Thursday, February 28, 2013

Stand Out from the Rest: Dress the Part ? Five O'Clock Club

There have been many volumes written, and seminars given, about how to dress properly for interviews. Believe it or not, John Molloy?s Dress for Success has been around for 35 years! But I?m surprised that so many people haven?t gotten the message. They still find a way to be too casual in job-search situations. Within the last year, I conducted a little research of my own. Here are some examples.

At a summer networking meeting of more than a hundred people, about 60 percent of attendees wore blue jeans and many wore T-shirts or skimpy tops. About 20 percent of the women wore sundresses and only about a third wore closed-toed dress shoes (most opted for flip-flops or sandals). In fact, I would say that not even 10 percent wore business attire; only about 20 percent were in what could honestly be called business casual attire. Yet everyone-everyone-reported that they were looking for connections to a job.

?What are the employability assumptions you make about people, based on? the way they dress??

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At the end of the summer, I was sitting in the waiting area of a temporary employment agency. There were seven women in the room and two men, including myself. I was the only one dressed for business. Three of the women wore thin, very brightly colored and flowing blouses better suited for a night club. One wore clothes so tight that you could tell?.well, I won?t say more. The other man had on a wrinkled, collared golf shirt and chino-style pants. I was curious enough to ask why they were there: everyone was applying for a professional office position.

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?When we ask for assistance, we need to give the best impression possible.?

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The Spirit of the Times

America has become a very relaxed culture. We tend not to hold doors open for others, greet passers-by with a simple

"I would've dressed better, but my tie was dirty"

?I would?ve dressed better, but my tie was dirty?

?hello?, and or say ?please? or ?thank you? as often as we should. Given this easy-going attitude, dress-down Fridays, and summer work hours, too many people have forgotten that, when we ask for assistance, we need to give the best impression possible. And a very important component of the first impression is the way we look.

The best advice a job seeker can remember, to overcome the urge to go casual or dress down, is always put yourself in the shoes (no pun intended) of your prospective employer. Ask yourself, ?If I saw me dressed like this, would I hire me?? This won?t help if you?ve totally adopted the casual mindset, but look around you: What are the employability assumptions you make about people, based on the way they dress in different public situations? If you were the hiring manager, would you be inclined to interview them based on these impressions? One CEO/President who attended the summer networking event referenced above, commented that he would consider interviewing only about 10 of the people at that meeting, based solely on what he saw. How many opportunities do job seekers miss out on because of their casual approach to dress?

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?It is much easier to dress correctly for the situation than to change someone?s first impression.?

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Look the Part?for Your Next Job and Beyond

Remember this bit of wisdom from one of the Five O?Clock Club books, Shortcut Your Job Search: The Best Ways to Get Meetings: ?How you act and dress is also important to your image. Look like you?re worth the money you would like.? Career coaches often recommend that candidates dress at least one step higher than appropriate for the position they?re interviewing for. Show that you are worthy of the position and possibly more. You want to be sure that the people you meet have a positive impression of you. This may mean dressing a little more nicely, but appropriate for the event, than you may otherwise dress.

There are also lessons to learn from communication research. It is widely accepted that roughly 55 percent of communication takes place visually, by the cues we receive through our eyes. Thus how we look may count for more than what we say or what people see on our r?sum?s. While we cannot completely control another person?s perception of us, we certainly can control how we look and behave in their presence, so it?s largely up to us if we will be perceived in a positive light.

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?How we look may count for more than what we say.?

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What is the lesson here? Always consider what others will think about you when you?re out in public ? you never know who you might run into! When going to the store or running errands, it may be easier to leave on the sweat pants and tank top ? but don?t.? Take a moment to put on clean, neat casual clothes ? even clean jeans look better than dingy, ill-fitting sweat pants.

When attending networking meetings the minimum standard would be business casual, but you may want to step it up a level to stand out from others. I know of at least one person who always attends networking events in a suite, or sports coat and tie, and he is widely regarded as a very professional person.

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An Interview Is a Business Meeting

An interview always requires business attire. Aren?t there some settings in which casual would be okay? Maybe, but be very sure about the setting, dress codes and expectations before showing up for an interview in casual dress.

For most interview situations, keep your clothes conservative (in most cases a suit) and dark colors (but not black) with white blouses or shirts. Be sure your clothes are clean, pressed and neat. Always wear dress shoes, not sneakers, sandals, all-weather boots or flip-flops. It is easy to make business attire more casual by rolling up sleeves, loosening a shirt collar or removing a jacket; but you cannot dress up casual attire if you don?t have the jacket or tie with you in the first place! Wear clothing that fits properly; otherwise you may present an unkempt image. The increasingly popular tattoos and piercings should not be visible.

Remember: consider what the employer is learning about you just from the way you look. How will this impact getting the desired results from a meeting or event?

It is much easier to dress correctly for the situation than to change someone?s first impression. Let?s all dress to impress!

Source: http://fiveoclockclub.com/2013/02/stand-out-from-the-rest-dress-the-part/

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Elder Care in Riverside County, CA - Home Care Palm Springs by ...

Substance abuse is a growing problem in elder care. It is estimated that as much as 17 percent of the population of aging adults over the age of 65 are serious abusers of alcohol. Even more unnerving is the fact that despite the relatively small percentage of the total US population that seniors account for, this percentage of the population takes 25 percent of the drugs that are prescribed each year. These powerful drugs tend to be for things such as anxiety, insomnia and chronic pain, and are exceptionally addicting. Many elderly health care providers completely overlook the potential for substance abuse in aging adults, falling victim to the misconception that substance abuse is an affliction only of younger generations. If you provide elder care for an aging loved one, it is critical that you are aware of the warning signs of substance abuse in the elderly and are prepared to confront the issue. The primary role of an elder care provider is to protect the senior while helping him to enjoy as healthy and happy a Elder Care in Riverside County, CAquality of life as possible.

Elder care providers should be careful to watch for the following warning signs of senior substance abuse in the aging loved ones for whom they provide elderly home care:

  • Increased depression or loss of interest in family, friends or activities that your aging loved one once enjoyed
  • Unexplained memory loss or confusion that seems to come and go
  • Irritability or shortness of temper
  • Sudden increase in falls or the appearance of unexplained injuries and bruises
  • Noted changes in sleep habits
  • Unexplained weight loss that occurs very suddenly
  • A desire to be alone or expressing the desire for you to leave him alone
  • Noticeable changes in the personal hygiene habits or household maintenance of your loved one

It is important to note that despite popular belief, women are much more likely than men to begin abusing alcohol when they reach late adulthood. Because women are much more secretive and private than men, however, substance abuse problems in women may go undetected for much longer than the same behaviors and men. It is critical when providing elder care for an aging loved one that you stay vigilant of your loved one?s behavior and condition so that you can detect the warning signs of substance abuse and help your loved one overcome a problem if it arises.

If you have a loved one who could benefit from the help of elder care in Riverside County, CA contact the caregivers at ComforCare Senior Services. We help seniors and their families with many levels of home care service. Call (760) 565-0045 for more information.

Source: http://www.riversidecountyseniorcare.com/elder-care-in-riverside-county-ca

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Soldier-turned-TV cowboy Dale Robertson dies

Getty Images

By Randee Dawn, TODAY contributor

Dale Robertson, who used his Okie background and love of the American range to craft a long career in TV and film westerns, died at 89 on Wednesday near his home in San Diego, Calif. according to the New York Times.

He died of complications from lung cancer and pneumonia, his wife told the newspaper.?

Robertson's career spanned the decades following WWII; he appeared in early television series including "The Iron Horse" and "Death Valley Days," and by the 1980s he had regular recurring roles on later shows like "Dallas" and Dynasty." He created and starred in the "Wells Fargo" series and served as the titular star in the 1987-88 series "J.J. Starbuck." Over the years, he racked up credits in over 60 films and 430 TV episodes.

According to the Times, Robertson didn't have a burning urge to become an actor; reportedly he only got into showbiz so he could start a horse farm. Acting came along almost accidentally -- a photo taken of him displayed in a shop window drew the attention of Hollywood talent scouts, according to his IMDB.com bio, and he began working in show business after serving overseas in WWII (he was the recipient of bronze and silver stars). Prior to his military service, the former Dayle Lymoine Robertson was a high school sports star and pro boxer.

Getty Images

Robertson with Marilyn Monroe at a celebrity baseball game in 1952.

But as he said in a 1988 interview, acting was really just an extension of his own personality. "An actor can change himself to fit a part, whereas a personality has to change the part to fit himself," he said in an interview in 1988. "The personality has to say it his own way."

Robertson was married four times, and eventually realized his dream of owning a ranch after he left showbiz, purchasing one in Yukon, Okla.?

Perhaps his longevity and endurance can be traced back to advice he took from Will Rogers Jr., who was the son of the famed humorist. "Don't ever take a dramatic lesson," Rogers reportedly told Robertson. "They will try to put your voice in a dinner jacket, and people like their hominy and grits in everyday clothes."

Related content:

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Source: http://todayentertainment.today.com/_news/2013/02/28/17131097-dale-robertson-soldier-turned-onscreen-cowboy-dies-at-89?lite

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Indian auto Industry expresses displeasure over Budget 2013 | Rush ...

Heads from Audi and Ford have expressed their displeasure over the union budget 2013, which was revealed earlier today by finance minister P Chidambaram. Both Ford and Audi has released a statement expressing their displeasure over the budget 2013.

Auto Industry expresses displeasure over Budget 2013Budget 2013 has proposed an increase in import duties of completely built cars and motorcycles, which will affect the prices of some cars from Audi, Mercedes Benz, BMW, Jaguar, Land Rover, and Volkswagen. While all cars from brands like Lamborghini, Rolls Royce, Porsche and Ferrari will be increased as the duty will go up from present 75% to proposed 100%.

Apart from this, budget 2013 also stated that import duty on completely built motorcycles above 800cc will be increased from 60% to 75%, this will affect prices of certain Harley Davidson motorcycles. Excise duty on all SUVs will be increased from 27% to 30%, because they need larger parking space, says Mr Chidambaram. Ford India, who is close on the heels of launching their compact SUV EcoSport, is the first to express their displeasure officially. They need to price the EcoSport competitively in order to make it a success in the Indian auto industry.

A statement revealed by Joginder Singh, president and managing director, Ford India, reads,??We welcome the focus on infrastructure development, social benefits for inclusive and sustainable growth in the country. The investment allowance to boost the manufacturing sector is a positive move. The automobile industry is a significant contributor to India?s economy and future growth potential. We are disappointed that there is very little in the budget that will help boost consumer confidence and revive growth. It is a missed opportunity to introduce measures that would have revived industrial growth significantly. As we all know the automotive industry has been going through very challenging times, we are disappointed with the increase in the excise duty for SUVs.?

At the same time, Audi India?s Head, Michael Perschke, said via his tweeter account, ?Duty Increase impact auto industry growth! No choice but 2 pass on increase to customer.? Audi is the second largest luxury car maker in India. They too expressed their displeasure as you can read in the statement below.

?Increase in Custom Duty for imported cars and Excise Duty on SUVs is very surprising. It will severely impact the auto industry and its growth. We will have to seriously evaluate the impact of this hike on our prices and, have no choice other than to pass on the increase to the customer. Overall it will have an adverse impact on automobile industry which is already going through a slowdown and specifically affect demand including that of SUVs.

Currently, the industry is facing pressure from a number of factors like increasing fuel prices, high input costs, persistent inflation, high interest rates; the increase in excise and customs duty will be a dampener. The government should have looked at extending support to auto industry, which has been contributing, significantly to the GDP and could have formed a strategic pillar of industrial development.

We are happy to note that there is a renewed focus on infrastructure especially roads. The proposed regulatory authority on road construction will hopefully fuel better infrastructure and speed up developments.?

Source: http://www.rushlane.com/auto-industry-expresses-displeasure-1267879.html

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These nut-cracking monkeys have skills

Nut-cracking monkeys don't just use tools. They use tools with skill.

That's the conclusion of a new study that finds similar tool-use strategies between humans and Brazil's bearded capuchin monkeys, which use rocks to smash nuts for snacks. Both monkeys and humans given the nut-smashing task take the time to place the nuts in their most stable position on a stone "anvil," the study found, keeping the tasty morsels from rolling away.

That means the monkeys are able to not only use tools, but to use them with finesse. This ability may be a precursor to humans' ability to adapt tools to different circumstances and to use them smoothly under varying conditions.

"Any one individual can accomodate stones of different sizes, anvils of different angles and material and nuts of different shapes and sizes," said study leader Dorothy Fragaszy, a primate researcher at the University of Georgia, adding, "In fact, some of these nuts people can't crack."

Nut-crackers

Bearded capuchin monkeys were the first non-ape primates to be discovered using tools in the wild. They crack tough nuts by placing them on pitted stone anvils and then hitting them hard with other large rocks. [8 Humanlike Behaviors of Primates]

"They are slamming [the rock] on that nut," Fragaszy told LiveScience. "It's very impressive when you see it."

Fragaszy and her colleagues wanted to get a better idea of how skilled capuchins are at nut-cracking. In particular, they noticed the monkeys have an odd habit of tapping the nuts multiple times against the stone pits before putting them down. Perhaps, they thought, the tapping was a way to tell how stable the nut might be.

To find out, the researchers brought palm nuts to a population of capuchin monkeys in Fazenda Boa Vista in Brazil. The monkeys are wild, but habituated to human presence. Ten of the monkeys "volunteered" for the study by gathering the nuts and cracking them with stones as big as their heads as the researchers videotaped.

Before handing over the nuts, however, the scientists rolled them along the floor to find their flat sides, which they marked with a line. They also marked the other axis of the nut with color-coded pens so they could identify how the monkeys placed the nuts in the video.

Savvy tool use

The results revealed that the monkeys consistently placed the nuts in the most stable position. Out of 302 nut-cracking attempts, 253 started with the line marking the nut's stable axis facing up. Monkeys varied only slightly in their ability to ideally place the nut, doing so between 71 percent and 94 percent of the time depending on the individual. [See Video of the Monkey Attempts]

Next, the researchers ran an identical test with humans. Seven male and seven female volunteers were given nuts and told to crack them with stones, just as the capuchin monkeys do. The humans were blindfolded during the task, because the researchers suspected that the monkeys could place the nuts by feel and wanted to find out if humans could, too.

On average, the humans also placed the nuts in the most stable position, doing so on about 71 percent of tries. Unlike capuchins, however, they didn't knock the nuts against the stone very frequently. Instead, humans tended to roll the nuts around in their hands, feeling their shape. Humans have much larger hands than bearded capuchins, the researchers wrote today (Feb. 27) in the journal PLOS ONE, which could explain the different strategies.

The results suggest that humans and monkeys share the ability to use tools skillfully, with minimal effort for maximum effect, the researchers wrote.

"It's skill in the way that we use that word to talk about human skills," Fragaszy said. "It's a goal-directed activity. It's done fluidly. It's done flexibly."

Follow Stephanie Pappas on Twitter @sipappas?or LiveScience @livescience. We're also on Facebook?& Google+.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nut-cracking-monkeys-show-humanlike-skills-234130471.html

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Dialogic Fuels Networks, Augments WebRTC

Having covered Dialogic for about two decades I can tell you they were an integral player in the converging world of communications and technology. When you leave a voicemail, call into a call center or benefit from a telecom advancement quite often a Dialogic product is involved by providing an interface and performing some sort of processing behind the scenes.

After rolling up much of the competitive space and other telecom vendors as well, the company found itself in a situation where much of its core business was being eliminated as many of the tasks you once needed proprietary boards to handle could be taken care of through software on ever-more powerful Intel CPUs.

If this challenge wasn't enough of an issue, Asterisk made it easy to have a standardized base of solutions to build on top of when looking to solve the problems you once had to rely exclusively on Dialogic to provide.

In response to this pressure the company has relaunched itself with a new branding campaign titled "Network Fuel" which is designed to remind carriers the company can help it solve a myriad of networking challenges for them.

Andrew Goldberg, Dialogic Senior VP of Strategy & Marketing proudly stands in front of signs depicting thee company's rebranding efforts

Andrew Goldberg, the company's Senior VP of Strategy & Marketing took me through the company's new reorganized product line but started by saying the goal of the company is to make networks better. The three pillars of the Network Fuel paradigm are as follows:

Any to any networking/interconnection which includes gateways, control switch, SBCs, session-management, signaling management which allows for roaming, etc.

Network congestion - which is a rebrand of bandwidth optimization. They refer to this new area as "amplifying capacity" which includes VoIP, video and more recently, data. He explains that Dialogic has new products coming which will sit in network core and backhaul, optimize and amplify capacity - even if the data is currently optimized. He says carriers can build more network or deploy the company's technology and amplify what they have. He says the ROI gets even better in developing markets where backhaul is handled by satellite and microwave. "Capacity is at a premium," he emphasized. He continued to say their solutions are a better CAPEX and OPEX solution.

Finally there is application enablement which as you may recall harkens back to the company's long-history of being the underlying technology of the app-gen business of the 1990s which allowed developers for the first time to use a GUI to write telecom applications. Sure, this seems like its no big deal now but when you consider PBXs and central office switches of the time wouldn't imagine the concept of open APIs on their systems, you see why Dialogic's entry into the open telecom space was a game-changer.

Speaking of game-changing this is what he said about WebRTC - the company knows this is a huge area of opportunity and envisions having its PowerMedia solutions be the integration layer allowing additions like voicemail, video-mail, collaboration, multi-party-conferencing, call recording and more. He said in fact PowerMedia as a software media server fits in the middle and turns WebRTC into something people want "beyond a novelty."

The reason this is interesting has to do with the IP telephony space which first emerged in the late 1990s. As some of you recall, in 1997 I went to the then-prevalent COMDEX trade show to tell people my company, TMC was about to launch a magazine called Internet Telephony. The reaction was unanimous - why do we need a magazine on a hobbyist toy? They may as well have called it a "novelty" right?

What most didn't see coming was a thriving IP telephony/VoIP gateway business enabled by companies providing boards and software such as Dialogic. It turns out, it only took a fe modifications to adapt current boards used in voicemail systems to handle real-time IP communications. From there, the calling card market started to adopt VoIP and we soon saw IP-based PBX and ACD solutions emerge. Amazingly this simple concept of transporting communications over IP is responsible for the FCC discussing the sunsetting of the PSTN or traditional telephone network later this decade.

The point is WebRTC as Goldberg describes it sounds exactly like the VoIP market when it emerged more than 15 years ago. Will it be as big? Bigger? No one knows for sure but Dialogic is once again positioning itself to be in the middle of the action - "fueling" not only your network but development efforts as investors, developers, carriers, web portals and start-ups try to strike it rich in this new and exciting market.

To learn more about WebRTC see the recent TMC webinar Dialogic recently held on the matter and visit them live at WebRTC Conference & Expo in Atlanta, June 25-27, 2013.

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Source: http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/rich-tehrani/conference/dialogic-fuels-networks-augments-webrtc.html

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Senate approves Lew as new Treasury chief

Feb 27 (Reuters) - Former world number one Caroline Wozniacki suffered one of her worst career defeats when she bowed out of the Malaysia Open to 186th-ranked Chinese qualifier Qiang Wang on Wednesday. The Dane, top seed at the event in Kuala Lumpur, cruised through the opening set of her first round clash and had a match point in the second before going down 2-6 7-6 6-1. Qualifier Wang, 21, allowed Wozniacki only one point in the second set tiebreak as she levelled the match and rolled through the decider to claim her biggest careeer win. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/senate-panel-backs-lew-treasury-secretary-013852659--sector.html

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Reap what you sow? When it comes to exercise, benefits may differ

Reap what you sow? When it comes to exercise, benefits may differ [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 27-Feb-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Christina Camilli-Whisenhunt
camillic@umich.edu
734-647-3079
University of Michigan

ANN ARBORResearchers at the University of Michigan School of Kinesiology have received a $1 million grant to study how exercise and other therapies might work differently in lean and obese individuals.

Greg Cartee, U-M professor of movement science, and his colleagues at the Muscle Biology Laboratory hope to clarify the link between insulin, exercise and sugar uptake by studying how lean and obese rats respond to exercise.

The grant comes from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive Kidney and Health, which has funded Cartee's research since 2006.

Exercise and insulin help our bodies sop up glucose, the main type of sugar in the blood, so muscles can use it for energy. Insulin resistance, the inability to efficiently remove sugar from the blood, can contribute to diabetes, obesity and other health problems. Efficiently clearing blood sugar after meals, a process called glucose, or sugar uptake, is critical to improving the health of obese people.

Previous research from Cartee's lab found that during a sedentary state, fibers from obese rates couldn't take up as much sugar as fibers from lean rats. With the latest grant, Cartee's team will compare responses of lean and obese rats to exercise, probing deeper into why this discrepancy in sugar uptake exists.

They hope to learn if exercise can correct the low sugar uptake in the obese group. In turn, the findings could lead to pharmaceutical interventions, and better exercise strategies and therapies to help both lean and obese people become healthier.

"We believe that even though obese and lean individuals can benefit from exercise, the precise way in which they attain these benefits may not be identical," said Cartee, who directs the Muscle Biology Laboratory. "If we can understand the differences, it will allow us to provide more effective treatmentswhether exercise, diet or drug therapyfor everyone."

Most research on insulin resistance and muscle glucose uptake uses average values for glucose uptake by the entire musclethink of a mechanic trying to understand how a car works without looking under the hood.

Cartee's novel method differs in that he and U-M doctoral student Jim MacKrell developed a way to determine sugar uptake in single cells, called fibers. The team can also classify types of fibers and measure and identify proteins that regulate uptake and metabolism of sugar.

"It's a much better view because we expect that not every kind of fiber will respond the same way to exercise or diet, or even aging," Cartee said.

In this way, they can determine if exercise impacts lean and obese groups equally for each fiber type.

###

Greg Cartee: http://kines.umich.edu/profile/greg-cartee-phd

Muscle Biology Laboratory: http://kines.umich.edu/lab/muscle-biology-laboratory

School of Kinesiology: http://kines.umich.edu

The University of Michigan School of Kinesiology continues to be a leader in the areas of prevention and rehabilitation, the business of sport, understanding lifelong health and mobility, and achieving health across the lifespan through physical activity. The school is home to the Athletic Training, Movement Science, Physical Education, and Sport Management academic programsbringing together leaders in physiology, biomechanics, public health, urban planning, economics, marketing, public policy, education and behavioral science.


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

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Reap what you sow? When it comes to exercise, benefits may differ [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 27-Feb-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Christina Camilli-Whisenhunt
camillic@umich.edu
734-647-3079
University of Michigan

ANN ARBORResearchers at the University of Michigan School of Kinesiology have received a $1 million grant to study how exercise and other therapies might work differently in lean and obese individuals.

Greg Cartee, U-M professor of movement science, and his colleagues at the Muscle Biology Laboratory hope to clarify the link between insulin, exercise and sugar uptake by studying how lean and obese rats respond to exercise.

The grant comes from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive Kidney and Health, which has funded Cartee's research since 2006.

Exercise and insulin help our bodies sop up glucose, the main type of sugar in the blood, so muscles can use it for energy. Insulin resistance, the inability to efficiently remove sugar from the blood, can contribute to diabetes, obesity and other health problems. Efficiently clearing blood sugar after meals, a process called glucose, or sugar uptake, is critical to improving the health of obese people.

Previous research from Cartee's lab found that during a sedentary state, fibers from obese rates couldn't take up as much sugar as fibers from lean rats. With the latest grant, Cartee's team will compare responses of lean and obese rats to exercise, probing deeper into why this discrepancy in sugar uptake exists.

They hope to learn if exercise can correct the low sugar uptake in the obese group. In turn, the findings could lead to pharmaceutical interventions, and better exercise strategies and therapies to help both lean and obese people become healthier.

"We believe that even though obese and lean individuals can benefit from exercise, the precise way in which they attain these benefits may not be identical," said Cartee, who directs the Muscle Biology Laboratory. "If we can understand the differences, it will allow us to provide more effective treatmentswhether exercise, diet or drug therapyfor everyone."

Most research on insulin resistance and muscle glucose uptake uses average values for glucose uptake by the entire musclethink of a mechanic trying to understand how a car works without looking under the hood.

Cartee's novel method differs in that he and U-M doctoral student Jim MacKrell developed a way to determine sugar uptake in single cells, called fibers. The team can also classify types of fibers and measure and identify proteins that regulate uptake and metabolism of sugar.

"It's a much better view because we expect that not every kind of fiber will respond the same way to exercise or diet, or even aging," Cartee said.

In this way, they can determine if exercise impacts lean and obese groups equally for each fiber type.

###

Greg Cartee: http://kines.umich.edu/profile/greg-cartee-phd

Muscle Biology Laboratory: http://kines.umich.edu/lab/muscle-biology-laboratory

School of Kinesiology: http://kines.umich.edu

The University of Michigan School of Kinesiology continues to be a leader in the areas of prevention and rehabilitation, the business of sport, understanding lifelong health and mobility, and achieving health across the lifespan through physical activity. The school is home to the Athletic Training, Movement Science, Physical Education, and Sport Management academic programsbringing together leaders in physiology, biomechanics, public health, urban planning, economics, marketing, public policy, education and behavioral science.


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

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-02/uom-rwy022713.php

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Jeopardy! Hosts 'A Binder Full of Women' Category

I'll take "A Binder Full of Women" for $500, Alex.

That was the actual category on the Jeopardy! board on Monday evening as the game show resurrected one of the most memorable meme's of the 2012 election cycle: Republican Presidential nominee, Mitt Romney's comment made during the presidential debate against President Barack Obama at Hofstra University.

Romney's inadvertently funny description came in response to a question from the audience in the townhall style debate at Hofstra about pay equity for women.

The candidate was explaining that as the governor of Massachusetts searching for qualified women to fill cabinet posts, women's groups brought him "binders full of women" who were good candidates.

"And I said, 'Well, gosh, can't we - can't we find some - some women that are also qualified?" Romney said. "I went to a number of women's groups and said, 'Can you help us find folks,' and they brought us whole binders full of women."

The Internet went crazy for the term, which took on a life of it's own. Read more about that HERE.

This week Jeopardy displayed a graphic of a binder full of women as a topic choice.

Check Out Some Of The 'Binders Full of Women' Memes Here

When chosen, the category featured an image of a notable woman of whom the contestant would have to name. The Binder full of woman graphic included Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and 1976 Summer Olympics gold medalist, Nadia Comaneci among others.

"A Binder Full of Women" category was placed last on the board and prompted cheers from the audience when it was presented by the show's host, Alec Trebek.

Other categories on Monday's show included: "Hugo Awards For Science Fiction", "1990's Music", "World Place Names, "A Bunch of Stuff" and fittingly, "Funny Things People Say".

Also Read

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/jeopardy-hosts-binder-full-women-category-220406096--abc-news-politics.html

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Quantity of sugar in food supply linked to diabetes rates, researcher says

Feb. 27, 2013 ? Does eating too much sugar cause diabetes? For years, scientists have said "not exactly." Eating too much of any food, including sugar, can cause you to gain weight; it's the resulting obesity that predisposes people to diabetes, according to the prevailing theory.

But now the results of a large epidemiological study suggest sugar may also have a direct, independent link to diabetes. Researchers from the Stanford University School of Medicine, the University of California-Berkeley and the University of California-San Francisco examined data on sugar availability and diabetes rates from 175 countries over the past decade. After accounting for obesity and a large array of other factors, the researchers found that increased sugar in a population's food supply was linked to higher diabetes rates, independent of obesity rates.

Their study was published Feb. 27 in PLOS ONE.

"It was quite a surprise," said Sanjay Basu, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of medicine at the Stanford Prevention Research Center and the study's lead author. The research was conducted while Basu was a medical resident at UCSF.

The study provides the first large-scale, population-based evidence for the idea that not all calories are equal from a diabetes-risk standpoint, Basu said. "We're not diminishing the importance of obesity at all, but these data suggest that at a population level there are additional factors that contribute to diabetes risk besides obesity and total calorie intake, and that sugar appears to play a prominent role."

Specifically, more sugar was correlated with more diabetes: For every additional 150 calories of sugar available per person per day, the prevalence of diabetes in the population rose 1 percent, even after controlling for obesity, physical activity, other types of calories and a number of economic and social variables. A 12-ounce can of soda contains about 150 calories of sugar. In contrast, an additional 150 calories of any type caused only a 0.1 percent increase in the population's diabetes rate.

Not only was sugar availability correlated to diabetes risk, but the longer a population was exposed to excess sugar, the higher its diabetes rate after controlling for obesity and other factors. In addition, diabetes rates dropped over time when sugar availability dropped, independent of changes to consumption of other calories and physical activity or obesity rates.

The findings do not prove that sugar causes diabetes, Basu emphasized, but do provide real-world support for the body of previous laboratory and experimental trials that suggest sugar affects the liver and pancreas in ways that other types of foods or obesity do not. "We really put the data through a wringer in order to test it out," Basu said.

The study used food-supply data from the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization to estimate the availability of different foods in the 175 countries examined, as well as estimates from the International Diabetes Foundation on the prevalence of diabetes among 20- to 79-year-olds. The researchers employed new statistical methods derived from econometrics to control for factors that could provide alternate explanations for an apparent link between sugar and diabetes, including overweight and obesity; many non-sugar components of the food supply, such as fiber, fruit, meat, cereals and oils; total calories available per day; sedentary behavior; rates of economic development; household income; urbanization of the population; tobacco and alcohol use; and percentage of the population age 65 or older, since age is also associated with diabetes risk.

"Epidemiology cannot directly prove causation," said Robert Lustig, MD, pediatric endocrinologist at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital and the senior author of the study. "But in medicine, we rely on the postulates of Sir Austin Bradford Hill to examine associations to infer causation, as we did with smoking. You expose the subject to an agent, you get a disease; you take the agent away, the disease gets better; you re-expose and the disease gets worse again. This study satisfies those criteria, and places sugar front and center."

"As far as I know, this is the first paper that has had data on the relationship of sugar consumption to diabetes," said Marion Nestle, PhD, a professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University who was not involved in the study. "This has been a source of controversy forever. It's been very, very difficult to separate sugar from the calories it provides. This work is carefully done, it's interesting and it deserves attention."

The fact that the paper used data obtained over time is an important strength, Basu said. "Point-in-time studies are susceptible to all kinds of reverse causality," he said. "For instance, people who are already diabetic or obese might eat more sugars due to food cravings."

The researchers had to rely on food-availability data for this study instead of consumption data because no large-scale international databases exist to measure food consumption directly. Basu said follow-up studies are needed to examine possible links between diabetes and specific sugar sources, such as high-fructose corn syrup or sucrose, and also to evaluate the influence of specific foods, such as soft drinks or processed foods.

Another important future step, he said, is to conduct randomized clinical trials that could affirm a cause-and-effect connection between sugar consumption and diabetes. Although it would be unethical to feed people large amounts of sugar to try to induce diabetes, scientists could put participants of a study on a low-sugar diet to see if it reduces diabetes risk.

Basu was cautious about possible policy implications of his work, stating that more evidence is needed before enacting widespread policies to lower sugar consumption.

However, Nestle pointed out that the findings add to many other studies that suggest people should cut back on their sugar intake. "How much circumstantial evidence do you need before you take action?" she said. "At this point we have enough circumstantial evidence to advise people to keep their sugar a lot lower than it normally is."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Stanford University Medical Center, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS. The original article was written by Erin Digitale.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Sanjay Basu, Paula Yoffe, Nancy Hills, Robert H. Lustig. The Relationship of Sugar to Population-Level Diabetes Prevalence: An Econometric Analysis of Repeated Cross-Sectional Data. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (2): e57873 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0057873

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/health_medicine/nutrition/~3/nkFyrPM96yk/130227183452.htm

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TomTom to supply maps to Intel's Telmap, creates a total navigation app package

TomTom to supply map data to Intel's Telmap, create a whole navigation package

Intel scored access to code for location-based services when it acquired Telmap, but it didn't get the all-important location data needed to make the code sing. Rather than leave developers to find the content themselves, Telmap has struck a deal to get mapping information from TomTom. Navigation apps built around Telmap's work will soon have access both to TomTom's base maps as well as 3D maps, junctions, points of interest and voice mapping. While there's no mention of exactly when TomTom data will show up, the union is characterized as a "long-term partnership" -- we'd expect TomTom routing to quickly become a mainstay of Telmap's platforms (and potentially Intel's) in the near future.

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Source: Telmap

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A Disrupt Battlefield Launch And Three Redesigns Later, Postwire Tells All

Screen Shot 2013-02-26 at 9.46.41 AMPostwire, the startup aiming to disrupt content sharing on a business level, launched out of Disrupt last year in May, and has since undergone nearly three redesigns. This may appear, to the surface observer, as a lack of focus or certainty, yet as Postwire grows its user base in various verticals, rapid iteration allows them to put important tools and tricks in the forefront, while pushing any confusing queues to the background. On one side, marketers are organizing content in Postwire to share with salespeople who can then carry it on to their prospects. Because of this, one Postwire user can rally their entire network, from creative marketers all the way to sales, to get on the Postwire wagon. This has accounted for major growth at Postwire.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Hake6tPV4eo/

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Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Rhymes With Runt

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Quvenzhané Wallis, Best Actress nominee for her role in Beasts of the Southern Wild, arrives at the 85th Academy Awards in Hollywood, Calif., Feb. 24, 2013. Quvenzhan? Wallis, Best Actress nominee for her role in Beasts of the Southern Wild, arrives at the 85th Academy Awards in Hollywood, Calif., Feb. 24, 2013.

Photo by Lucy Nicholson/Reuters

The satirical newspaper the Onion offered a rare apology yesterday after it joked that 9-year-old actress Quvenzhan? Wallis was ?kind of a cunt, right?? Has that word always been so patently offensive?

No. In Middle English the word could be used as a standard term for the female genitalia, in a manner that was quite matter-of-fact. The earliest instance of the word recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary is actually from the name of a 13th-century London street, Gropecuntelane. The name appears to have been quite literal, and there was at least one other red-light district of the same name, in Oxford. One of the next recorded uses of the word comes from a circa-1400 surgery manual and uses the word much like vagina might be used today: ?In women the neck of the bladder is short, and is made fast to the cunt.? Others have noted that some people in the 13th and 14th centuries also had the word in their names, in a way that seems unlikely today: Some men and women at that time included Bele Wydecunthe, Robert Clevecunt, and Gunoka Cuntles. Indeed, as Geoffrey Hughes wrote in his book Swearing, there were many such colorful names, but ?the days when the dandelion could be called the pissabed, a heron could be called a shitecrow and the windhover could be called the windfucker have passed away with the exuberant phallic advertisement of the codpiece.?

The word became more offensive over the next few centuries. While Chaucer used the variant quaint in both the Miller?s Tale (?he caught her by the quaint?) and the Wife of Bath?s Tale (?you hall have quaint right enough at eve?), Shakespeare dared only to slyly allude to the word. In Hamlet, for example, when Ophelia tells Hamlet that, yes, he can lie on her lap, Hamlet puns in his response: ?Do you think I meant country matters?? In Twelfth Night, Shakespeare finds a coded way to spell out the word, when Malvolio recognizes his lady?s ?C?s, her U?s, ?n? her Ts.? (?Thus makes her great P?s,? he continues, in what amounts to an elaborate potty joke.)

If in Shakespeare?s time the word was becoming too obscene to utter in public, by the end of the 18th century it was truly taboo. When Robert Burns? printed the old Scottish folk song ?Yon, Yon, Yon, Lassie,? in 1796, the word appeared only as ?c?t.? In his 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, Francis Grose defined ?c**t? as ?a nasty name for a nasty thing,? while elsewhere he bleeped it out entirely (?****?), or referred to it only as ?the monosyllable.? (Lest you think him just a prude, Grose noted that others went even further, rendering the word constable as thingstable; Grose called this ?a ludicrous affectation of delicacy.?) By the early 20th century, cunt had begun to be used as an insult, and it was also around this time that language taboos shifted from religious profanity to vulgar sexual and scatological language. This perception that it's one of the most taboo words continues today: In a 2000 BBC study of the most offensive words, it ranked No. 1, ahead of motherfucker, fuck, and even nigger.

Why has cunt become so much more taboo than, say, snatch or pussy? The main reason may simply be that it?s blunt. Linguists note that, unlike those other words for the female genitalia?whose origins are all Latinate, euphemistic, or diminutive?cunt is plain and Anglo-Saxon. There is also the sound of the word. Many of the most taboo words, in addition to generally being Anglo-Saxon in origin, are monosyllables with short vowels, such as shit, piss, fuck, and cock. These are considered more offensive than words of the same meaning, like poopy, pee, screw, and willy. In fact, one of the only other words to share many of these characteristics is twat, which is also often considered highly offensive, though its origins are more uncertain.

Got a question about today?s news??Ask the Explainer.

Explainer thanks Anatoly Liberman of the University of Minnesota, Jesse Sheidlower of the Oxford English Dictionary, and Ben Zimmer of the Visual Thesaurus and Vocabulary.com

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=fc7a0f5350f1da64b1385be6c81598e2

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China considers overhaul to streamline government

BEIJING (AP) ? The Ministry of Railways operates ultramodern bullet trains but its singular focus on rail at a time of booming car ownership and air travel makes it a relic from an era when 100 ministries ran China's planned economy.

That could soon change. China's new Communist leaders are considering another shake-up of a sprawling bureaucracy that has added market regulators and shed agencies that once dictated prices and told companies what to produce.

Modernizing the rail ministry ? a Soviet-style behemoth with 2.1 million employees, its own courts and police and 1.7 billion passengers last year ? by making it part of a transportation "super ministry" would be a likely priority.

Such change would be politically fraught since it threatens top jobs and influence, the lifeblood of party factions. And it could require years to complete. But reformers say it is urgently needed to keep the world's second-largest economy growing strongly.

"If the new leaders want to demonstrate they are in charge, they want to break the logjam, then this is a great time," said Dali Yang, a specialist in the Chinese government at the University of Chicago.

Though details of the streamlining have yet to be announced, General Secretary Xi Jinping and other Communist Party leaders opened a three-day meeting Tuesday to discuss a reorganization plan, state media reported. The closed-door meeting of the Central Committee will also approve the appointment of top government officials who will be publicly announced early next month at the annual session of the ceremonial legislature. That will complete a power transition begun in November when Xi was installed as party leader.

A goal of the government consolidation is to create "super ministries" that pull together a jumble of agencies with overlapping duties in broad fields such as transportation, media, energy, finance and health.

Under scenarios discussed in official media, the Ministry of Railways might be united with agencies that oversee road and air travel.

The Ministry of Culture might absorb regulators for film, publishing and TV, where boundaries have been blurred by the rise of Internet- and mobile phone-based media. The hated family planning agency, which enforces China's birth limits, might be folded into the Ministry of Health.

The potential impact on private and foreign companies is unclear, but American and European business groups regularly urge Beijing to simplify regulation and approval processes they say slow investment and hamper operations.

China has undergone repeated bouts of government restructuring to keep pace with a changing economy.

In 1982, the number of Cabinet-level ministries and commissions was slashed from 100 to 61. In the 1990s, museum pieces such as the Ministry of Machine Building that were no longer needed to set prices and tell companies what to produce were eliminated. In 1998, then-Premier Zhu Rongji shrank the number of ministries further from 40 to 29.

At the same time, Beijing created Western-style regulators for banks and securities. A Ministry of Commerce was formed in 2003 to bring together trade and planning agencies, simplifying some trade regulation to make it easier for private sector traders to function.

Such change can provoke furious opposition. In the last round of proposed reforms in 2008, the only thing leaders finally agreed on was to make the environmental regulator a full-fledged ministry in response to an avalanche of pollution scandals.

Creating fewer, bigger ministries would fit with party pledges to make the economy more productive and keep incomes growing. Xi has called for a "renewal of the Chinese nation," raising hopes a new leader whose attitude toward reform is still unclear might throw his political weight behind remaking the government.

There is, however, no indication the restructuring will affect state-owned companies that dominate most major industries including telecommunications, banking and oil and have direct ties to the top ranks of the party. That will blunt the impact of the restructuring on making markets more competitive and productive.

If leaders take action, they are likely to produce no more than one or two concrete proposals to start, and that might not be until August, said a European diplomat who follows the internal workings of China's government.

And if they fail to release firm plans before the party's plenum late this year, that will suggest they have failed to agree, said the diplomat, who asked not to be identified by name because he was not authorized to talk to reporters.

In a reflection of political resistance, the Chinese business magazine Caijing says proposals to group together "big energy," ''big culture," "big finance" and "big system reform committee" were dropped from a draft plan.

And merging rival agencies into one big ministry is no guarantee factions that run them will cooperate.

The World Bank and a Cabinet think tank warned last year growth will deteriorate if Beijing fails to act quickly to curb the dominance of state industry and nurture private companies that generate jobs and wealth. Reformers say ministries that operate their own companies, giving them incentive to suppress private competitors, must be stripped of commercial interests and turned into neutral regulators.

The Ministry of Railways is the biggest example of regulatory throwbacks reformers say must evolve for China to thrive.

In an echo of the 1960s, when ministries were powerful, self-contained empires, it still operates its own police force and courts. Other state entities shed such non-core functions years ago. Its spending is huge; last year's capital spending plan was 745 billion yuan ($115 billion) ? comparable to the 670 billion yuan ($105 billion) military budget.

The ministry has built the world's biggest bullet train network but China's poor majority can't afford it and slower lines are crowded. Cargo service is expensive and inflexible, a dangerous bottleneck for a major trading economy.

The political opening for change might have come when the powerful railway minister, Liu Zhijun, was dismissed in February, 2011, amid corruption allegations. Later that year, a collision between two bullet trains that killed 40 people fueled demands for the ministry to be more responsive to public needs.

Rumors swirling around the fate of media regulators highlight potential pitfalls of consolidation.

The infant online and mobile entertainment industry flourished while regulators refrained from enforcing controls that limit the ability of traditional broadcasters to show foreign programs and other popular material. Change might simplify rules but also could bring more censorship and other controls that might hold back a promising industry.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/china-considers-overhaul-streamline-government-083807803--finance.html

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New Jersey Passes Online Gambling Law | GamePolitics

New Jersey lawmakers have approved a bill that will make online gambling in the state legal, opening the door for companies in the space -- including game companies like Zynga -- to operate online games that provide real-money gambling. Of course, you won't be able to play these games unless you reside in a state where it is legal to do so. Currently there are three: Nevada, Delaware, and now New Jersey. Nevada passed its online gambling bill last week.

Governor Chris Christie (R) has already signed the bill into law. The one caveat is that the bill will not take effect until the state's Division of Gaming Enforcement sets an official start date which could be somewhere between three and nine months after the law is signed.

One a related note, the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) issued a statement today applauding the move by lawmakers and the Governor:

"New Jersey has gone ?all in.? Residents now will have access to a safe and regulated online gaming market, and the state will have a new source for revenue and job creation -- something the federal government has failed to do thus far," said John Pappas, executive director of the PPA. "The U.S. represents the largest percentage of Internet poker players worldwide, so there is clearly a want and a need for a legal and regulated online gambling market. New Jersey will now serve as a leader in this thriving industry."

"Two dice" illustration ? 2012 Sergey Mironov, provided by Shutterstock.

Source: http://www.gamepolitics.com/2013/02/26/new-jersey-passes-online-gambling-law

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Video: Bernanke Rebound on the Street

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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/50965017/

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Philosophy in Action: NoodleFood : Preview: Wednesday Radio ...

On Wednesday?s Philosophy in Action Radio, I?ll interview paleo endurance athlete Nell Stephenson about ?Paleo for the Endurance Athlete.? This episode of internet radio airs at 6 pm PT / 7 MT / 8 CT / 9 ET on Wednesday, 27 February 2013, in our live studio. If you miss that live broadcast, you can always listen to the podcast later.

What?s wrong with the standard methods of training and nutrition for athletes? Can the paleo diet work for endurance atheletes? What kind of training and nutrition is required for endurance competition?

Nell Stephenson is the author of Paleoista: Gain Energy, Get Lean, and Feel Fabulous with the Diet You Were Born to Eat and the co-author of The Paleo Diet Cookbook. She studied Exercise Science at USC, followed by culinary school. She now owns and operates her paleo nutritional counseling business online with clients around the globe. Nell discovered paleo after contracting a parasite during an Ironman race in 2004.

To join the live broadcast and its chat, just point your browser to Philosophy in Action?s Live Studio a few minutes before the show is scheduled to start. By listening live, you can share your thoughts with other listeners and ask us follow-up questions in the text chat.

If you miss the live broadcast, you?ll find the podcast from the episode posted in the archive: Radio Archive: Nell Stephenson on Paleo for the Endurance Athlete. It will be posted on Thursday morning, if not sooner. You can automatically download that and other podcasts by subscribing to Philosophy in Action?s Podcast RSS Feed:

I hope you join us on Wednesday evening? and please share this announcement with any friends interested in this topic!

Philosophy in Action Radio applies rational principles to the challenges of real life in live internet radio shows on Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings. For information on upcoming shows, visit the Episodes on Tap. For podcasts of past shows, visit the Show Archives.

Source: http://www.philosophyinaction.com/blog/?p=9845

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Injured Athletes Cashing In On California Workers' Compensation ...

An injured 49er is attended to on the field. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

An injured 49er is attended to on the field. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

SACRAMENTO (CBS SF) ? Pro athletes, many representing out-of-state teams, have been awarded millions of dollars from the California Workers? Compensation program over the last three decades, according to a Los Angeles Times report.

According to the report, NFL players who appeared in as few as one game in the golden state have filed claims for their injuries. Unlike other states, California allows the players to file claims not just for the specific injuries suffered during the games, but also the long-term complications of participating in the sport.

Since 1980, payments have totaled $747 million has been paid to roughly 4,500 athletes, according to a study cited by The Times. The ?vast majority? of the claimants played for out-of-state teams ? including NFL start Terrell Davis, and Michael Irvin, as well as NBA Hall of Famer Moses Malone, all of whom reached six-figure settlements.

A firm known as Pro Athlete Consulting even lists handling these claims as one of its specialties on the company website.

Since workers? comp is employer-funded, the cost goes to business owners rather than regular taxpayers. According to the Times, NFL owners claim that players are exploiting the system, clogging courts and potentially driving up workers? comp insurance for all business owners by potentially driving up workers? compensation insurance through increased claims.

(Copyright 2013 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Source: http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2013/02/25/injured-athletes-cashing-in-on-california-workers-compensation/

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SPIN METER: In budget fight, sky is falling again

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama and his officials are doing their best to drum up public concern over the shock wave of spending cuts that could strike the government in just days. So it's a good time to be alert for sky-is-falling hype.

Over the last week or so, administration officials have come forward with a grim compendium of jobs to be lost, services to be denied or delayed, military defenses to be let down and important operations to be disrupted. Obama's new chief of staff, Denis McDonough, spoke of a "devastating list of horribles."

For most Americans, though, it's far from certain they will have a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day if the budget-shredder known as the sequester comes to pass. Maybe they will, if the impasse drags on for months.

For now, there's a whiff of the familiar in all the foreboding, harking back to the mid-1990s partial government shutdown, when officials said old people would go hungry, illegal immigrants would have the run of the of the land and veterans would go without drugs. It didn't happen.

For this episode, provisions are in place to preserve the most crucial services ? and benefit checks. Furloughs of federal workers are at least a month away, breathing room for a political settlement if the will to achieve one is found. Many government contractors would continue to be paid with money previously approved.

Warnings of thousands of teacher layoffs, for example, are made with the presumption that local communities would not step in with their own dollars ? perhaps from higher taxes ? to keep teachers in the classrooms if federal money is not soon restored. Education Secretary Arne Duncan says teacher layoffs have already begun, but he has not backed up that claim and school administrators say no pink slips are expected before May, for the next school year.

To be sure, the cuts are big and will have consequences. Knowing what they will be, though, is far from a precise exercise.

And there is a lot of improbable precision in administration statements about what could happen: more than 373,000 seriously ill people losing mental health services, 600,000 low-income pregnant women and new mothers losing food aid and nutrition education, 1,200 fewer inspections of dangerous work sites, 125,000 poor households going without vouchers, and much more.

"These numbers are just numbers thrown out into the thin air with no anchor, and I think they don't provoke the outrage or concern that the Obama administration seeks," said Paul Light, a New York University professor who specializes in the federal bureaucracy and budget. For all the dire warnings, he said, "It's not clear who gets hurt by this."

The estimates in many cases come from a simple calculation: Divide the proscribed spending cut by a program's per-person spending to see how many beneficiaries may lose services or benefits under the sequester.

But in practice, through all the layers of bureaucracy and the everyday smoke and mirrors of the federal budget, there is rarely a direct and measurable correlation between a federal dollar and its effect on the ground.

That has meant a lot of tenuous "could happen" warnings by the administration, not so much "will happen" evidence.

So it was in Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius' letter to Congress laying out likely consequences of the spending cuts for her agency's operations. She said the sequester "could" compromise the well-being of more than 373,000 people who "potentially" would not get needed mental health services, which in turn "could result" in more hospitalizations and homelessness.

Duncan left himself less wiggle room. "This stuff is real," he said last week. "Schools are already starting to give teachers notices."

Asked to provide backup for Duncan's assertion, spokesman Daren Briscoe said it was based on "an unspecified call he was on with unnamed persons," and the secretary might not be comfortable sharing details.

Briscoe referred queries about layoffs to the American Association of School Administrators. Noelle M. Ellerson, an assistant director of the organization, said Monday that in her many discussions with superintendents at the group's just-completed annual meeting, she heard of no layoffs of teachers. While everyone is bracing for that possibility down the road, she said, "not a single one I spoke with had already issued pink slips."

Most school district budgets for the next school year won't be completed for two months, she said, meaning any layoff notices would come in early to mid-May. "No one had yet acted."

School districts in areas set aside for tribal lands or military bases count on Washington for a significant share of their budgets, and are to lose $60 million, or 5 percent of their federal payments, when the sequester starts. Nearly all money to run most of the nation's public schools comes from local sources such as property taxes that are not affected by the federal cuts.

As for the assertion that 600,000 women could be dropped from the Women, Infants and Children Program, that's not to say the rolls would be cut by that number. The actual number is likely to include women who are not enrolled in the program now and could be denied when seeking to join it. Federal officials say the true number will depend on how states can manage their caseloads.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has warned of impending furloughs of air traffic controllers, who may need to take one day off every two weeks, and said air-travel delays are likely across the country. Asked Friday why the airline lobby predicted no major impact on air travel from the sequester, he said, "I don't think they have the information we're presenting to them today."

"The idea that we're just doing this to create some kind of a horrific scare tactic is nonsense," LaHood said. But it's a pressure tactic nonetheless: "What I'm trying to do is to wake up members of the Congress on the Republican side to the idea that they need to come to the table."

However the cuts fall, Light at NYU says the Washington Monument ploy, also known as the Firemen First principle, is at work.

It goes like this: Put someone's budget at risk and the first thing you'll hear is a threat to close a cherished national symbol or lay off firefighters and police, when in fact there are other ways to cut spending.

It so happens the Washington Monument is already closed, for earthquake repair. But Obama indulged in the Firemen First principle quite literally.

He appeared at the White House in front of officers in blue uniforms to warn of the consequences of the sequester. "Emergency responders like the ones who are here today ? their ability to help communities respond to and recover from disasters will be degraded."

The law gives little flexibility to agencies to protect favored programs, except for big ones specifically exempted from the automatic cuts, such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and veterans benefits. FBI and Border Patrol furloughs are expected. Still, the White House has directed agencies to avoid cuts presenting "risks to life, safety or health" and to minimize harm to crucial services.

In the partial government shutdown during his presidency, Bill Clinton and his officials told some tall tales and sketched dark scenarios that didn't come to pass, though some might have if the crisis had lasted weeks or months longer. The shutdown played out over two installments totaling 26 days from mid-November 1995 to early January 1996.

National park properties closed (yes, even the Washington Monument), passport and federal mortgage insurance processing were disrupted and toxic waste cleanup stalled as hundreds of thousands of federal workers went idle, paid retroactively later. But states, communities and private groups stepped up to tide over the neediest, keeping Meals on Wheels rolling with their own resources, for example, until Clinton found emergency money to cover the costs. Warnings that Medicare treatment would be withheld proved unfounded, and veterans got their care.

Contractors, who perform many key services for government, kept working for IOUs. A claim by the government that deportations "have virtually ended" was not so.

The Justice Department told the story of a Florida gas station rejecting the government-issued credit card of a drug-enforcement agent to illustrate the indignity of it all.

But the reality was humdrum: The card had merely expired.

___

Associated Press writers Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Mary Clare Jalonick, Joan Lowy and Philip Elliott contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-02-26-Budget%20Battle-Sky%20Is%20Falling/id-0d1f7c4d7f144b45ab7eaf8612404fb7

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How to Identify Niche Online Business Opportunities

How to Identify Niche Online Business Opportunities Money can be made from practically anywhere; you just have to be creative, organized, and have your eyes open. There are many different ways to make money online. No, this isn?t any ?Rich dad, poor dad? gig or an online pyramid scheme. If you really want to make some money, you will actually have to work hard for it. If there is an easy way, by all means, let me know. However, there a few things that can make it more efficient, like a well-thought out and formulated business plan.

There is an industry that I came across that looked very promising due to the traffic and competitor performance. Now, this industry is not my forte, but it?s not rocket science, either. I decided to research my competitors? landing pages, website, target market, and angle to create a campaign for myself to sell off leads to dealers and brokers. While the idea was easy, the setup is somewhat more complicated. You must have a plan of action and a step-by-step process before moving forward with the project.

Finding the Opportunity

Opportunity doesn?t come knocking on your door as much as you?d like it to, but when it does, you must act fast and smart. It might seem like a great idea at first, but intensive research must be done before jumping into this financial decision. Certain elements that should be researched are:

Target Market

Who will be your target market when implementing this business opportunity? What are their demographics? Spending behavior? Is there a seasonal trend in sales? Should you aim for manufacturers, suppliers, retailers, brokers, or the end user?

Time and Money

You will need to calculate how much time you will spend on the whole process. Time is money and if this venture takes up too much of your time and produces little revenue, you?ll be better off sticking with your day job. Each step of the plan of action should have a set schedule of when it will be started and when it will end. All procedures that require funding should be calculated and summed up to get an estimate on how what your ROI should look like.

The Angle

What angle will you take when launching this endeavor? Will you have a website for it? Will you give yourself a logo with a company name or will you work on your own as a broker or independent salesperson? What will be your approach? Will you look like a trustworthy company or one that provides quick results? Do you want to look exclusive to target private companies or individuals?

The more research you obtain, the more data you have that can be used to create a foolproof and lucrative plan. Research the leading competitors? online marketing (Search Engine Visibility) statistics with tools such as Spyfu and Open Site Explorer. You can view what terms they are spending most of their budget on and if they have seasonal peaks.

Plan of Action

When making a plan of action, all data must be researched and all possible angles must be analyzed. My angle was to generate leads through a PPC campaign and sell them to retailers and brokers. I had to figure out a way to execute this plan as efficiently and profitably as possible. We do this by laying out the specifics of the plan. In this worksheet, I placed all the necessary tools and features that I used to implement the plan.How to Identify Niche Online Business Opportunities

Price

When figuring out the pricing of what the service or product should be, it helps to see what the market price demand is. I researched a couple of competitor prices; you can also do some A/B testing with different prices, which will give you sufficient data to create the optimum price point. The market that I got into is very unique and practically untouched so I was able to play around with the prices.

When you create price options, you are opening up more sales avenues due to the wider audience.? I gave the option to offer a discount on multiple leads purchased vs. just one. Figure out the retainer, signup, legal, and monthly fees by the percentage you want to earn and costs that are incurred from setting it up. I decided to charge a retainer fee due to the uniqueness of the service being provided and the amount of work that goes into setting it up.

Payment

An online payment-processing program is needed to accept online payment and credit card validation. I recommend Authorize.net. Compare to see which service provider can give you the necessary tools in your budget range. Decide whether the processing fee will be incurred by you or included in the customers invoice.

If there is a monthly payment plan, your payment-processing program should have a recurring payment option. The customer should have the option to make the recurring payments automatic or manual. Authorize.net takes care of this.

A refund policy should be clearly stated and it should be understood that if payment is made, the refund policy has been agreed upon. I had a no refund policy since once a client receives a lead, its valuable information that can?t be returned. The payment process should be smooth and have as few steps as possible to avoid abandonment.

Relational Database Management System

My team customized a database that archived customer information and lead submissions. After a lead has been submitted on the landing page through a Wufoo form, the details were uploaded into this database in a user-friendly manner. This database is able to automatically deliver the leads to the clients that have recurring monthly plans. It is able to distinguish the different types of leads and customers, premium or basic. Your database has to comply with all of your data planning needs. You don?t necessarily have to custom build your database. You can use programs such as Microsoft Access or a web based solution.

You can also use color-coding to differentiate the different types of clients and products/services. Require the most information possible from both parties to avoid asking for more information in the future. Make sure that the database?s security measures are top notch so that no one can access your information internally or externally.

Outreach

How to Identify Niche Online Business Opportunities My plan was to find out what states had the highest traffic in search for this industry and outreach through LinkedIn, emails, paid ads, and phone calls. I used Google trends to search for the most promising prospect regions. In the end, there were five states that looked promising, so I searched through local industry listings, LinkedIn profiles, and company directories to find the appropriate person in the company to contact. A separate PPC campaign was made to target buyers from these regions only. A phone call and dynamic email template was made to make the process more efficient.

Rules and Regulations

The laws must be set down and made clear to all parties before any transaction is made. I added a disclosure statement before submitting the Wufoo form and making any payments. The disclosure states that the seller (me) is not held responsible for the quality of the leads and that I have the right to reject any sale. Having the rules and regulations set and signed by the other party will prevent any legal troubles in the future.

Schedule of Implementation

When you have your entire set of information ready, your next step is implementation, for which you must set a schedule of execution. These are the questions I had to answer:

- When will you begin this project?

- How long will it take you to do the outreach?

- How long will it take to setup the database?

- Who will send the emails and make the phone calls?

- Who will automate the recurring billing and lead delivery?

You can make up your own set of questions based on the different opportunities you come across. Once the timeframe and responsibilities are set, you can start scheduling out the tasks to the people responsible. If they are all assigned to one person, then give him or her reasonable amount of time to finish each task individually, not all at once. Make sure the schedule is set to achieve the optimum result.

Conclusion

There are different ways to research and tackle a niche business opportunity; my approach may not be viable for someone else?s project. Another might use an ecommerce approach with SEO integration or a word-of-mouth marketing strategy that uses intensive Social Media engagement.

Struggling to discover and implement niche business opportunities? Contact us today to learn how we can help!

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Source: https://www.optimum7.com/internet-marketing/business-strategy/how-to-identify-niche-online-business-opportunities.html

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