked cell phones with an airplane malfunction. However, there has been some anecdotal evidence of phone calls during flights causing fluctuations on a plane?s GPS.?In December 2012, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski endorsed the idea of lifting regulations on cell phone use. However, the FAA is not currently considering that option.

The only way to conclusively see which devices have an effect on the avionics, if any, would be to test each device individually. Due to the massive amount of cellular phones in the market and the rate at which new devices are introduced, it is not feasible to carry out these tests.

There is legitimate concern regarding whether or not cell phone signals can affect the avionics on commercial airplanes. There is a distinct possibility that you may not have to deal with this inconvenience in the future, but for now, make sure to power down your cell phone whenever you are flying.

Source: http://dujs.dartmouth.edu/news/why-cant-we-use-cell-phones-on-airplanes

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January 29 Pets: Thumper and Elvira | KTLA 5

?Thumper? ID#A048052 is a 7 month old bunny and ?Elvira? ID#A048222 is about 1 years old. Both are available for adoption at the Burbank Animal Shelter.

For rabbit care tips, go to House Rabbit Society .

Burbank Animal Shelter
1150 N Victory Pl
Burbank, CA 91502
(818)238-3340
www.thevbas.org

Source: http://ktla.com/2013/01/29/january-29-pets-thumper-and-elvira/

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Commercial property investor puts Dallas buildings up for sale | Biz ...

Caddo Holdings bought Lakewood Towers in 2010. (HFF LP)

A Dallas commercial real estate investor has put its five local office properties up for sale.

But officials with Caddo Holdings say they plan to buy other buildings in the state.

Caddo Holdings has hired HFF LP to sell the buildings in Dallas? Uptown and Lakewood districts.

The three Uptown buildings were purchased in late 2011 and are the 7-story Crosstex Energy building at 2501 Cedar Springs, the five-story 3400 Carlisle building on Lemmon Avenue and the three-story 2811 McKinney building near the Quadrangle.

Caddo is also trying to sell its 2-building Lakewood Towers office complex on Gaston Avenue in East Dallas. It acquired the Lakewood property in 2010.

Lakewood Towers is 85.5 percent leased and the Uptown buildings are between 83 and 100 percent rented.

Caddo Holdings bought the Crosstex building in 2011. (HFF LP)

?We executed on our plans on those assets ahead of schedule so decided to have HFF take them to market,? Caddo Holdings Dustin Schilling said. ?We have aggressive acquisition plans for Texas and are acquiring additional buildings.?

Caddo Holdings is a private investor formed in 2009 by Schilling and partners Stacey Davis and Tim Slaughter.

This entry was posted in Real estate and tagged Caddo Holdings, HFF LP by Steve Brown. Bookmark the permalink.

Source: http://bizbeatblog.dallasnews.com/2013/01/commercial-property-investor-puts-dallas-buildings-up-for-sale.html/

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In Asia's trend-setting cities, iPhone fatigue sets in

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Apple Inc's iconic iPhone is losing some of its luster among Asia's well-heeled consumers in Singapore and Hong Kong, a victim of changing mobile habits and its own runaway success.

Driven by a combination of iPhone fatigue, a desire to be different and a plethora of competing devices, users are turning to other brands, notably those from Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, eating into Apple's market share.

In Singapore, Apple's products were so dominant in 2010 that more devices here ran its iOS operating system per capita than anywhere else in the world.

But StatCounter http://gs.statcounter.com, which measures traffic collected across a network of 3 million websites, calculates that Apple's share of mobile devices in Singapore - iPad and iPhone - declined sharply last year. From a peak of 72 percent in January 2012, its share fell to 50 percent this month, while Android devices now account for 43 percent of the market, up from 20 percent in the same month last year.

In Hong Kong, devices running Apple's iOS now account for about 30 percent of the total, down from about 45 percent a year ago. Android accounts for nearly two-thirds.

"Apple is still viewed as a prestigious brand, but there are just so many other cool smartphones out there now that the competition is just much stiffer," said Tom Clayton, chief executive of Singapore-based Bubble Motion http://www.bubblemotion.com, which develops a popular regional social media app called Bubbly.

Where Hong Kong and Singapore lead, other key markets across fast-growing Asia usually follow.

"Singapore and Hong Kong tend to be, from an electronics perspective, leading indicators on what is going to be hot in Western Europe and North America, as well as what is going to take off in the region," said Jim Wagstaff, who runs a Singapore-based company called Jam Factory http://www.jamfactoryonline.com developing mobile apps for enterprises.

Southeast Asia is adopting smartphones fast - consumers spent 78 percent more on smartphones in the 12 months up to September 2012 than they did the year before, according to research company GfK http://www.gfkrt.com.

IN WITH THE YOUNG CROWD

Anecdotal evidence of iPhone fatigue isn't hard to find: Where a year ago iPhones swamped other devices on the subways of Hong Kong and Singapore they are now outnumbered by Samsung and HTC Corp smartphones.

While this is partly explained by the proliferation of Android devices, from the cheap to the fancy, there are other signs that Apple has lost followers.

Singapore entrepreneur Aileen Sim, recently launched an app for splitting bills called BillPin http://www.billpin.com, settling on an iOS version because that was the dominant platform in the three countries she was targeting - Singapore, India and the United States.

"But what surprised us was how strong the call for Android was when we launched our app," she said.

Indeed, 70 percent of their target users - 20-something college students and fresh graduates - said they were either already on Android or planned to switch over.

"Android is becoming really hard to ignore, around the region and in the U.S. for sure, but surprisingly even in Singapore," she said. "Even my younger early-20s cousins are mostly on Android now."

BillPin launched an Android version this month.

Napoleon Biggs, chief strategy officer at Gravitas Group http://www.gravitas.com.hk, a Hong Kong-based mobile marketing company, said that while Apple and the iPhone remained premium brands there, Samsung's promotional efforts were playing to an increasingly receptive audience.

For some, it is a matter of wanting to stand out from the iPhone-carrying crowd. Others find the higher-powered, bigger-screened Android devices better suited to their changing habits - watching video, writing Chinese characters - while the cost of switching devices is lower than they expected, given that most popular social and gaming apps are available for both platforms.

"Hong Kong is a very fickle place," Biggs said.

Janet Chan, a 25-year-old Hong Kong advertising executive, has an iPhone 5 but its fast-draining battery and the appeal of a bigger screen for watching movies is prodding her to switch to a Samsung Galaxy Note II.

"After Steve Jobs died, it seems the element of surprise in product launches isn't that great anymore," she said.

To be sure, there are still plenty of people buying Apple devices. Stores selling their products in places such as Indonesia were full over the Christmas holidays, and the company's new official store in Hong Kong's Causeway Bay has queues snaking out of the door most days.

But the iPhone's drop in popularity in trendy Hong Kong and Singapore is mirrored in the upmarket malls of the region.

"IPhones are like Louis Vuitton handbags," said marketing manager Narisara Konglua in Bangkok, who uses a Galaxy SIII. "It's become so commonplace to see people with iPads and iPhones so you lose your cool edge having one."

In the Indonesian capital Jakarta, an assistant manager at Coca Cola's local venture, Gatot Hadipratomo, agrees. The iPhone "used to be a cool gadget but now more and more people use it."

There is another influence at play: hip Korea. Korean pop music, movies and TV are hugely popular around the region and Samsung is riding that wave. And while the impact is more visible in Hong Kong and Singapore, it also translates directly to places like Thailand.

"Thais are not very brand-loyal," says Akkaradert Bumrungmuang, 24, a student at Mahidol University in Bangkok. "That's why whatever is hot or the in-thing to have is adopted quickly here. We follow Korea so whatever is fashionable in Korea will be a big hit."

(Additional reporting by Lee Chyen Yee in Hong Kong; Khettiya Jittapong and Amy Sawitta Lefevre in Bangkok, and Andjarsari Paramaditha in Jakarta; Editing by Emily Kaiser)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/asias-trend-setting-cities-iphone-fatigue-sets-212849658--finance.html

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Abu Dhabi Environmental Film Festival and Talal Abu-Ghazaleh ...

According to the agreement which was signed in the presence of HE Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, Chairman of TAG-Org and Head of the Festival Mr. Mohamed Mounir in addition to Executive Director at TAG-Org Mr. Esmat Fahmi, the Organization shall protect the Festival's Intellectual Property Rights (idea, content and logo) locally and globally for Media Lab, the company which organizes the Festival.

In addition, TAG-Org shall provide legal services regarding all contracts, agreements and protocols of cooperation between the Festival and the various institutions and organizations as well as individuals and the working team.

TAG-Org works on providing professional services in various fields such as accountancy, administrative consultancy, technology transfer, Intellectual Property, information technology and translation. All through the years, Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh succeeded in building partnerships with global organizations such the United Nations and the World Trade Organization and in 2007 the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh as vice chair of the Global Compact during the second meeting held at the UN Headquarters in New York, in addition he participated in various campaigns for environmental protection in Jordan and the world.

HE Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh stated "Abu Dhabi Environmental Film Festival is an event that deserves to be listed on TAG-Org's agenda as it goes with our policy in spreading environmental awareness among the society, and contributes in identifying major environmental issues and challenges facing Earth and at the same time find solutions. Also this event emphasizes the uniqueness of the UAE in creating environmental awareness in a nontraditional way. The world knows that the UAE preceded a lot of countries in the world in the implementation of a number of ambitious projects to transform the arid desert areas into a green paradise under the leadership of the late president Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan before sustainability and environmental protection was as an essential element for any development program worldwide."

He added, "Environmental issues are national responsibility and need collective efforts to solve them, and the cinema can contribute to the solution, and we are pleased to put our expertise in this are to enhance such approaches."

Meanwhile, Mr. Monier expressed his appreciation regarding this cooperation with partners highlighting their trust in handling legal services which will strengthen the role of the Festival as the premier movie destination in the area specialized in the environment and its issues.

From his part, Mr. Fahmi stated, "This agreement supports the goals of the Festival in which movie makers will be able to identify many areas related to Intellectual Property Rights in the field of film industry," noting TAG-Org's keenness to open new horizons and new areas in the industry expressing his pride in this partnership.

It is worth mentioning that the Abu Dhabi Environmental Film Festival is the premier movies event in the region held April 20-25, 2013 and organized by Media Lab and targets audience to spread the importance of preserving the environment to make earth a better place to live. The Festival was able to keep up with all that is modern and new in the areas of education and the preservation of the environment.

Source: http://www.ameinfo.com/abu-dhabi-environmental-film-festival-talal-327275

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A look at RIM's much-delayed BlackBerry 10

Wednesday will be the day Research In Motion Ltd. holds an official launch for its much-delayed BlackBerry 10 smartphones. RIM says that the phones will be released not long after that.

RIM previously announced delays to its upcoming BlackBerry 10 system, which the company considers crucial to its future. The delay means the phones missed the holiday shopping season and come months after the launch of a new iPhone. The delay could make it even harder for RIM to regain market share lost to Apple's iPhone and devices running Google's Android operating software.

Here's a look at developments surrounding the BlackBerry 10 in recent months:

Oct. 18, 2011: RIM unveils a new operating system, combining existing BlackBerry elements with RIM's previously announced QNX operating system for phones and tablet computers.

Dec. 6: RIM says "BlackBerry 10" will be the new name for its next-generation system after the company loses a trademark ruling on its previous name, BBX.

Dec. 15: RIM says new phones running BlackBerry 10 won't be out until late 2012, instead of early 2012 as previously expected. The company says the phones will need a highly integrated chipset that won't be available until mid-2012, so the company can now expect the new phones to ship late in the year.

May 1, 2012: RIM unveils a newly designed smartphone prototype powered by BlackBerry 10. The prototype BlackBerry has a touch screen, but no physical keyboard like most BlackBerry models. No update is given on the new system's launch date.

May 2: Company stresses that while the prototype has no physical keyboard, RIM will continue to make some models with one.

June 21: Company says the first BlackBerry device running BlackBerry 10 will not have a physical keyboard, only a touch-screen one. Ones with hard keyboards will eventually be made, but the company declines to say when.

June 28: RIM says it's delaying the launch of BlackBerry 10 yet again, to the first quarter of next year. CEO Thorsten Heins says RIM's top priority is a successful launch of the new BlackBerrys. He adds, "I will not deliver a product to the market that is not ready to meet the needs of our customers. There will be no compromise on this issue."

July 10: At its annual shareholders meeting, Heins asks disgruntled investors for patience as it develops BlackBerry 10. He says the product's quality is more important than rushing out the software, and he argues that some telecom carriers prefer a 2013 launch because next-generation wireless networks will be more widely operational by then.

Aug. 23: RIM says it has begun showing its new BlackBerry smartphones to wireless carriers around the world, but it remains "months and months" away from starting to sell them. The company says feedback from those carriers has been positive, and it will begin to discuss product launches and other business aspects with the carriers soon.

Sept. 25: Heins promises to restore the BlackBerry phone's stature as a trailblazing device even as many investors fret about its potential demise. Heins speaks at a conference for mobile applications developers to rally support for BlackBerry 10.

Oct. 31: RIM says its BlackBerry 10 smartphones are now being tested by 50 wireless carriers around the world. The company calls it a key step.

Nov. 12: RIM says it will hold an official launch event for BlackBerry 10 smartphones on Jan. 30.

Nov. 13: RIM says the phones will be released "not too long" after the launch event.

Nov. 29: RIM's stock rises after Goldman Sachs upgraded the company's shares, saying there's a "30 percent chance" that BlackBerry 10 smartphones will be a success.

Dec. 13: RIM says the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency will launch a pilot program with its smartphones using BlackBerry 10.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/look-rims-much-delayed-blackberry-222357786.html

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improve-seo-with-social-media - Web.Search.Social. The Marketing ...

The modern face of SEO is no longer about manipulating search engine spiders, stuffing content with as many keywords as possible or threading the web with as many spammed links to your website as you can.

Instead, the optimization environment has changed and things have become much more human focused than they have ever been before; especially in the wake of major Google updates such as Penguin or Panda, both of which focus much more intensely on filtering out low quality content that does not engage human readers.

In this new landscape of SEO, you as a website owner or SEO services provider absolutely need to focus your or your clients? optimization efforts on creating a strong presence with real human fans, and using this to build your ranking in the search engines.

In this same modern landscape, one of the best ways to pull that aim off is by taking full advantage of social networks!

Currently, nearly half of all web traffic is being generated through the lenses of various social networks that have sprung up in just the last several years.

Over one billion people?more than half of all internet users?regularly find their online content through the organic word-of-mouth sharing networks that exist on the world?s top social network systems.

The Real Impact Of Social Networks On SEO

Platforms such as Facebook?which is the largest of all social systems with over 1 billion members, followed by Twitter (more than 250 million users), LinkedIn (170+million users) and numerous other global social networking systems are slowly becoming some of the digital world?s top means of spreading news, promoting things and advertising in a classical sense.

Obviously, with these trends emerging at a dramatic pace all over the world, you need to learn how to take full advantage of them if you really want to fully optimize your website ranking.

The bottom line, as far as social media?s impact on SEO is concerned, is that these immense, powerful and largely organic platforms for content and information distribution have come to have an enormous influence over where web users shift their attention on the net.

Since social networks don?t base the popularity of a given link on algorithmic decision-making systems, the nature of SEO itself has become far more human interest-based instead of depending on software bots.

In its effort to keep up with this trend (and compete with social network-powered content distribution), Google itself, the most dominant of the search engines, has begun to integrate the same organic value metrics into their machine-based ranking scripts, further reinforcing the value of natural popularity and value-building strategies over rules of optimization.

Whether social signals affect your website rank in search results is still debated. There?s a correlation that may or may not be causation, but the end result is clear: Google is moving more and more toward serving up results based on the perceived quality of content. And quality is determined primarily by the way content is linked to and shared across the internet.

Some Social Media Tips For Your Own Site Optimization

Given all the uncontrollable trends, you absolutely need to adapt to the shifting politics of online search rank if you want your own domain to stay out of the dust at the side of the highway.

This means discarding more than a few old practices that revolved around manipulating code and learning how to engage real human readers on a practical, continuous level. Here are some key basic guidelines.

Forget About Search Algorithms, Focus On Value

Focusing too much on algorithms is exactly what got so many site owners in trouble with their web rank in the last couple of years; instead of concentrating on creating lasting content that people want to pay attention to and share, they put too much of their SEO effort into designing link profiles and websites whose main quality was their attractiveness to a bunch of soon-to-evolve search algorithms.

Don?t continue this mistake.

Instead, do what many should have done from the start and create a well-organized website that?s had good research effort put into it so that it can identify genuine human interest niches and deliver the goods for the people searching in those niches.

This should be your most basic and fundamental step; it?s what will make your social media-based efforts much easier to develop successfully because you?ll have something to actually offer in this new content environment.

Join The Social Network Landscape

Having created the kind of content you at least hope is going to make an impact and get people?s attention, you now need to build your own branded space in the social network landscape.

This includes opening accounts in all the major networks and at the very least networks where the majority of your niche fan-base candidates are found. Open your accounts under the brand by which your online domain presence goes and start integrating them with your actual website.

The more visible and widely shared your content, the more natural links you will build without the ?gaming? factor that Google has made extended efforts to penalize.

Thoroughly Integrate Your Site Pages With Social Media

Your site may deliver the goods to real human viewers, but you?ve got to fully embed it with a social sharing infrastructure; you obviously don?t want to have a situation in which people love your work but can?t easily spread the word about it.

Integration of easily visible, fully operational sharing buttons needs to be done for every page of your site and at the very least for every major content page that is share-worthy.

Also, these sharing features should be both up-to-date and as hassle free as possible?viewers and potential fans are quick to note a convenient feature on a site, and likewise to become impatient with one that isn?t.

Keep Promoting And Creating

If there?s one thing that social media and search engines really love and largely depend on, it?s freshness. Take as full advantage of this as you can by constantly growing your social fan base and frequently post interesting new links, tools, apps and any other valuables you think your fans will love or get something useful out of.

Self-promotion to a human audience is absolutely crucial in the new, less black-hat-friendly?digital landscape, so it?s a skill you?ll have to master as much as possible if you want to create a decent list of social followers that will also raise your general SEO rank.

Have you made an effort to integrate social sharing into your website? Have you noticed any effect on traffic and rankings? Let me know your thoughts.

Source: http://www.websearchsocial.com/improve-seo-with-social-media?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=improve-seo-with-social-media

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