Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Unemployed loans-Finance for job seekers | Loan No Job

Unemployed loans-Finance for job seekers

If you are jobless and do not have any source of income to live, this is the unfortunate phase for one. In order to manage your expenses being an unemployed, applying with unemployed loans are the suitable approach for you. These loans are specially devised for people who are facing financial hassle and need an instant financial cure. When you are facing hard fiscal time and you have no money, get applied with this loan for powerful loan assistance.

Unemployed loans can be available in both secured as well as unsecured form. If you are affordable to pledge collateral and looking for huge loan money, here is secured form for you. On the contrary, unsecured form is highly suitable for tenants and students as they would not be capable of arranging any valuable asset. The loan money that you can borrow with unsecured form can be ranges from ?1000 to ?25000 with easy and flexible repayment period of 1 to 10 years. Expenses can simply be met out utilizing the loan amount such as unexpected hospital bills, home renovation, higher education fee, huge electricity bills and so on.

When your credit status is not perfect enough and you are experiencing some bad factors, loans for unemployed can still be available to you. If you are tagged with many bad factors like insolvency, foreclosures, arrears, defaults, bankruptcy, late payments and so on, you are welcome without any apprehension. Lenders accept the application of all borrowers whether you hold good credit records or bad credit records.

To search the affordable deal of unemployed loans, you can search out the World Wide Web. There are numerous lenders available online that offer free loan quotes. Comparing and negotiating with the lender helps you to grab the best deal of all. To get the assistance of this loan, you can simply fill the form and submit it to the lender?s website. Funds will be credited in your checking account right in least possible time.

Now, do not lose the hope if you are laid off from your job or searching for a new one, here is unemployed loans for you. This is suitable monetary aid that allows you to meet your financial needs on time.

Scarlette Riley on a horse back and had a few falls himself. Therefore, he knows financial decisions are to be made after considerable thought and backed by good financial understanding. To find loans for unemployed in UK, unemployed unsecured loan, student loan unemployed, housing loan unemployed, loans for unemployed people visit http://www.loansforunemployed.co.uk

Find More Loan No Job Articles

Source: http://www.loannojob.com/unemployed-loans-finance-for-job-seekers-2/

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Another Slice of "Cold Pizza"? The Man Most Likely to Lead Japan (Time.com)

All bets are on Yoshihiko Noda to become Japan's next prime minister after he won the presidential election of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan on Monday. Noda, 54, took the majority vote in a runoff. Lawmakers in the Upper and Lower Houses of Parliament will likely give their approval for Noda's post as prime minister on Tuesday. He will then be Japan's sixth prime minister in five years.

As the present Finance Minster, Noda's win appears to reflect major concern about Japan's embattled economy. The head of the nation's most powerful branch of the bureaucracy since June 2010, Noda has overseen efforts to revive the nation's poor fiscal health. Japan is now afflicted with a debt twice the size of its economy, and the worst among the developed countries. Moody's Investor Service cut the nation's credit rating last week in light of the country's bulging debt, political instability and the lack of an established plan to stabilize the world's third largest economy. (Read about Japan's self-fulfilling prophecy, concerning its prime ministers)

Noda's rise reflects another development - which could affect the longevity of his premiership. He was not the candiate of the DPJ's kingmaker, the so-called Shadow Shogun, Ichiro Ozawa, who had thrown his support to Trade Minister Banri Kaieda. Ozawa, who espouses hardline attitudes toward the U.S. and China, had made a bid to come out of the shadows and contest the leadership of the party in 2010 but was defeated. Nevertheless, he still controls the party's largest faction of more than 100 lawmakers, about one-fourth the total number.

Can Noda lead? Analysts are not sanguine. "He emerged as a compromise," says Jeff Kingston, Director of Asian studies at Temple University Japan. "He's not charismatic, or a populist or a good communicator, [and] not a particularly bold or visionary leader. He's sort of a 'Steady Eddy' and doesn't raise expectations that much. Maybe in the context of Japanese politics, that's the best you can hope for."

While Noda could be filling the prime minister's seat for the next two years as DPJ elected head, opinions are mixed on how long he will actually last as prime minister. "Noda is a typical, simple, honest person but at the same time he is very stubborn," says Takao Toshikawa, editor of the political newsletter Tokyo Insideline. "But among the five candidates who ran for DPJ party head I think he has the strongest leadership ability and will continue as prime minister for two more years, maybe more." Says Yoshi Yamamoto, a political advisor to DPJ congressmen: "Noda seems a bit like the former LDP prime minister Keizo Obuchi [in the 1990s], generally known internationally as a 'cold pizza,' but respected domestically by working level staffers and officials as someone who listens and rewards."

A fiscal conservative, Noda has been a staunch supporter of hiking taxes rather than more borrowing. His win raises the possibility of a tax increase that would help fund reconstruction from the earthquake and tsunami (with an estimated cost of almost 20 trillion yen over the next five years) and pay for the nation's ballooning health and social security costs in one of the world's most rapidly aging societies. (Read about six things Japan can teach the West.)

The rising yen has also weakened the country's export-led economy. As a counter to this, Noda favors the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) as a way of liberalizing the economy, improving Japanese competitiveness abroad and opening up free trade. But this move would not be a short-term cure. Nevertheless, Takuji Okubo, chief economist at Societe Generale Securities in Tokyo told Reuters, "Of the five candidates, Noda was the best choice for Japan's economy."

The economy, however, is only one portion of a bevy of problems Noda must navigate after he takes the helm as prime minister. Besides the stagnant economy, high public debt, rising yen, slow reconstruction in the disaster-hit Tohoku region, and nuclear crisis, there is rampant infighting within the DPJ and a gridlocked Parliament. "The real problem is that Noda is being handed a poisoned chalice," says Kingston. "The key is whether the DPJ can unite and whether it can work with the opposition Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in Parliament."

"Unfortunately, 'politics with a deep grudge' remain within the DPJ," says Toshikawa. "The party will remain divided unless the bickering between the pro- and anti-Ozawa camps ends." Dubbed the kingpin of Japan's political world over the last several decades, Ozawa has been suspended from the DPJ pending a funding scandal investigation. The defeat of his candiate Kaidea may indicate a slip in the powerbroker's hold over the party. "But Ozawa will not give up," says Shinichi Nishikawa, professor of politics at Meiji University in Tokyo. "He has a lot of resources and is always ambitious."

Read about the selling Japan the U.S.' problems.

In his victory speech Noda said, "If the Democratic Party falls apart, old politics will prevail. Let's all persevere and work hard for the good of the people, and achieve political stability."

The lack of cooperation between the DPJ and opposition parties has been the major stumbling block in getting vital bills passed in Parliament. Noda has been a proponent of a grand coalition, working with the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). But the LDP shows no sign of wanting to cooperate. "Their strategy has been to discredit the ruling party and the prime minister by provoking legislative gridlock," says Kingston. "Cooperation would mean getting things done and that would not necessarily help the LDP." (See the long road to Japan's recovery.)

During a post-election news conference, Noda said, "I hope to build trusting relations with the opposition parties to hold policy negotiations and ask for their cooperation. Japan can't afford a political vacuum or dissolution of the lower House. Everyone has to work together..."

But even Noda's position on the grand coalition proposal has been wavering. "[He] started toning down his intention to team up with other parties," says Yamamoto. "The biggest change [Noda] could bring is to put substance to the currently hollow phrase seiji shudo or 'policy led by politicians rather than bureaucrats.'" (See TIME's video on braving the radiation in Japan.)

Beyond domestic bickering, another challenge for Noda will be foreign policy; getting bilateral relations back on track with both China and the U.S. But Noda's policy position again appears vague. Japanese war crimes in China during World War II have not been forgotten and the issue has been the source of diplomatic flare ups. In addition, tensions between China and Japan spiked in September last year when a Chinese fishing boat collided with Japanese Coast Guard boats near the disputed Senkaku islands (which Beijing calls the Daiyu Islands). Chinese boats continue to enter the disputed waters. Noda's visits to Yasukuni Shrine may also be considered a provocative issue. The Shinto shrine is considered by some as a symbol of Japanese domination in Asia during World War II. "Noda is one of the few DPJ members to visit Yasukuni Shrine which could be criticized by China," says Toshikawa. On the American side, the U.S. military airbase in Okinawa has been a bone of contention with Japanese locals on the southern island who want to see it moved. "But Noda feels strongly about maintaining close ties with the U.S.," Toshikawa adds.

Public opinion shows growing cynicism towards the revolving door nature of Japanese politics and the country's prime ministers. "I'm not sure Noda is going to be able to restore and rebuild the government, and be able to restore popular faith in politicians. It's going to seem more of the 'same old.'" says Kingston. "People really long for the days of a bold leader like Junichiro Koizumi [LDP prime minister from 2001 to 2006] with a vision of hope who would say, 'Yes, we're all facing difficulties now but if you follow me - no pain, no gain - things will be better.'"

See photos of Japan's nuclear wasteland.

See a video of Japan's nuclear crisis explained in four minutes.

View this article on Time.com

Most Popular on Time.com:

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/japan/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/time/20110830/wl_time/08599209098300

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High Tea Catering

This article has been viewed 15 times.

People like to organize a small tea party at their own residence where they can invite few of their close friends and relatives so that they can have a chit chat with them. To make your high tea gathering memorable, the host of the party always tries to make sure that they can arrange for distinctive tableware with variety of dishes.

Tea has now become an energy drink for everyone as a result tea party is an excellent deal for having a break from your hectic schedule. With the passage of time, it has become contemporary for today?s generation. In order to match up the expectation of your guests, at times you can hire an appropriate caterer for the same.

The caterers are so proficient that they can bring the royal styles of the party back in trend and at the same time makes sure that their food preparation satisfies the satisfaction level of your guests. At present, these parties are rear in to the carousing. The catering service providers produce the outcome in a manner wished by their clients.

The catering services are offered by the professionals who arrange your party in such a manner that it will suit the ambience and the flavor of the era style high tea party. To know about the living principles of the men and women from the past and how enlightened they were, this type of tea party matches the purpose.

When you hire a caterer then it becomes his duty to turn all your special moments into beautiful celebration. They help you to sit back and relax and see things happening the way you want it and they also supply you with beautiful crockery, cutlery, napery, table decorations, and of course deliver a delectable High Tea selection.

Bridal shower, kitchen tea, birthday, baby shower, corporate function, or any other special occasions are some of the reasons when you would require a caterer to help you. They will decorate your venue exactly the way you want and the entire arrangements will be their headache. For high tea, they always include English -style gourmet sandwiches, scrumptious hot finger food, plunger coffee, fresh milk and a full selection of Twining tea and no less than twelve sweet treats to choose from. Therefore, you can enjoy your lovely and memorable ambience of the party with your near and dear ones.

Check out for the most amazing high tea sydney service. You will not get to see such ambience in sydney high tea catering service other than that of momentouscatering.

Source: http://canarymagazine.net/food-drink/high-tea-catering/

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Tuesday, August 30, 2011

How Do You Negotiate the Best Deal to Buy a Home in Naples ...

Beachfront Home near The Pier in Naples, Florida

The real estate market in Naples and Bonita Springs remains in?favor of the buyers. There are excellent opportunities for investors, second home buyers and future full time residents. That being said, the inventory of available homes on the market for sale is shrinking. As our local real estate market has stabilized, the buyers who thought they would take advantage of market conditions to ?steal? the home of their choice are having to wake up to todays situation.

Even more so than other real estate markets in the country, our market is very localized to the point where neighborhoods near each other geographically can vary significantly in home values. One of the major contributing factors can be understood immediately with a quick glance at a local map. The area between the beach and Tamiami Trail (Route 41) is a relatively narrow strip of land which has historically held its value better than other areas. You?ll hear the phrase ?West of 41? in any discussion having to do with real estate in Naples. The type of home that suits your needs will have some bearing on the ability to negotiate the best deal, too. The inventory of single family homes is going to be far less than the inventory of condominiums and the laws of supply and demand can come into play. Not to be overlooked, every seller is in a different?situation and differs in motivation to sell, too.

To negotiate the best deal for you, it starts with defining your goals. Will your home purchase be a single family home for retirement? Are you still working and want a home as your primary residence? Is this property going to be occupied only a few months per year? Do you prefer the ?lock it and leave it? benefit of a high rise condo? Is golf or tennis important to you? Do you want a gated community? Does appreciation matter? What are the priorities? Give consideration to the goals well in advance. Also, don?t fall in love with one house and become emotionally tied to just one property. It is best to have a list of three preferred homes so that if the first negotiation doesn?t go in your favor, you can move your attentions to the second pick on the list. You need a seller who is as serious about selling a home as you are about buying a home.

Be prepared and know your timetable. Allow for an educational period so your knowledge base is sufficient to make a quick but sound decision when you see the right home. The best homes are recognized by other buyers and may or may not be available when you are ready to ?pull the trigger?. If you have a comfort zone of market knowledge when you identify a great home for you, there won?t be regrets later on that you missed out on an opportunity. Also, it is the nature of our seasonal Naples area that there are better times of the year to negotiate the best deal. You should align yourself with a professional Realtor? for guidance, advice and education about our market and the best time to strike. For up to the minute information on the local?real estate market in Naples and Bonita Springs and expert negotiation, call Ellie Penaranda @ (239) 776-5077 or email her at Ellie@StepsToTheBeach.com? (Broker Associate with Downing ? Frye Realty, inc.)

If you are making this purchase with financing, then start the loan process with your lender of choice early in the game. Be ready. It may be tomorrow that you see the perfect home. Your real estate agent can make recommendations based on a lenders attention to detail, knowledge of local issues?and experience with smooth transactions, if you have not already aligned yourself with a mortgage lender.

The well?negotiated properties are usually purchased with cash and a very quick settlement date. A cash transaction bypasses a lengthy financing contingency period and appeals to the seller. Although a ?low ball? offer may not get a warm reception from the seller initially, after sleeping on it overnight the prospect of a?guaranteed settlement in just a few weeks time looks better every minute. To negotiate the best price with the best terms for you, then dangle the carrot of cash along with a quick closing. Get advice from your real estate professional on the price, the amount of the earnest money deposits, terms and approach going into the first offer.

It is a great time to be a buyer!

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Source: http://365thingstodoinnaplesfl.com/2011/08/28/how-do-you-negotiate-the-best-deal-to-buy-a-home-in-naples/

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Mexico arrests 5 in connection with casino attack (Reuters)

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) ? Five men have been arrested in connection with an attack last week on a casino in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey that killed 52 people, the state governor of Nuevo Leon, Rodrigo Medina, said on Monday.

Medina said the five suspects were believed to be members of the Zetas drugs cartel, which has ravaged the state and other parts of Mexico.

The Mexican Attorney General's office on Friday offered a reward of 30 million pesos ($2.4 million) for information leading to the arrest of perpetrators of Thursday's attack.

(Reporting by Dave Graham, Editing by Sandra Maler)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/latam/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110829/wl_nm/us_mexico_violence_arrest

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What Mesa Pest Control Services Are Right For Your Home? at ...

Gilbert pest control and Mesa pest control services help keep your home totally free of rodents, insects, and other pests. Pests are more than simply bothersome; in many cases they can bring harmful substances and bacteria into the home. It can also be unsafe for your dogs, cats, and other animals to be exposed to disease ridden rodents or poisonous and potentially lethal insects. Prevention is the secret to avoiding a serious pest problem in the future, so a lot of people have preventative pest control services that visit their homes on a regular basis. It is sometimes difficult for folks to find just one pest control company out of the dozens that offer services. How should you make a smart choice in this regard before contracting just any local service?

The essential step to arriving at\making a smart choice for your Mesa pest control service is taking the time to do a bit of research. Talking to people in your neighborhood and workmates about which services they use will give you some good ideas. A recommendation directly from a person you know is of major assistance in the process of choosing a pest control service. They might also advise you about agencies they have interacted with in the past but have turned out to be less than professional.

The Yellow Pages and the Web are full of lots of information for Gilbert pest control companies. The majority of pest control websites are full of helpful information on the particular services of that company including both preventative and removal services. You might even be able to get an idea of the rates they charge for their one time and monthly services by checking their website.

Before you can arrive at your final choice, you need to speak with the staff of a few agencies and get their estimates. When they visit your home to offer you their services, take the time to ask any questions that come to mind. Can they explain the exact chemicals that their agency uses to keep pests out? Will it be alright for your children or pets to get exposed to these products?

Manyindividuals have Gilbert pest control or Mesa pest control contracts with local agencies that visit their homes every other month. Taking the time to fully research all of your options will allow you to make the ideal choice regarding which company you should hire.

You can look for additional articles and information about this subject when you check on Gilbert Pest Control or you may check atMesa Pest Control.

Source: http://carpetsweeperplus.com/blog/2011/08/what-mesa-pest-control-services-are-right-for-your-home/

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The HR Department and Profitability

The role of the Human Resources department is the subject of much discussion in recent years. I've often argued that HR staff belong at the executive table helping with strategy and the business. But, this argument assumes that the HR staff are thoroughly immersed in the business of the organization and the financials.

Too long have people argued that the organization is devaluing the potential of HR staff to contribute. Sure there is some of that in organizations. Many retain a traditional view that HR means administration and error-free transactions.

But, it's the HR department members themselves who need to change this world view. HR staff need to re-educate management and themselves about their potential contribution to the business. Robert Furlong (pictured above) and Kenneth W. Moore (pictured right), discuss this issue and suggest that HR as a profit center would transform the field - and the organization's view of the HR department. Groundwork must be accomplished first.

What would you do if you had an HR employee in 2011 who could improve the company's profit margins, positively impact the cost of goods sold, lower the day's sales outstanding, and increase the price/earning ratio while liquidating overhead costs to the business. Plus, the HR department can make all of these contributions and still deliver flawless transactional and traditional HR services.

Most CEOs would react in two ways:

  • Why is this employee wasting his or her time in the HR department?
  • Why haven't I demanded enough from the HR department in the past?

Find out more in The Human Resources Department as a Profitability Factor.

Images Copyright Robert Furlong and Kenneth W. Moore

More About HR and Business

More About the Changing Role of Human Resources

Connect with Susan: LinkedIn | Facebook | Google+
Twitter: @AboutHR | @SusanHeathfield

Source: http://humanresources.about.com/b/2011/08/28/hr-department-and-profitability.htm

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Monday, August 29, 2011

Gone in 30 seconds: How Venture Capitalists screen your business ...

Posted on August 28, 2011

?The average time that a Venture Capitalist spends analysing a business plan is 22 seconds? ? Speaker at the 26th Venture Capital Institute, Atlanta, 2000.

Since this realisation more than 10 years ago I?ve often wondered whether it was entirely fair towards entrepreneurs who spend significant time and resources to develop a comprehensive business plan. But top tier venture capitalists (VC?s) deal with hundreds of business plans a year, and a decision on whether to take the proposal to the next level or to reject it is often made in less than 30 seconds. This is how:

.

.

Source: memeburn, August 23, 2011

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Author: Keet Van Zyl

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Source: http://www.beyondthefirstworld.com/?p=24077

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How To Start An Internet Business Using Discussion Forum | Offline ...

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

Source: http://offlinemarketingideas.net/how-to-start-an-internet-business-using-discussion-forum-2/

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Learn 'How To' make Wonton Soup ? Authentic Chinese Food ...

home?????Recipe?????Learn ?How To? make Wonton Soup ? Authentic Chinese Food




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Share Category : Recipe Tags : 'How, Authentic, Chinese, food, Learn, Soup, Wonton

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Source: http://food.mcrecipe.com/learn-how-to-make-wonton-soup-authentic-chinese-food.html

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Sunday, August 28, 2011

NYC streets empty ahead of Irene; subways stop

Workers at a residential building in the financial district of downtown Manhattan stack sand bags in anticipation of flood waters in the hours before Hurricane Irene's arrival, Saturday, Aug. 27, 2011, in New York. Mayor Bloomberg advised all New Yorkers to prepare as the region girded for wind, rain, and flooding as the storm stood poised to bear down on an already saturated New York state. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Workers at a residential building in the financial district of downtown Manhattan stack sand bags in anticipation of flood waters in the hours before Hurricane Irene's arrival, Saturday, Aug. 27, 2011, in New York. Mayor Bloomberg advised all New Yorkers to prepare as the region girded for wind, rain, and flooding as the storm stood poised to bear down on an already saturated New York state. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Traffic is very light on the Brooklyn bridge, Saturday, Aug. 27, 2011 in New York. Hurricane Irene opened its assault on the Eastern Seaboard on Saturday by lashing the North Carolina coast with wind as strong as 115 mph (185 kph) and pounding shoreline homes with waves. Farther north, Philadelphia and New York City-area authorities readied a massive shutdown of trains and airports, with 2 million people ordered out of the way.(AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Storm clouds loom over lower Manhattan, Saturday, Aug. 27, 2011 in New York. Hurricane Irene opened its assault on the Eastern Seaboard on Saturday by lashing the North Carolina coast with wind as strong as 115 mph (185 kph) and pounding shoreline homes with waves. Farther north, Philadelphia and New York City-area authorities readied a massive shutdown of trains and airports, with 2 million people ordered out of the way.(AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

A pedestrian crosses Madison Avenue as New York waits on Hurricane Irene, on Saturday, Aug. 27, 2011. Irene has the potential to cause billions of dollars in damage all along a densely populated arc that includes Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Boston and beyond. At least 65 million people could be affected. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)

Pedestrians walk cross E. 44th Street in New York, on Saturday, Aug. 27, 2011, as the city waits for Hurricane Irene. Hurricane Irene knocked out power and piers in North Carolina, clobbered Virginia with wind and churned up the coast Saturday to confront cities more accustomed to snowstorms than tropical storms. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)

NEW YORK (AP) ? The normally bustling streets emptied out and the rumble of the subways came to a stop.

New York buttoned up Saturday against Hurricane Irene, which threatened to paralyze Wall Street and give the big city its worst thrashing from a storm since at least the 1980s.

City officials cautioned that if Irene stayed on track, it could bring gusts of 85 mph overnight that could shatter skyscraper windows. They said there was an outside chance that a storm surge in Lower Manhattan could send seawater streaming into the maze of underground vaults that hold the city's cables and pipes, knocking out power to thousands and crippling the nation's financial capital.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered the first mandatory evacuation ever in New York. More than 370,000 people were told to be out by 5 p.m. from low-lying areas on the fringes of the city, mostly in Lower Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.

Many New Yorkers seemed to take it in stride, staying off the streets and hunkering down. Some planned hurricane get-togethers and hot tub parties.

"We already have the wine and beer, and now we're getting the vodka," said Martin Murphy, a video artist who was shopping at a liquor store near Central Park with his girlfriend.

"If it lasts, we have dozens of movies ready, and we'll play charades and we're going to make cards that say, 'We survived Irene,'" he said.

All subway service was suspended because of the threat of flooding in the tunnels ? the first time the nation's biggest transit system has shut down because of a natural disaster. Sandbags and tarps were placed on or around subway grates.

"Heed the warnings," Bloomberg said, his shirt getting soaked as the rain fell in Coney Island. "It isn't cute to say, 'I'm tougher than any storm.' ... I hope this is not necessary, but it's certainly prudent."

People arrived in a trickle at a shelter set up at a high school in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn. Some carried garbage bags filled with clothing; others pushed carts loaded with their belongings.

They were evacuated from a public housing project in Brooklyn's Red Hook section. Tenants said management got them to leave by telling them the water and power would be shut off at 5 p.m.

"For us, it's him," said Victor Valderrama, pointing to his 3-year-old son. "I didn't want to take a chance with my son."

In Times Square, shops boarded up windows, put sandbags outside entrances and the street performer known as the Naked Cowboy, who stands at the Crossroads of the World wearing only underwear and a guitar, had a life vest on.

Construction came to a standstill across the city, and workers at the World Trade Center site dismantled a crane and secured equipment. The mayor said there would be no effect on the opening of the Sept. 11 memorial on the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

Con Edison brought in hundreds of extra utility workers from around the country. While the foot of Manhattan is protected by a seawall and a network of pumps, Con Ed vice president John Mucci said the utility stood ready to turn off the power to about 6,500 customers there in the event of severe flooding.

Mucci said it could take up to three days to restore the power if the cables became drenched with saltwater, which can be particularly damaging.

The New York Stock Exchange has backup generators and can run on its own, a spokesman said.

Con Ed also shut down about 10 miles of steam pipes underneath the city to prevent explosions if they came in contact with cold water. The shutdown affected 50 commercial and residential customers around the city who use the pipes for heat, hot water and air conditioning.

Irene came ashore in North Carolina on Saturday morning, slightly weakened but still powerful, and was expected to roll up the densely populated Interstate 95 corridor. More than 8.3 million people live in New York City, and nearly 29 million in the metropolitan area.

A hurricane warning was issued for the city Friday afternoon, the first since Gloria in September 1985. That storm blew ashore on Long Island with winds of 85 mph and caused millions of dollars in damage, along with one death in New York.

While Bloomberg strongly cautioned against staying put, he also said no one was going door-to-door to force residents out. And many apparently chose not to go.

The city opened more than 90 evacuation shelters with room for about 70,000 people. But by early evening, only about 5,500 had checked in, officials said.

The evacuation order went unheeded by many tenants at a large public housing complex in Brooklyn.

"Oh, forget Bloomberg. We ain't going anywhere," said Evelyn Burrus, 60. "Go to some shelter with a bunch of strangers and bedbugs? No way."

The area's three major airports ? LaGuardia, Kennedy and Newark Liberty ? closed at noon to arriving flights. Departing flights were to be shut down by 10 p.m.

Subway trains began grinding to a halt at noon.

The transit system won't reopen until at least Monday, after pumps remove water from flooded stations. The subways routinely flood during even ordinary storms and have to be pumped out.

The city's transit system carries about 5 million passengers on an average weekday. The last time it was seriously hobbled was an August 2007 rainstorm that disabled or delayed every one of the city's subway lines. It was also shut down after the 9/11 attacks and during a 2005 strike.

Many New Yorkers were left to hail taxis. To encourage cab-sharing and speed the evacuation, taxis switched to zone fares, meaning passengers were charged not for the mileage on the meter but according to which section of the city they were going to.

Boilers and elevators were shut down in public housing in evacuation areas to encourage tenants to leave and to prevent people from getting stuck in elevators if the power went out.

Some hotels were shutting off their elevators and air conditioners. Others had generators ready to go.

Dozens of buses arrived at the Brooklyn Cyclones minor league ballpark in Coney Island to help residents get out. Nursing homes and hospitals were emptied.

At a shelter set up at a high school in the Long Island town of Brentwood, Alexander Ho calmly ate a sandwich in the cafeteria. Ho left his first-floor apartment in East Islip, even though it is several blocks from the water, just outside the mandatory evacuation zone.

"Objects outside can be projected as missiles," he said. "I figured my apartment didn't seem as safe as I thought, as every room has a window."

___

Associated Press Writers Amy Westfeldt, Verena Dobnik, Tom Hays, Meghan Barr, David B. Caruso, Colleen Long and Deepti Hajela in New York contributed to this report.

___

Samantha Gross can be reached at ?www.twitter.com/samanthagross

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-08-27-Irene-NYC/id-ddbae9b2a3504a4d8c435055b3b51d92

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The Tech That Took Out Gadhafi [Libya]

With rebel forces in Tripoli and Moammar Gadhafi on the run, the end could be near for the Libyan civil war. Sporadic fighting continues in the capital city of the oil-rich North African nation, NATO warplanes are still patrolling overhead, and there's always the danger of Gadhafi true-believers launching a fresh insurgency. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/bo1PxNa8AVY/

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A tasty fable about a hooker and a shrink

A tasty fable about a hooker and a shrink

Isabelle Huppert in "Special Treatment"

You start out watching "Special Treatment," a new film from the veteran French writer-director Jeanne Labrune, and at first it seems like a romantic comedy, one different in detail but not in species from the Hollywood rom-com. Admittedly, no American director -- unless he or she had a commercial death wish -- would ever try to make a romance involving a prostitute who's pushing 50 (played by the formidable and fearless Isabelle Huppert) and an overweight, married psychiatrist (played by Bouli Lanners, a comic actor well known in France). Then, if you stick with "Special Treatment" a bit longer, you realize it isn't a lightweight erotic romp at all, but a complicated and delicate two-person odyssey that's much richer and subtler than that.

Labrune's original title, "Sans queue ni t?te," is a French expression that could be translated as "nonsense," and echoes the English idiom about not making "head or tail" of something. That suggests the way this film resists ordinary storytelling logic, with a current of delightful absurdity beneath its tr?s propre Parisian surface. On the other hand, "Special Treatment" is a pretty good title too, since Labrune and co-writer Richard Debuisne (who also plays a crucial supporting role) draw a series of intriguing parallels between the services provided by Alice (Huppert) and Xavier (Lanners), burned-out professionals who view their jobs and clients through a lens of utter cynicism.

When Xavier meets Alice for their first date in a hotel bar -- they've previously met, by accident, in the drugstore -- there's a key moment when he looks at her and realizes that everything about her, from her clothes to her hair to her manner, is a calculated performance. The only sincerity that's possible between them is a kind of business logic or a sense of professional kinship, and if Xavier at first regards her the way he regards a patient, he then shifts to something that's a lot more like looking in a mirror. What's really pulled them together is a shared sense of desperation and a yearning for change, and maybe even reinvention. Xavier's marriage is crumbling, although he still loves his wife (Val?rie Dr?ville), and Alice is eager to leave her sordid customer base behind and make a new start.

This really isn't a plot-centric movie, and in any case it isn't going in any of the directions you think it is. After two inconclusive meetings and a complex of mixed signals, Xavier and Alice still haven't consummated their relationship, and her attempts to get referrals to other shrinks from him end in quiet but hilarious failure. A late-medieval wooden angel bought at auction by another therapist, Pierre (co-writer Debuisne), travels in a peculiar circle from one character to another, and ends up at the mental hospital where Pierre works, and where Alice finally shows up in search of deliverance. This is a memorable journey, with exquisitely drawn characters and a tremendous cast, that blends satire, melancholy and romance in unlikely but delicious fashion.

"Special Treatment" is now playing at Cinema Village in New York, and opens Sept. 16 at the Laemmle Sunset 5 in Los Angeles, with other cities and home-video release to follow.

Source: http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/andrew_ohehir/2011/08/26/special_treatment/index.html

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Articles 20VN | Make Your Business Blossom With Traffic Building ...

The internet is a big place. Just imagine all of the poor websites out there sitting all alone with no one visiting them. That would be a rather boring virtual life. Even websites need visitors to survive. As for you, you can't survive either if your website is the kid left alone on the playground with no one to play with.

So be your website's best friend and utilize ways in which people will pay it a visit. How can you do that??Below are ways to make that possible:

  • Make sure you use article directories - This means you're going to write articles or have them written for you so that they can be placed within these directories. There are resource boxes at the end of them that allow you to place a website link.
  • Every website should have a blog to accompany it - The blog is going to link to your website and is also going to give individuals the option to subscribe to newsletters, email lists, etc.
  • Try pay per click advertising - This is where you create an ad through such avenues as Google AdSense and you fund the account with cash. Each time someone clicks, money is subtracted from that account.

When looking for relevant keywords to include in your articles, blog, and in your ads, the Google keyword tool is very handy in doing this. It will tell you of the most popular keywords that are relevant to your business. Once you have done all of this, you will find that all your lonesome site needed was a little traffic building.

Source: http://www.20vn.com/traffic-building/make-your-business-blossom-with-traffic-building-24d.htm

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Saturday, August 27, 2011

Horse Supplements And Proper Oral Care ? Health & Fitness

Horse Supplements could make your horse?s teeth stronger. Horses? teeth constantly grow in their everyday life. That?s where the phrase long in the tooth comes from. While they graze and gnaw their meals, the grinding surface area of the teeth gets worn down with time. But for a variety of reasons, this wear might not be even, resulting in uneven grinding surface areas that don?t meet up in the proper way, or perhaps sharp points or barbs which may cause soreness whenever the animal chews. As a rule of thumb, horses should have annual checkups from an equine dental professional. Senior horses need to have more regular examinations, ideally twice each year.

Open your pony?s lips and look at the incisor teeth in the front. What does the animal?s grin seem like? Is there a tooth absent? Does your animal?s head look the exact same on both left and right sides? Do the jaw muscles seem to be of the same size on both sides? Does he tip, shake, or toss his head whenever bit? Unequal growth and development of bones or muscles often means irregular wear on the teeth in the mouth. Unsteady on the bit may also mean trouble. Take a look at the horse?s front teeth from the side. Can you see overshot or undershot pearly whites? For the more mature horse, do the lower teeth continuously reveal when bit and ridden?

Overshot and undershot horses can regularly be helped by a qualified horse dentist. In the more mature mount, the teeth expand out from the jaws at a more horizontal position, but shouldn?t be permitted to become too long. Should you notice any of the symptoms noted above, you should schedule a meeting right away. Why would our animals get insufficient dental care from their normal health care provider? A couple of horses which is probably lower than 5% do get adequate dental treatment from their veterinarians. The problem has been that, until not too long ago, most veterinary schools have not been teaching thorough horse dentistry.

Because of this deficiency of formal training in this important aspect of horse health, a lot of owners have properly sought help from non-veterinary horse dentists. These individuals picked up a ball that we shed a number of decades ago, and they ran with it. Many of them did great work, but just like in any other field of endeavor, there are some less-than-desirable providers amidst them, too. Within the last few years, vets have begun following the lead of the lay dentists, with mostly great effects though nothing is absolute, so there?s a downside to everything, isn?t there?

Horse Supplements don?t only offer your pony a powerful and good physique, it furthermore assures of strong and good teeth. The cost may be greater per treatment of dental work, but the advantages far outweigh these when it comes to increased longevity, excellent performance, and far higher feed efficiency. Often veterinarians and oral technicians work together. Part of prevention is knowing whom to contact when you may need equine dental care.

Horse Vitamins specialists have a variety of recommendations and professional opinions on how you take good care of your beloved equines utilizing the supreme horse supplements in their day-to-day diet regime.

Source: http://health.blogmeout.net/2011/08/horse-supplements-and-proper-oral-care/

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The Lincoln Lawyer (2011) DVD ENG DVDRip HQ 1 Link NO RAR


The Lincoln Lawyer (2011) DVD ENG DVDRip HQ 1 Link NO RAR
HD (High Definition)

Click the image to open in full size.

Matt Haller is a defense lawyer who works out of his Lincoln. When a wealthy Realtor is accused of raping a prostitute, Haller is asked to defend him. The man claims that the woman is trying to get some money out of him. But when Haller looks at the evidence against him, he learns that this case might be linked to an old case of his.

Genre: Crime / Drama / Thriller
IMDB Rating: IMDB 7.4/10 (11,188 votes)
Directed by: Brad Furman
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Marisa Tomei and Ryan Phillippe
Language: English
Size 1.61 GB

Screenshot:

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Amazon Registers Domains ? Re Kindle the Rumours

Amazon recently registered the domain names Kindlescribe.com and Kindlescribes.com. ?This adds to their KindleAir and KindleSocialNetwork domain names they registered earlier this month. ? We’ve all heard the rumours about a tablet based device but what else does Amazon have planned ? An ebook writer ? A light weight aluminum e-reader ? ? A competitor [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2011/08/25/amazon-registers-domains-re-kindle-the-rumours/

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Friday, August 26, 2011

Health club | Article

 Health club

Spacious gym floor at a health club

bac28394746f3a04fdf3e413c367f95c Health club

Free-weights area at a health club

A health club (also known as a fitness club, fitness center, and commonly referred to as a gym) is a place which houses exercise equipment for the purpose of physical exercise.

Facilities and services

Main workout area

Most health clubs have a main workout area, which primarily consists of free weights including dumbbells, barbells and exercise machines. This area often includes mirrors so that exercisers can monitor and maintain correct posture during their workout.

A gym which predominately or exclusively consists of free weights (dumbbells and barbells), as opposed to exercise machines, is sometimes referred to as a black-iron gym, after the traditional color of weight plates.

Cardio area/Theatre

7de02818984e3e704746d76dc270eee0 Health club

A cardio theatre including treadmills, stationary bikes and TV displays

A cardio theater or cardio area includes many types of cardiovascular training-related equipment such as rowing machines, stationary exercise bikes, elliptical trainers and treadmills. These areas often include a number of audio-visual displays (either integrated into the equipment, or placed on walls around the area itself) in order to keep exercisers entertained during long cardio workout sessions.

Group exercise classes

 Health club

Spin-cycle group exercise class

Most newer health clubs offer group exercise classes that are conducted by qualified fitness instructors. Many types of group exercise classes exist, but generally these include classes based on aerobics, cycling (spin cycle), boxing, high intensity training, regular and hot (Bikram) yoga, pilates and muscle training. Health clubs with swimming pools often offer aqua aerobics classes.

Sports facilities

See also: Sports club

Some health clubs offer sports facilities such as a swimming pools, squash courts or boxing areas. In some cases, additional fees are charged for the use of these facilities.

Personal training

 Health club

Personal training at a gym.

Most health clubs employ personal trainers who are accessible to members for training/fitness/nutrition/health advice and consultation. Personal trainers can devise a customized fitness routine, sometimes including a nutrition plan, to help clients achieve their goals. They can also monitor and train with members. More often than not, access to personal trainers involves an additional hourly fee.

Other services

Newer health clubs generally include health-shops, snack bars, restaurants, child-care facilities, member lounges and cafes. It is not unusual for a sauna, steam shower, or wellness areas to be present. Health clubs generally charge a fee to allow visitors to use the equipment, courses, and other provided services.

Levels of services and offerings

Health clubs offer a wide array of services, and as a result the monthly membership prices can vary greatly. A recent study of American clubs found that the monthly cost of membership ranged from US$15 per month at basic chain clubs that offer limited amenities to over US$200 per month at spa-oriented clubs that cater to families and to those seeking social activities in addition to a workout. In addition, some clubs ? such as many local YMCAs ? offer per-use punchcards or one-time fees for those seeking to use the club on an as-needed basis.

Costs can vary through the purchase of a higher-level membership, such as a Founders or a Life membership. Such memberships often have a high up-front cost but a lower monthly rate, making them potentially beneficial to those who use the club frequently and hold their memberships for years.

History

An early public gymnasium started in Paris (France) in 1847.

See also

  • Anytime Fitness
  • Celebrity Fitness
  • American Family Fitness
  • Gold?s Gym
  • YMCA
  • Fitness Dynamics
  • IHRSA
  • Virgin Active

Literary/cultural references

  • In Richard Russo?s Pulitzer Prize-winning 2001 novel Empire Falls and the Golden Globe- and Emmy-award-winning 2005 HBO mini-series made from it, central character Miles Roby?s ex-wife Janine (Helen Hunt) goes out with the owner of a local fitness center, Walt Comeau (Dennis Farina).
  • In Jay McInerney?s short story ?Con Doctor,? in which the title doctor?s lady friend, ?a recovering alcoholic, brassy and voluptuous ? looked like someone who would be dating a pro athlete, or a guy with a new Ferrari who owned a chain of fitness centers?.

Source: http://www.estateagencyy.com/health-club/

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Rick Perry goes it alone

Rick Perry's tall tales of Texas

AP

Gov. Rick Perry

Although born and raised in a small town in the Finger Lakes region of New York, I'm the hybrid child of an upstate New York father and a mother from Texas -- they met at Fort Hood (then Camp Hood) during World War II. And you thought different species couldn't mate.

As a result, we were the only kids on the block who said, "Y'all," or had relatives named Bubba, Vade, Hoyt and Cleburne. My mother's father was known in our family as Granddaddy Lloyd. Care packages of unshelled pecans and Frito-Lay products (then largely unknown above the Mason-Dixon Line) would arrive at Christmastime. And among the books in our house was a buff-covered, dog-eared paperback titled "Tall Tales of Texas."

I flipped through it over and over. Inside were wild and woolly stories of the outlaw Sam Bass, frontiersman and Texas Ranger Bigfoot Wallace, Davy Crockett at the Alamo. Even taller were tales of Pecos Bill, with his lasso made from a live rattlesnake, the toughest cowboy in the world; and his wife Slue-Foot Sue, riding down the Rio Grande on the back of a giant catfish.

So, courtesy of some Lone Star DNA and basic reading comprehension skills, I think I know a Texas tall tale when I hear one, and presidential candidate and Texas Gov. Rick Perry's tales of "the Texas miracle" are as tall as they come.

Between December 2000 and December 2010, the state did have a net gain of 907,000 jobs, more than half the 1.6 million new jobs nationwide during that same period. But a lot of the state's success in job creation looks more like dumb luck than evidence of ole Pecos Perry's political prowess or expertise in governance. "It's not that the emperor has no clothes," Dan Hamermesh, an economics professor at the University of Texas, told the website AOL Jobs. "But he's got little more than a fig leaf over his crotch. It is a true fact, but he had nothing to do with it."

Perry points to deregulation and low taxes, including an incentive program called the Texas Enterprise Fund, said to have created 58,000 jobs, but there were many factors largely beyond his control, including increased trade between the United States and Mexico and the high price of gasoline that pumped revenue into the state, accompanied by new technologies for oil and gas extraction. In the Aug. 15 New York Times, Clifford Krauss reported, "The oil and gas industry now delivers roughly $325 billion a year to the state, directly and indirectly. It brings in $13 billion in state tax receipts, or roughly 40 percent of the total, financing up to 20 percent of the state budget."

What's more, a lot of the increase has been funded -- say it ain't so, Pecos! -- by federal largesse, including President Obama's economic stimulus. In the last 10 years, federal spending in the state has more than doubled to over $200 billion a year (thanks in large part to NASA and the many military installations in the state, including the aforementioned Fort Hood, one of the world's largest military bases and the biggest single employer in Texas).

Of all the U.S. government jobs added in this country between 2007 and 2010, 47 percent of them were in Texas. According to Jared Bernstein, former economic advisor to Joe Biden:

"Texas employment wasn't down much at all in these years, as the state lost only 53,000 jobs. But looming behind that number are large losses in the private sector (down 178,000) and large gains (up 125,000) in government jobs." Which shows, Bernstein goes on, that Texas has followed "a traditional Keynesian game plan: as the private sector contracts, turn to the public sector to temporarily make up part of the difference."

In 2009, Gov. Perry made a show of rejecting $556 million in federal funds for unemployment, saying there were too many strings attached. In fact, that money was equal to only 2 percent of the more than $20 billion in stimulus money Texas did accept, including cash used to cover 97 percent of the state budget's shortfall for 2010, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

This, in spite of GOP attacks on the public sector, Perry's claim that the stimulus was failed and misguided and the pledge in the announcement of his presidential candidacy that he would "work every day to make Washington, DC, as inconsequential in your lives as I can." As the Aug. 20 Washington Post noted, "The significant role of government in Texas' relative prosperity stands in stark contrast to the ?go-it-alone' image cultivated by Perry, who credits a lack of government interference for fostering a business-friendly environment in Texas."

For those like Gov. Perry who brag about being no-nonsense, freedom-loving cowpokes, it's a delusion that goes all the way back to the early settlement of the American West. As Patricia Nelson Limerick writes in her seminal history "The Legacy of Conquest," "At any period in Western history, the rhetoric of Western independence was best taken with many grains of salt." Whether it was fighting Indians or gaining access to public grazing lands, the federal government has always been integral. "Nothing so undermines the Western claim to a tradition of independence," she writes, "as this matter of federal support to Western development ...

"And yet humans have a well-established capacity to meet facts of life with disbelief. In a region where human interdependence has been self-evident, Westerners have woven a net of denial." Sounds familiar.

Accompanying Gov. Perry's denial is cronyism and patronage, both good ole boy-style and corporate. (Of the $102 million in campaign contributions raised for his gubernatorial races, Katrina vanden Heuvel wrote, half came "from just 204 sources," and the Los Angeles Times reports, "Nearly half of those mega-donors received hefty business contracts, tax breaks or appointments under Perry.")

So, too, with greed comes hubris and shortsightedness. The Times' Krauss reported:

"Critics, among them Democrats ... have long complained that the state's economic health came at a steep price: a long-term hollowing out of its prospects because of deep cuts to education spending, low rates of investment in research and development, and a disparity in the job market that confines many blacks and Hispanics to minimum-wage jobs without health insurance."

A report from the policy research and advocacy group Demos and the Austin-based Center for Public Policy Priorities notes that

"27 percent of Texas workers lack health insurance compared to 17 percent nationally. The ranks of the uninsured have grown steadily as access to employer-sponsored health insurance has declined? Fewer than half (48 percent) of the state's workers have access to a retirement plan at work, a figure that has plummeted since reaching a high of 61 percent in 2000."

Over the past 20 years, college costs in Texas have quadrupled, with the steepest jump occurring since tuition was deregulated by the state in 2003. Former first lady Barbara Bush observed in a February Op-Ed that the state ranks 49th in verbal SAT scores, 47th in literacy and 46th in average math SAT scores: "We rank 36th in the nation in high school graduation rates. An estimated 3.8 million Texans do not have a high school diploma ... the United Way estimates that the price tag for dropouts to Texas taxpayers in $9.6 billion every year." But the state's latest budget cut $4 billion from public schools.

A recent, four-part series on Perry's Texas from a team at the Houston Chronicle reports:

"After a decade of Perry-style frugality the Texas welcome mat is growing increasingly threadbare as the state struggles to accommodate a booming, young populace hoping to travel its roads, get educated in its schools, drink its water and access its health care system. During Perry's tenure the state has postponed investment or turned to debt to finance crucial infrastructure needs, experts say."

The average urban Texan loses a week a year to traffic delays on the state's "overburdened" highway system. While Perry boasts of luring thousands of doctors to the state, "lawmakers this year cut $805 million from doctors serving Medicaid patients" and "postponed $4 billion in Medicaid costs for payment in the next payment cycle." Texas is 48th out of 50 states in the number of physicians per 100,000 residents.

Perry doubts climate change is real, yet,

"As Texas endures its most severe one-year drought in its history, state leaders have identified $53 billion in state investments needed to expand water capacity by 2060 but have not resolved how to pay for it. Unless Texas increases its water resources, experts say 83 percent of Texans will not have an adequate supply of water in times of drought."

Perry issued a proclamation urging Texans to pray for rain.

With more bad news ahead, stagnant wages and an explosion in population and the labor force that now has unemployment advancing much faster than Perry's touted job growth, "the Texas miracle" is heading into a ditch.

Which brings to mind another tall tale, the old joke about the Texan who says to an Eastern visitor, "Yessir, I can drive across my ranch all day and all night and still not get to the other end." To which the visitor replies, "I know what you mean. I have a car like that, too."

Source: http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2011/08/25/winship_perry/index.html

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Kidnapped U.S. national freed in Pakistan: police (Reuters)

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) ? An American development expert kidnapped 12 days ago in the Pakistani city of Lahore has been rescued, a police official said on Thursday.

"We have recovered Dr. Weinstein from the Khushab area and we are still investigating the details," a police official in Lahore told Reuters. Khushab is in Pakistan's Punjab state.

The U.S. embassy, however, said it could not confirm the release of Warren Weinstein, 70, the country director for J.E. Austin Associates Inc., an Arlington, Virginia.-based consulting firm.

He had been working on a development project in Pakistan's northwestern tribal areas where Pakistani troops have been battling Islamist insurgents for years.

Up to eight assailants kidnapped Weinstein in a pre-dawn raid on his house in Lahore on August 13.

The raid raised worries among aid workers, diplomats and other foreigners working in Pakistan, which is battling an Islamist militancy and where anti-American sentiments run very high.

Weinstein had been living in Pakistan for five to six years, according to police. He mostly lived in Islamabad but had been traveling to Lahore.

Kidnapping for ransom is relatively common in Pakistan, although foreigners are not often targets.

Militants also occasionally take foreigners hostage but these incidents have taken place in the volatile western regions bordering Afghanistan, where Islamist insurgents are very active.

Pakistani Taliban, linked to al Qaeda, have claimed responsibility for kidnapping a Swiss couple in July in the volatile southwestern province of Baluchistan.

Eight Pakistani employees of a U.S.-based aid organization, American Refugee Committee, were kidnapped in the western province of Baluchistan last month.

(Reporting by Mubashir Bukhari and Zeeshan Haider; Writing by Chris Allbritton; Editing by Rebecca Conway and Sanjeev Miglani)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110825/ts_nm/us_pakistan_usa_kidnapped

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Thursday, August 25, 2011

Injectable Psoriasis Drugs May Not Hike Heart Risks: Study (HealthDay)

TUESDAY, Aug. 23 (HealthDay News) -- An extensive review of research investigating injectable drugs to treat psoriasis -- an autoimmune disorder triggering itchy, red skin patches -- indicates the medications are not linked to higher heart risks.

But, the study authors said a lack of complete information from drug makers impeded their ability to assess potential dangers noted in earlier research.

With the additional information, "it would have been a much more robust statistical analysis," said study author Dr. Caitriona Ryan, a dermatology resident at Baylor Research Institute in Dallas. "We could have adjusted for all the risk factors."

Researchers evaluated 22 randomized, controlled experiments involving more than 10,000 patients to determine if the rates of major adverse cardiovascular events -- including heart attack, stroke or cardiac death -- were affected by use of two types of so-called biologic psoriasis drugs. These drugs are injected systemically in some patients with moderate or advanced disease.

Some preliminary reports suggested an "excess" number of cardiovascular events linked to one drug type, IL-12/23 antibodies known by the brand names Stelara and Ozespa, and a small number of such events from the anti-tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-a) drugs Humira, Enbrel and Remicade. However, this study found no such link.

Ryan said the jury is ultimately still out on the cardiac safety of the biologic medications because drug manufacturers, who sponsored prior research, wouldn't release patient-level data associated with the medications, including patient demographics and prior known cardiac risk factors.

The short length of most randomized trials also discouraged an analysis of long-term side effects or other problems stemming from the drugs, she said.

The study is published in the Aug. 24/31 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

As many as 7.5 million Americans have psoriasis, according to the National Psoriasis Foundation, with the most common form, plaque psoriasis, appearing as raised, red patches covered with silvery scales. Lesions can occur on any area of the body, and about 10 percent of sufferers also cope with a related form of arthritis.

Some research over the past decade has linked autoimmune diseases such as psoriasis with chronic systemic inflammation and a subsequent increase in cardiovascular risks, the scientists said.

During studies of Stelara and Ozespa, 10 of the 3,179 patients treated with those therapies had a major cardiovascular event, compared with none of the 1,474 patients treated with a placebo. In studies of Humira, Enbrel and Remicade, one of the 3,858 patients receiving those medications had a major cardiovascular event, compared to one of the 1,812 treated with a placebo.

"More than anything, the big conclusion of our study was this data was not powered to tell the risks," Ryan said.

Dr. Jerry Bagel, a spokesman for the National Psoriasis Foundation, said he doesn't prescribe Stelara as a first-line treatment for patients who have existing cardiovascular risk factors.

"It's just logic here . . . there may be some risk here, so let's not take risk where risk doesn't need to be amplified," said Bagel, also director of the Psoriasis Treatment Center of Central New Jersey and an associate clinical professor of dermatology at Columbia University in New York City.

More information

Learn more about psoriasis from the National Psoriasis Foundation.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/meds/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20110824/hl_hsn/injectablepsoriasisdrugsmaynothikeheartrisksstudy

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What Michele Bachmann would have to do to deliver on her $2/gallon gasoline pledge

It has been a week since Congresswoman Michele Bachmann told the country that she would bring gasoline prices down to under $2 per gallon if she were president. The reaction has run from "Wow! Can she really do that?" to "There is no way a president can determine the cost of gasoline." Candidate Bachmann has been pilloried by the left for her hubris, grandiosity, cynical political posturing and failure to grasp the realities of a world petroleum market.

The critics are wrong. A president of the United States can drive gasoline prices down, and the promise to do so is not new. Though Bachmann did not immediately provide a plan on how she would drive prices at the pump lower, there have been many plans promoted to lower the price of gasoline, and she may have drawn from some of them.

She may have been listening to The Donald. In his short-lived run for the White House, Donald Trump said he would bring the price of oil down by seizing the oil fields of Iraq and Libya and putting total production of these two countries in our gasoline stations. Two problems with that scenario: First, the seized oil would have to first pass through the world market where it would be available to the highest bidder. And two, it would be a criminal act of the highest order. Details.

More likely, she is looking at Newt Gingrich's plan from 2008. Gingrich proposed opening up the spigots on the country's Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) and dumping the whole stockpile on the open market. Gingrich said that the sudden influx of new oil would drive speculators out of the market and the price of petroleum would drop significantly. Economists agree that the market would see a sudden drop if that were to happen.

But once you have emptied the 727 million barrels of crude from the SPR on the market, which the world would drink up in a month (faster, if cheaper), there would be nothing left in the strategic tank to offset real supply disruptions caused by war, OPEC manipulation or natural disaster.

Political gag

A president could order such a thing, however. The International Energy Agency may punish such misbehavior, but the price of gasoline at the pump would fall below $2 a gallon for about a week before oil investors figured out it was only a political gag.

Of course, she could, with Congress's help, open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to drilling. That would cause a slight lowering of prices for a short time. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates there are roughly 7 billion barrels of recoverable crude in the ANWR. Americans consume more than 20 million barrels of petroleum a day. So if we kept all that oil for ourselves, we would use every last drop of it within a year. But the price of gasoline at the pump would likely fall to $2 a gallon before the markets realized politicians had just been dreaming.

One will hear Congresswoman Bachmann say as a candidate that there is more oil in three western states of America than in Saudi Arabia. She will bemoan the fact that it is currently against the law to drill and explore in much of that area. She will also say that the bulk of that petroleum is in the form of shale-oil.

There is no question there is a lot of it, but it is locked up inside of rocks, like marlstone. The rock is super-heated and the petroleum vaporizes. It is then condensed. It is so simple that high school students can perform the operation in chemistry class. But the kids aren't paying the bills for the energy required to heat the rocks.

Such annoying details, however, are the first calculations of companies like Exxon-Mobil. It threw itself into shale oil recovery, and then exited when it found it simply cost too much to make a profit. Royal Dutch Shell is interested in shale oil, but costs are high and the process of extraction uses an awful lot of water. Water is, increasingly, a concern in the West. It is an increasing concern in Estonia, where oil shale is the main source of petroleum. According to a 2004 technical paper called "Shale Oil. A Scientific-Technical Journal" by Anto Raukas, 91 percent of all of the water consumed in Estonia was consumed by the oil shale industry.

You may not hear this from the candidate, but shale oil is not crude oil. It contains a higher level of nasty chemicals that tend to pollute and harm humans. The process, known as retorting, also yields significant amounts of mercury. I'm not sure how she squares her comfort with that kind of mercury with her horror for the mercury in compact fluorescent light bulbs. Details.

One other troubling detail Congresswoman Bachmann may have some difficulty explaining. First, it is well established that President Ronald Reagan is an icon of Bachmann's political career. How then will she explain that it was President Ronald Reagan who, in 1986, signed a bill into law that abolished the United States Synthetic Liquid Fuels Program. Reagan took the government out of the shale oil business.

Supply and demand

Martin Feldstein was President Reagan's chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. In a July 2008 opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal, Feldstein wrote on the subject of lowering oil prices. Boiling it down, Feldstein said there were two roads to bringing prices down. One was the immediate expansion of supply. By flooding the market with oil, the price drops because the supply would exceed demand for a time. The other solution (and remember, this is a conservative writing) is "increases in government subsidies to develop technology that will make future cars more efficient, or tighter standards that gradually improve the gas mileage of the stock of cars, would lower the future demand for oil, and therefore the price of oil today."

So there are two approaches to lowering the price of petroleum. Her proposal to increase supply through the development of shale oil will likely drive prices higher because of the increased well-head cost of the production of a barrel of oil from rock. Her calculations fail to take into consideration the environmental and health costs to the taxpayer of shale oil production. Expanding the supply in that fashion will not, according to a number of oil experts weighing in on her proposal, bring prices down.

As president, Michele Bachmann could drive prices for gasoline below $2 per gallon. She could reduce demand by putting the full force of her office behind conservation, technology and efficiency and drive the demand for oil as low as it can go. Or she could get it as low as it was in the last days of the George W. Bush administration and as low as when President Obama took office by simply sending us back to a worldwide depression.

As I said, Michele Bachmann, as president of the United States, could keep her promise of lowering the price of gasoline. What voters must ask themselves is: "What will that cost me?"

Don Shelby writes about a variety of topics, and he has a special interest in the environment and ecology. Before retiring in 2010, he worked for 32 years as anchor, investigative reporter and environmental correspondent for WCCO-TV in Minnesota.

Source: http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2011/08/23/bachmann_gas_prices/index.html

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