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Thursday, February 28, 2013
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JP Morgan Chase to slash $1 billion; cut staff
JPMorgan Chase became the latest Wall Street firm to scale back in an uncertain economy, announcing plans Tuesday to save $1 billion through various costs cuts and about 4,000 job reductions.
The bank, struggling to emerge from the shadow of a trading scandal known as the "London Whale" affair that dealt the firm its biggest ever trading loss, also issued a stark warning about the rising costs of regulation.
A frequent critic of efforts to increase oversight on Wall Street, JPMorgan said that new red tape could cost up to 10 percent of market revenues. However, the financial services giant cautioned that the effects of the Volcker Rule won't be seen for at least two to three years. JPMorgan also said it plans to add 200 more branches by 2014.
JPMorgan has instituted a number of changes to its executive suite lately, an issue JPMorgan Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon addressed when asked about whether management changes had become too disruptive, and a recent call to split the chairman and CEO roles.
The bank is "completely comfortable" with management overhauls and current leadership, Dimon said. Responding to a call to sever his joint position, the bank chief called the controversy a "sideshow". He added that the board should have flexibility to make those decisions.
The results from Italy's election continue to roil markets, which are becoming increasingly attuned to the threat of Washington's budget stalemate. Dimon said both events were unsettling investors.
Europe's debt troubles are "a roller coaster" for markets, Dimon said, adding that the threat of sequestration was a "legitimate" worry as well. Markets should be concerned by the potential for a quick and substantial jump in interest rates, should Washington fail to strike a deal on taxes and spending, he added.
The bank stated it would reduce headcount in its mortgage banking unit by between 13,000 to 15,000 by the end of 2014. Most of these employees are considered contractual and hourly workers, and not full-time, the bank said.
The bank's biggest challenges, according to Marianne Lake, JPMorgan's CFO who spoke at JPMorgan's Investor Meeting, are from regulatory issues.
Earlier in the day, Lake said that the planned cuts would be driven by savings in its mortgage unit, during a period when the U.S. housing sector has shown fairly steady improvement from the post- 2008 meltdown.
JPMorgan's cost-saving efforts come at a time when its key rivals are also moving to adjust to a volatile global economy. Goldman Sachs is reportedly preparing a round of job cuts; meanwhile, beleaguered financial behemoth Citigroup announced its own massive restructuring plans last year.
(Read more: Citigroup Axes 11,000 Jobs, $1.1 Billion in Costs)
Speaking at the investor conference earlier, Dimon said that while the company has benefited from downturns, it can maintain a 15 percent return on tangible equity.
?Reported by CNBC's Kayla Tausche, written by Javier E. David
? 2013 CNBC LLC. All Rights Reserved
Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/jp-morgan-chase-slash-1-billion-costs-cut-staff-4-1C8570370
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Forget Ordinary Paint: Use These 8 Stylish Faux Finishes
Applying Venetian plaster used to be a time-consuming process requiring patience and skill, so the job was mostly limited to master artisans. Today, even a first-time DIYer can get impressive results. The covering mimics the look of the stucco or polished marble found in old-world European architecture. The modern version of Venetian plaster has a multidimensional look featuring a textured, slightly raised surface that is the result of two or more layers.
Behr's Venetian plaster is applied with a putty knife. Wipe the plaster on the wall at a 15- to 30-degree angle relative to the floor or ceiling. Once it's dry, apply a second coat at a 60- to 90-degree angle. An optional topcoat protects the surface. (Note: For Venetian plaster or any other of these coverings, you'll need to prep the walls the way you would for a paint job?tape off the trim, fix cracks, and fill nail holes.)
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Himes gets DCCC finance post - CT Politics - Connecticut News
A senior staffer for Rep Jim Himes, D-CT4, confirmed late Wednesday that Himes will serve as finance chair for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in the current election cycle.
The DCCC will make the announcement Thursday morning.
?As the Republican majority once again holds jobs, recovery, and the middle class hostage to extreme ideology, it is more important than ever that we fill the House with representatives who will eat, sleep, and breathe opportunity for their fellow?Americans,? Himes said Wednesday night. ?I?m thrilled to devote myself to that effort.?
The move confirms earlier media reports that Himes had interest in taking a?DCCC leadership role.
Himes, currently in his third term, is well-positioned, given his financial-services connections, to be a significant fundraiser for Democrats.
The DCCC could not be reached for comment Wednesday night.
Source: http://blog.ctnews.com/politics/2013/02/27/himes-gets-dccc-finance-post/
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Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Slacker now streaming tunes on Xbox 360
After receiving a pre-Valentine's Day makeover, Slacker has officially made its way to the Xbox 360. Free to download for Xbox Live Gold subscribers in the US and Canada, the 116.17MB app brings the internet radio station's revamped color scheme, music guide and a posh set of voice controls via Kinect. So, if you're ready to bombard your TV with high-res slideshows of Diddy while rapping along to "Bad Boy for Life," then navigate your console's tiles to the Xbox Live Marketplace to add this app to your dashboard.
Filed under: Gaming, Software, Microsoft
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/qy4KODx1-74/
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Rethinking wind power
Monday, February 25, 2013
"People have often thought there's no upper bound for wind power?that it's one of the most scalable power sources," says Harvard applied physicist David Keith. After all, gusts and breezes don't seem likely to "run out" on a global scale in the way oil wells might run dry.
Yet the latest research in mesoscale atmospheric modeling, published today in the journal Environmental Research Letters, suggests that the generating capacity of large-scale wind farms has been overestimated.
Each wind turbine creates behind it a "wind shadow" in which the air has been slowed down by drag on the turbine's blades. The ideal wind farm strikes a balance, packing as many turbines onto the land as possible, while also spacing them enough to reduce the impact of these wind shadows. But as wind farms grow larger, they start to interact, and the regional-scale wind patterns matter more.
Keith's research has shown that the generating capacity of very large wind power installations (larger than 100 square kilometers) may peak at between 0.5 and 1 watts per square meter. Previous estimates, which ignored the turbines' slowing effect on the wind, had put that figure at between 2 and 7 watts per square meter.
In short, we may not have access to as much wind power as scientists thought.
An internationally renowned expert on climate science and technology policy, Keith holds appointments as Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and as Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School. Coauthor Amanda S. Adams was formerly a postdoctoral fellow with Keith and is now assistant professor of geography and Earth sciences at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
"One of the inherent challenges of wind energy is that as soon as you start to develop wind farms and harvest the resource, you change the resource, making it difficult to assess what's really available," says Adams.
But having a truly accurate estimate matters, of course, in the pursuit of carbon-neutral energy sources. Solar, wind, and hydro power, for example, could all play roles in fulfilling energy needs that are currently met by coal or oil.
"If wind power's going to make a contribution to global energy requirements that's serious, 10 or 20 percent or more, then it really has to contribute on the scale of terawatts in the next half-century or less," says Keith.
If we were to cover the entire Earth with wind farms, he notes, "the system could potentially generate enormous amounts of power, well in excess of 100 terawatts, but at that point my guess, based on our climate modeling, is that the effect of that on global winds, and therefore on climate, would be severe?perhaps bigger than the impact of doubling CO2."
"Our findings don't mean that we shouldn't pursue wind power?wind is much better for the environment than conventional coal?but these geophysical limits may be meaningful if we really want to scale wind power up to supply a third, let's say, of our primary energy," Keith adds.
And the climatic effect of turbine drag is not the only constraint; geography and economics matter too.
"It's clear the theoretical upper limit to wind power is huge, if you don't care about the impacts of covering the whole world with wind turbines," says Keith. "What's not clear?and this is a topic for future research?is what the practical limit to wind power would be if you consider all of the real-world constraints. You'd have to assume that wind turbines need to be located relatively close to where people actually live and where there's a fairly constant wind supply, and that they have to deal with environmental constraints. You can't just put them everywhere."
"The real punch line," he adds, "is that if you can't get much more than half a watt out, and you accept that you can't put them everywhere, then you may start to reach a limit that matters."
In order to stabilize the Earth's climate, Keith estimates, the world will need to identify sources for several tens of terawatts of carbon-free power within a human lifetime. In the meantime, policymakers must also decide how to allocate resources to develop new technologies to harness that energy.
In doing so, Keith says, "It's worth asking about the scalability of each potential energy source?whether it can supply, say, 3 terawatts, which would be 10 percent of our global energy need, or whether it's more like 0.3 terawatts and 1 percent."
"Wind power is in a middle ground," he says. "It is still one of the most scalable renewables, but our research suggests that we will need to pay attention to its limits and climatic impacts if we try to scale it beyond a few terawatts."
###
Harvard University: http://www.harvard.edu
Thanks to Harvard University for this article.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127006/Rethinking_wind_power
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After 7-week struggle, Hagel poised for defense job
Kevin Lamarque / Reuters
Former Senator Chuck Hagel.
By Tom Curry, National Affairs Writer, NBC News
Chuck Hagel?s seven-week struggle to win confirmation as secretary of defense appears near the end with an expected Senate vote Tuesday on his nomination.
President Barack Obama?s choice to run the Pentagon is expected to win confirmation since a few Republicans announced that they?ll join Senate Democrats in voting for him.
The vote would put an end to a rocky nomination process that came after Hagel?s GOP foes succeeded in delaying the confirmation.
Lead opponent, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, insinuated two weeks ago that Hagel might have given as-yet undisclosed speeches to ?extreme or radical groups? or received money from foreign sources or from defense contractors in 2008, 2009 and 2010.
But Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., rebuked the latter saying Hagel complied with the committee?s financial disclosure requirements and deserved confirmation.
Last week 15 GOP senators asked Obama to withdraw Hagel?s nomination, but it was clear that not enough Republican senators would vote to further delay Hagel?s confirmation by extended debate or filibuster.
The former Nebraska Republican senator turned against his party by campaigning for Democratic Senate candidate Bob Kerrey in Nebraska last year.
He?d also harshly criticized President George W. Bush after the Iraq war became unpopular in 2006, suggesting at one point that Bush might be impeached. These remarks made him popular with Democrats but something of a pariah in his own party.
Recommended:?Obama tells govs to push Congress to avert automatic cuts
The antagonism of Cruz and several other Republican senators turned to disdain once Hagel testified before the Armed Services Committee last month. Hagel was forced to amend or retract comments he?d made about Iran, Israel and other matters.
NBC's Mark Murray and Domenico Montanaro report Defense Secretary nominee Chuck Hagel may finally get the 60 votes needed to overcome a Republican filibuster and be confirmed next week.
At one point during his confirmation hearing, when discussing U.S. policy toward Iran?s efforts to build nuclear weapons, Hagel said, ?I?ve just been handed a note that I misspoke and said I supported the president?s position on ?containment.? If I said that, I meant to say that obviously ? his position on containment ? we don?t have a position on containment.?
Levin intervened: ?Just to make sure your correction is clear, we do have a position on containment ? which is we do not favor containment.?
?It was the most unimpressive performance that I have seen in watching many nominees who came before the committee,? said Republican Arizona Sen. John McCain, a Hagel opponent.
Related: What problems will Hagel inherit at Department of Defense?
But Democrats on the panel repeatedly praised Hagel for having served in combat in Vietnam.
From the beginning, Obama portrayed Hagel as a man who was ideally qualified to head the Defense Department because, as the president said when announcing the nomination, he ?knows that war is not an abstraction. He understands that sending young Americans to fight and bleed in the dirt and mud, that?s something we only do when it?s absolutely necessary.?
In presenting Hagel as his pick, Obama declared that ?Chuck represents the bipartisan tradition that we need more of in Washington.?
Obama said that he was courageous and independent in his views ?and that?s exactly the spirit I want on my national security team, a recognition that when it comes to the defense of our country, we are not Democrats or Republicans; we are Americans.?
But Republicans such as Cruz said Hagel was not up to the job of running the Pentagon. Cruz went so far as to argue that Hagel, if confirmed, would ?make military conflict in the next four years substantially more likely? because his views on negotiating with Tehran would encourage the Iranians to accelerate their nuclear weapons development program.
This story was originally published on Tue Feb 26, 2013 4:10 AM EST
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Gas price spikes don't leave lasting damage
The recent run-up in gasoline prices has some economists ? including Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke ? worried about the impact on consumer spending and the economy.
It?s a perennial concern. When gas prices spike, as they have done in the past few weeks, the extra money you pay at the pump forces you to cut spending on other things. That takes a bite out of overall consumer spending, which fuels roughly 70 percent of the U.S. economy. Slower spending means slower growth.
But the longer-term impact is not as great as some forecasters would have you believe. Here?s why:
Why is Chairman Bernanke soworried?
He?s concerned mostly because the economy isn?t growing as fast as it should be this far into an economic recovery. For reasons that most economists believe are temporary, the U.S. gross domestic product ground to a screeching halt in the last three months of last year. Bernanke and his Fed policy colleagues have been doing everything they can to get the economy moving ahead. But unemployment remains stubbornly high and near-zero interest rates don?t seem to be working.
In his Congressional testimony Tuesday on the state of the economy, Bernanke worried out loud that one reason for the slow growth is that higher gasoline prices ?are hitting family budgets.?
So how hard do budgets get hit by higher gas prices?
In the short term, gas price spikes can have an bigger impact than they should, largely because gasoline is one of the few commodity prices consumers track so closely. (Quick: how much does a loaf of bread cost at your local grocery store?)
An opinion poll conducted last week by the National Association of Convenience Stores found that 44 percent of consumers said that gas prices have a "great impact" in how they feel about the economy, up from the 38 percent who felt that way in January.
See? Bernanke?s right.
In the short-run, yes, a gas price spike can slow the economy ? a little. But over the long run, the impact is not all that great. To see why, we?re going to have to do a little math.
American drivers burn through about 350 million gallons of gasoline a day this time of year, at a cost of a little over $400 billion a year. Pump prices bottomed in December (as they usually do every year) at $3.32 a gallon and then shot up by 53 cents to an average of $3.85 a gallon nationwide, according to the latest Department of Energy figures. (We're using the data for all formulas, all grades.) This year, that seasonal rise has come earlier, and quicker, than usual.
If that increase held through the rest of the year, the hit to spending would be about a half percent of GDP. With an economy that?s only growing about 2 percent a year, that?s a fairly big number.
But that math doesn?t account of the savings consumers enjoy when gas prices fall. For the past three years, prices have bounced in a range between about $2.75 and $4.00 a gallon. The three-year average has been $3.43 a gallon. If you use that price as a starting point, the recent increase ? even if sustained for a full year ? would only knock about two-tenths of a percent from GDP.
Those numbers don?t look right. I?m paying a lot more than that at the pump, and it?s taking a big bite out of my paycheck.
Again, these are averages. For some people, the impact is much more severe. California drivers are paying $4.20 a gallon on average. If you live 30 miles from the nearest grocery store, you?re going to feel the impact of every extra penny a lot more than someone who commutes to work by subway.
Lower-income households feel the impact much more than those further up the income ladder. On average, roughly 5.5 percent of American household budgets go to pay for gasoline. But gasoline bills eat up a bigger portion of the weekly budget for those in the bottom quintile that for those at the top.
But gas prices hurt more than other price increases because I can?t cut back on driving.I have to get to work. What am I supposed to do?
You?re right. For most Americans, especially outside of major cities, gas price spikes are extremely painful because it?s very difficult to cut back in the short run. But over time, drivers can ? and do ? respond.
The long-term rise in gasoline prices over the past decade ? and the pain of sudden spikes ? is one of the biggest reasons that the consumption of gasoline has been falling since August 2007. Americans have been burning through about four percent less gasoline every year since then - even as the number of cars and trucks on the road continues to increase. Thanks to improvements in engine technology, higher-mileage government mandates and strong consumer demand for fuel-efficient cars and trucks, that trend is expected to continue.
Demand for those higher-mileage vehicles has, in turn, spurred a surge in consumer spending on new cars, a category has been an important source of strength for the U.S. recovery. That improvement in the overall mileage of the U.S. fleet has, in turn, helped offset the impact of gas price spikes.
Since bottoming in the first quarter of 2010, new car sales have zoomed ahead ? up nearly 60 percent to $103 billion in the final three months of 2012. About two-thirds of that money went to domestic car makers. Light truck sales have jumped 40 percent, to more than $140 billion for the latest quarter.
The boom in sales is coming partly because drivers deferred buying during the recession. But they?re also snapping up new models with better gas mileage that will continue to reduce consumption ? and blunt the economic impact of future gas price spikes.
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Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Toledo Remodeler to Exhibit at PRO Home & Garden ... - Tell Toledo
?
Toledo, Ohio (February 25, 2013) ? Arnold?s Home Improvement, a 22-year-old home improvement and remodeling company specializing in roofing, siding, windows, insulation and gutters, will be exhibiting at the Professional Remodeler Association?s Home and Garden Show.
The PRO Home & Garden Show, March 8-10 at the SeaGate Convention Center, downtown Toledo, will feature more than 100 exhibitors showcasing everything imaginable for home remodeling projects. Attendees will have an opportunity to learn about home improvement trends for 2013, get ideas for new or replacement windows and find out how to choose a Toledo roofing contractor.
?We?ve been part of the PRO Home & Garden Show for as long as I can remember,? said Jason Arnold, owner of Arnold?s Home Improvement. ?It?s a lot of work, but we love meeting people and talking to them about their home improvement projects,? he continued.
Drop by the Arnold?s Home Improvement booth and say hello to Arnie the Hammer. Arnie will be happy to pose for a photo and he?ll be giving away complimentary foam hammers for kids. Plus, anyone 18 years of age and up can enter a drawing to win an iPad or a $10 gift certificate to a local restaurant.
About Arnold?s Home Improvement
Founded in 1990, Arnold?s Home Improvement is an award-winning home improvement and remodeling contractor in Toledo, OH providing services throughout northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan. The company?s mission is to provide value, comfort and convenience for clients through personal and caring service. Arnold?s Home Improvement has an A+ BBB rating, is an Owens Corning Platinum Contractor and is a member of the Professional Remodelers Organization (PRO). For additional information or a free, no hassle estimate, call 419.476.9600 or visit www.arnoldshomeimprovement.com.
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- Arnold\'s Home Improvement | 1770 Tremainsville Rd. | Toledo, OH 43613
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Source: http://tell.toledo.com/2013/02/25/toledo-remodeler-to-exhibit-at-pro-home-garden-show/
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Obama warns spending cuts could idle shipbuilder
WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama is arguing that looming government-wide spending cuts could idle military resources like naval aircraft carriers, while Republicans are criticizing the president for taking his arguments outside Washington instead of staying to work out a plan before Friday's deadline.
The president planned to appear Tuesday at Virginia's largest industrial employer, Newport News Shipbuilding, which would be affected by cuts to naval spending. Obama warned Monday that if the so-called sequester goes into effect later this week, the company's "workers will sit idle when they should be repairing ships, and a carrier sits idle when it should be deploying to the Persian Gulf."
Obama urged Congress to compromise to avoid the cuts, but there has been no indication the White House and congressional Republicans are actively negotiating a deal. The last known conversation between Obama and GOP leaders was last week, and there have been no in-person meetings between the parties this year.
Obama wants the replace the sequester with a package of targeted cuts and tax increases, while Republican leaders insist the savings should come from reduced spending alone.
Washington Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, chair of the House Republican Conference, criticized Obama for traveling to southern Virginia rather than up the street to Capitol Hill to come up with a solution.
"We need the president to stop campaigning for higher taxes, come back here to Washington, D.C., and lead," McMorris Rodgers said during a press conference Monday with GOP leaders.
The sequester was designed as an unpalatable fallback, meant to take effect only if a congressional super-committee failed to come up with at least $1 trillion in savings from benefit programs.
The White House has warned the $85 billion in cuts could affect everything from commercial flights to classrooms to meat inspections. The cuts would slash domestic and defense spending, leading to furloughs for hundreds of thousands of workers.
The cuts also would impact Newport News Shipbuilding, which builds and maintains the nation's nuclear-powered aircraft carriers as well as other warships. The Navy has already delayed a long-planned overhaul of the USS Abraham Lincoln at the shipyard as a result of the budget uncertainty, and other plans call for delaying the construction of other ships.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., offered a potential way out of the stalemate Monday by indicating he was open to raising tax revenue if Obama offered to overhaul big-ticket entitlement programs. Many Republicans say they are done raising revenue after letting taxes on top earners increase in December.
"I'll raise revenue. Will you reform entitlements?" Graham said in a challenge to the president on CNN. "And both together, we'll set aside sequestration in a way that won't disrupt the economy and hurt the Defense Department."
___
Associated Press writers Jim Kuhnhenn in Washington and Brock Vergakis in Norfolk, Va., contributed to this report.
___
Follow Nedra Pickler on Twitter at https://twitter.com/nedrapickler
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-warns-spending-cuts-could-idle-shipbuilder-080553814--finance.html
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'The Avengers' & The Oscars: Cast Of Hit Movie Reunites At Academy Awards
Just like the superheroes they played in the movie, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Jeremy Renner and Samuel L. Jackson all huddled together back stage to get a plan together and of course joke around.
Downey suggested the stars of "The Avengers" bow as they headed onstage to make Oscar presentations. Or perhaps curtsy.
When a show worker asked Jackson to stand still so he could be wired with a microphone, the actor faced a backstage wall and pretended he was being frisked by police.
To pass the time, the superheroes watched Melissa McCarthy and Paul Rudd from a backstage monitor.
Suddenly Ruffalo asked, "Did we miss our cue?"
"You want to go out there with them?" asked Jackson.
After presenting two awards, the actors returned backstage, where Downey quipped, "Avengers disassemble."
_ Sandy Coehn ? http://www.twitter.com/apsandy
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EDITOR'S NOTE ? Show Bits brings you the 85th annual Academy Awards in Los Angeles through the eyes of Associated Press journalists. Follow them on Twitter where available with the handles listed after each item.
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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/25/the-avengers-the-oscars-academy-awards_n_2756934.html
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Maine man can whistle, but he must keep moving
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) ? A man charged with disorderly conduct for his loud whistling in downtown Portland has reached a deal with the city ? he can whistle, but he can't linger in one spot.
Robert Smith, of Westbrook, has been cited by police twice in the past year after businesses complained. He pleaded guilty last summer and reached a deal with the city in which he can keep whistling as long as he's moving.
Smith maintains that his whistling ? audible a block away ? is protected free speech and usually brings smiles.
"God is showing me what I'm doing is OK," he told The Portland Press Herald (http://bit.ly/15e6AEN). "He shows me every day with laughter."
But downtown businesses have complained about the 32-year-old Smith's never-ending noise-making.
Janis Beitzer, of the Portland Downtown District, understands why some business owners are upset.
"Just like if somebody plays an instrument in front of your business or has the radio on constantly, it's irritating," Beitzer said.
Smith said he works a construction job during the summer, but when he's not working he usually takes a bus into Portland and walks downtown streets from about 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., wearing a baseball cap, wrap-around sunglasses and a backpack while listening to classic rock and oldies through his headphones.
As he walks the streets, some people laugh and smile. But others scowl or roll their eyes in disgust, making rude comments after passing by.
In a plea agreement last summer, Smith pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and agreed to no longer whistle while standing in one place. As long as he's walking while he whistles, authorities agreed not to bother him.
The prosecutor, Trish McAllister, disagreed that Smith's whistling is protected by the First Amendment. A Portland city ordinance says whistling, hooting and other unnecessary noises that "annoy, disturb or injure the health, peace or safety of others" are forms of disorderly conduct.
"The judge and I viewed this as a behavioral issue," she said. "(Smith) was aggressive. He would follow people who gave him a wrong look."
___
Information from: Portland Press Herald, http://www.pressherald.com
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'Loser's' Francelina finds love, loses 190 pounds
By Ree Hines, TODAY contributor
"Biggest Loser" fans who tuned in to see Francelina Morillo on TODAY Monday morning were in for a shock. The ousted contestant was barely recognizable as the same young woman who first arrived on the ranch. But Francie's slimmed-down and sleek new look isn't the only big change in her life. While she was busying losing pounds, she found love.
"During the show, Jeffrey (Nichols) and I became really close, and we were like best friends," she explained. "Eventually, we were like, 'We're more than best friends!' It's just so incredible being with somebody who knows exactly what you've been through and has seen you at your worst. I'm getting better and better every day, and he's still there. It's awesome."
Also awesome? Well, as great as Francie's commitment to Jeff is, her commitment to changing her life is even more impressive. Before the 25-year-old ever arrived on the ranch, she had lost a total of 100 pounds on her own. Since then, she dropped "close to" an additional 90 pounds.
"My biggest was about 350 pounds, so I'm feeling small now," she said of her weight-loss feat.
See how Jeff and the rest of Francie's former fellow contestants are faring on the ranch when "The Biggest Loser" airs Monday at 8 p.m. on NBC.
Are you surprised by Francie's big success? Share your thoughts on our Facebook page.
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Spiderman's web would be strong enough to stop train
In "Spiderman 2," the superhero uses his webbing to stop a runaway train from plunging off its track. The feat seems improbable, but the toughest of spider silks really are up to the task, according to a group of British college students.
James Forster, Mark Bryan and Alex Stone, fourth-year physics students at the University of Leicester, took it upon themselves to model the forces upon the webbing in such a situation and compared it to measured values on the stiffness and strength of real spider?s webbing.
Given a fully loaded train carrying nearly 1,000 passengers barreling down the track at top speed, they found that a spider web would have to stand up to 300,000 Newtons of force. This figure then allowed them to calculate the toughness of the web at 500 megajoules per cubic meter.
The students said this toughness is in line with the web from a Darwin?s Bark Spider ? an orb weaver with the strongest known webbing of any spider.
?Having determined these parameters, it can be stated that Spiderman?s webbing is a proportional equivalent of that of a real spider,? the trio conclude in a paper published in the University of Leicester?s Journal of Physics Special Topics.
The journal is published once a year by the university and is filled with short papers written by students in the final year of their physics degree program. It is an exercise meant to teach them about publishing and the peer-review process.
"Spiderman has always been claimed to have the scaled up abilities of a spider and spiderweb has oft been quoted to be stronger than steel," Stone told NBC News via email. "We wanted to see whether or not Spiderman's web, when pushed to its limits, was a reasonable facsimile of a real spider's web."
"In so doing, we also show what real spider's webs would be capable of if used on a larger, human scale," he added, noting that humans have recently gained the ability to produce spider-silk-like material at scale.
The three are far from the first physicists to get tangled up in the science of superheroes. James Kalkalios, a professor at the University of Minnesota, for example, recently created a new algorithm for cell regeneration that appeared in "The Amazing Spiderman." He served as a science consultant for the film, released last year.
?Hollywood creators appreciate our contributions, for they realize that when the audience is questioning the physics of what they are watching or the authenticity of the laboratory set, that's a moment when they are not paying attention to the story,? he explained in an article for NBC News.
?The goal is not to ensure that everything on the screen is 100 percent scientifically accurate ? which would, after all, defeat the purpose of the escapist fantasy we have paid our money to watch ? but rather to get it just right enough to maintain the audience?s suspension of disbelief.?
John Roach is a contributing writer for NBC News. To learn more about him, check out his website. For more of our Future of Technology series, watch the featured video below.
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Thursday, February 21, 2013
How Senior Living Communities Grow Online Leads | Senior ...
Savvy boomer shoppers are relying more and more on the Internet for initial research on senior living and other health care products and services. The senior living communities and health providers who lean to local professionals for leads are missing a huge source. And if you depend on direct mail and print advertising, the ROI is 1.7% close rate whereas SEO (web) leads have a 14.6% close rate (SEJournal 2012).
According to Andy Cohen, the co-founder and CEO of Caring.com ? about 50% of the senior living industry?s referrals are coming from the web? to ?well over half.?
In the recent study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project (2012), Baby Boomers and Digital Technology, it shows how boomers use technology. Director Lee Rainie presented at the ?What?s Next Boomer Business Summit? where he explored the generational differences in use of the internet. In Rainie?s presentation, he shows that close to seventy-seven percent (77%) of the boomers, ages 47 to 65 are Internet users. According to the same study, ninety-one percent (91%) of that age group (47 to 65) use the Internet for Search Engine activities and eighty-one percent (81%) use the Internet to Research products and services.
Research proves why it?s important to be found online, and better yet to be found on page 1 of search results. Why? According to HubSpot (2012), seventy-five percent (75%) of users never scroll past the first page of search results. The pressure mounts. What do the senior living communities need to do to get found on page one?
Here?s how organizations gain top placement ? either buy your way to page one with an ad, or earn your way to page one via organic listings. Since seventy percent (70%) of the links search users click on is organic (SEJournal, 2012) and seventy to eighty percent (70-80%) of users ignore paid ads, focusing on organic results (SEngineLand 2012), organic should be the focus.
Organic listings are acquired by link popularity (inbound links), click popularity, and keyword density. And since search engine robots crawl through text ? they use the content on your site to determine what your site is about, which in turn will help to decide how highly your site will be ranked for specific keyword phrases when visitors type them into the search engines.
The magic of content ? engages your audience and draws them into a conversation with you.
How to gain Organic Listings ? BLOG
A blog allows you to create large amounts of articles and content (magic word) that keeps the audience engaged by providing discussion, interaction and comments; these interactions help forge a sense of community that can be strengthened both online and off. Think of a blog as the hub, and the traffic sources as spokes on a hub. A blog provides multiple routes for customers and prospects to get in touch.
It shows that the company has a human and approachable side, allowing better customer interaction, and improves customer service.
Compelling stats:
- Small businesses that blog get 126% more lead growth than small businesses that do not blog. (Source: @ThinkCreative)
- Blog frequency impacts customer acquisition. 92% of companies who blogged multiple times a day acquired a customer through their blog. (Source: @HubSpot, State of Inbound Marketing, 2012)
- U.S. blogs get 25 billion page views a month (Source: @Bloggingdotorg)
- B2C companies that blog generate 88% more leads per month than those that do not. (Source: @HubSpot)
How to create content for a blog:
- Get your staff and residents involved and create interesting stories about the community giving reasons why and how you offer a life worth living.
- Engage the target consumer in relevant discussions ? If they place a comment on a blog article, be sure you respond to them within 24 hours with useful advice or tips.
- Offer solutions to their problem often by providing rich content that addresses their pain and needs ? Your intake staff may have wealth of information on the problems ? they hear most often ? about ?why? a potential buyer is looking to move.
- Build trust using your resident or customer reviews ? About eighty-seven percent (87%) ?U.S. consumers trust local businesses after reading positive online reviews.
?The ultimate accomplishment for a business is when clients are so happy with a product, community or service that they become advocates, telling anyone who will listen how great you are. This is a fine achievement and a worthy goal. Keep asking your customers how you can improve, what you can do differently, and keep aiming to please. You will get there. And the feeling you have when people are advocating your services is wonderful ? a reward in itself.
Guest blogger, Carol Marak, is a copywriter for the adult living, senior and health care space. Carol coaches businesses to enjoy blogging: to find their voice and tone, to deeply understand their customer?s challenges and motivation, and to create mouthwatering content that grabs attention & increase word of mouth referrals. Find her work at Carebuzz.
Connect with Carol Marak on LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/in/carolmarak).
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Finally: If you know anyone who is looking at emergency call systems I would appreciate the opportunity to talk with them about Vigil Health Solutions.
Source: http://seniorhousingforum.net/blog/2013/02/19/how-senior-living-communities-grow-online-leads/
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Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Exploring points of view from Tycho Brahe's castle
David Secko, contributor
(Image: Courtesy Galerie Chez Valentin, Paris/Sean Kelly Gallery, NY ? Laurent Grasso/ADAGP 2013)
Laurent Grasso?s Uraniborg is a modern musing on space and time. The exhibition at the Mus?e d?Art Contemporain de Montr?al (MAC), Canada, captures a distant feeling about astronomical observations. Bringing the unreachable depths of the cosmos into a space we can physically experience has profound effects on our perception of the world and the universe. And Uraniborg has done this before.
In 1560, a solar eclipse is said to have awoken Tycho Brahe?s interest in astronomy. Brahe, whose 1572 observations of a bright star in the constellation of Cassiopeia (among other works) made him famous, started studying astronomy without parental permission only to be forgiven due to his talent for groundbreakingly meticulous and accurate observation.
So important was Brahe?s work to the Danish that he was given the island of Hven - a small Swedish island in the ?resund strait - in 1576 as a fief by Danish King Frederick II to ensure he remained in the country. There he built Uraniborg, or ?Castle of Urania?, named after the muse of astronomy. Remarked to be the finest observatory in Europe, the castle had rooms for visiting scientists, a laboratory and library, and was the last observatory built for observing the sky with the naked eye. At Uraniborg, Brahe helped to revolutionise astronomical instrumentation and to show that the heavens were not immutable.
The Tycho Brahe Museum calls Uraniborg ?a completely new scientific institution that was completely unique at that time?. Brahe worked at the same time as Kepler and Galileo - a host of great minds completely captured by space and time, and our place in it. Together their work revolutionised our perception of our place in the heavens, a revolution built on the foundations of accurate observation from Earth. Just as the observation of space in terms of time changed our perspective, so for all of us space and time are devices that impact our perception.
Laurent Grasso plays with these very devices in his thought-provoking exhibition, drawing connections between science, senses and surveillance to ask questions about our relationship with scientific, religious and military institutions.
For Grasso?s Uraniborg, the architecture of MAC itself has been altered to echo Brahe?s castle, of which today virtually no trace exists. Destroyed shortly after the astronomer?s death, the erasure of his 16th-century observatory is an inescapable presence as Grasso presents a dark narrow passageway upon entering the exhibit, which leads to a series of dim rooms. There is an instant feeling that you can, and perhaps should, get lost.
Visitors stop at the front of the first dark passageway, the end of which is hard to see, hesitating until recorded voices from deeper within Uraniborg make it seem OK to move on. There are square holes cut in the hallway?s walls. The first reveals a projection of greens, browns and blues that is fuzzy and hard to make out. Openings in the wall on the other side reveal a room you cannot enter, filled with objects such as a figurine of a warrior, paintings from Grasso?s Studies into the Past, and the 15th-century military book Opera de Facti e Precepti Militari depicting military machines.
The distance you are forced to keep from this first room you cannot enter (other rooms replicate the effect) is disorienting, even frustrating, as objects like the Opera de Facti e Precepti Militari look beautiful but you cannot get close enough to be sure.
This is one of the exhibit?s most powerful effects: it forces you to continually change your point of view, to examine the distance you keep from presented objects and to decide how much time you should spend in each room. By generating this distance, Grasso questions your position in space within the microcosm of Uraniborg.
Moving on through the dark hallways, bright white neon signs name projection rooms. The Silent Movie projects a silent video of military architecture of the coast of Cartagena, flashing back and forth from the viewpoint of an attacker to that of the besieged, drawing attention to the notion of surveillance which pervaded Brahe?s time. The fuzzy greens, browns and blues from the entrance hallway turn out to be the back of the screen from The Silent Movie room. Surveillance is also emphasised in On Air, which displays beautiful video from a falcon with a tiny camera fitted to it, the sounds of which emphasise floating on air. Set against the backdrop of Obama?s recent tussles over drone warfare, the installation takes on added significance.? One of the final rooms shows the sparkling stars over the Vatican in Rome - an institution both of research and of repression in Brahe?s time.
Each projection room is one step deeper into the Uraniborg, one step deeper into questions about how much we really know about our world under the vast Vatican sky.
The press release from the MAC points to Grasso using the history of Renaissance science, history like Brahe?s, to consider the theme of celestial observation. Grasso is quoted as saying:
The idea is to construct a floating viewpoint, thereby producing a discrepancy in relation to reality. We move from one space to another, and that?s also how we create states of consciousness.
Not every object in the exhibition elicits discrepancies in viewpoint or panoptic constructions, but Uraniborg is satisfying as an observatory, especially in the tradition of observing with the naked eye.
Uraniborg is at the MAC, Montreal, Canada, until 28 April.
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Dry crop belt counts on more than a drop of February rain
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Wheat and corn farmers are banking on more rain and snow in late February so they can keep nursing depleted soil back to healthier levels of moisture amid the worst drought in the United States grain belt in more than 50 years.
Agricultural meteorologists said on Tuesday that the precipitation in the next week to 10 days will provide significant relief for crop prospects in the U.S. Plains and Midwest.
John Dee, meteorologist for Global Weather Monitoring, said "this will really help add to soil moisture levels."
Dee said .50 inch to 1 inch of rain could be expected over most of the Plains hard red winter wheat region late this week with a similar system bringing rain and snow again next week.
"There also will be a lot of snow in the north, up to a foot in some areas, and this will really help as it will melt close to planting time," Dee said.
He said the driest areas of the Plains, Iowa, Nebraska and Minnesota, would receive the lion's share of the precipitation.
Commodity Weather Group (CWG) said the most significant storm will arrive Wednesday through early Friday and favor the Plains and western Midwest. CWG meteorologist Joel Widenor said there could be at least 6 inches to 12 inches of snowfall for much of the Central Plains and western Midwest.
"Some drought relief will occur," Widenor said.
The chief bread grain hard red winter wheat crop grown in the U.S. Plains soon will break from its winter slumber and enter its rapid growth stage of development. At the same time, farmers are itching to get into corn fields to plant what could be a record crop, assuming big spring rains bring soil moisture reserves back up to normal.
Harsh drought conditions persisted in U.S. farm states over the last week but some improvement was noted thanks to recent rain and snow, climate experts said on Thursday.
The weekly Drought Monitor report issued by a consortium of state and federal climatologists showed the key farming states in the High Plains region remain drought stricken, although improvement was noted with severe or worse levels of drought at 82.51 percent of the region, down from 87.25 percent a week earlier.
Don Keeney, meteorologist for MDA EarthSat Weather said roughly 4 inches to 6 inches of rain is needed in Kansas, the top producer of hard red winter wheat, to bring the state out of drought status. And up to 8 inches is needed in a pocket of severe dryness in northeastern Kansas, a big corn and grain sorghum growing area.
Similar amounts are needed in Nebraska, Texas, Oklahoma, Iowa and Missouri and the northern reaches of Illinois and Indiana.
Significant winter rainfall and snow has eliminated the drought for now in an area roughly from Illinois eastward, according to Keeney.
The Senate Agriculture Committee was told on Thursday that 56 percent of the contiguous United States was under moderate to exceptional drought, twice the usual amount.
(Additional reporting by Carey Gillam in Kansas City, Karl Plume in Chicago and Chuck Abbott in Washington; Editing by Grant McCool)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/dry-crop-belt-counts-more-drop-february-rain-140955402.html
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What Is an UltraPixel?
Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/PctJaBE0mPM/what-is-an-ultrapixel
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Four Dead, Including Gunman, in California Shooting Spree
A part-time college student armed with a shotgun went on a shooting rampage in southern California on Tuesday, killing a woman at his home and slaying two others during a series of carjackings before taking his own life, police said.
Authorities identified the gunman as Ali Syed, 20, and said he took the gun from a home he shared with his family in the normally quiet community of Ladera Ranch, 50 miles southeast of Los Angeles. The motive for the shootings was unclear.
The rolling spate of violence, which included at least one execution-style killing, spanned several miles across a number of communities in suburban Orange County, including the cities of Tustin and Santa Ana.
The violence occurred just a week after a massive manhunt for a fugitive former Los Angeles policeman wanted in a series of shootings targeting officers and their families ended in a fiery stand-off in the mountains above Los Angeles.
In Orange County, authorities first received a call on a shooting before dawn at Syed's home in Ladera Ranch, said Orange County Sheriff's Department spokesman Jim Amormino. Officers arrived to find a woman in her 20s shot to death.
Police were still seeking to determine the relationship between her and Syed, who fled the scene in his family's sport utility vehicle and headed to the city of Tustin, about 15 miles away, Amormino said. Syed had been a student at Saddleback College, a community college in Orange County.
The gunman committed his first carjacking in Tustin, where he took a car at a gas station after shooting and wounding another motorist in a Cadillac who drove away, police said.
He then drove onto the 55 Freeway and got out of his car on a transition road where he opened fire on passing drivers, said Tustin police Chief Scott Jordan. The ensuing mayhem left one person wounded and two cars damaged, police said.
Later, at an off-ramp for the 55 Freeway, on the border between Tustin and Santa Ana, he targeted a 69-year-old man with a BMW vehicle in a second carjacking, police said.
"He orders him out of the vehicle, walks him to the side of the curb and then executes our victim," Santa Ana police spokesman Corporal Anthony Bertagna said.
Behind the wheel of the BMW, the gunman drove back into Tustin where he killed a plumber at a work site and wounded another person before driving off in a utility truck, police said.
The gunman killed himself with a shotgun after officers pulled him over in the stolen truck in the nearby city of Villa Park, police said.
"We're still investigating how many victims we might have,"
Tustin police spokesman Lieutenant Paul Garaven said. He added that some more people or cars may have been hit when the gunman opened fire on the 55 Freeway.
Paris Joseph, 50, who works at a Tustin gas station where Syed took a car from a motorist but did not open fire on that person, said it was fortunate no one was killed there.
"We've never had anything like this," Joseph said.
? 2013 Thomson/Reuters. All rights reserved.
Source: http://www.newsmax.com/US/california-shooting-spree-deaths/2013/02/19/id/491054
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Featured user review Samsung Galaxy Note II 2-19-13
After leading the smartphone pack for weeks, the Samsung Galaxy Note II finished week 50 in the #2 position. ?Falling behind the BlackBerry Z10 by over 100 votes, will the Note II rebound this week and return to #1? ?Cast your votes weekly for your favorite smartphone. ?
"Sweetspot" By THOMAS P CAVEY on February 11, 2013
I got this phone almost a month before the official release date through a college acquaintance who is working at Samsung in Texas. This phone literally has millions of features and surprisingly it is very easy to use many of the essential ones; but I gotta say it may take a little time to adjust to the sophisticatedness of the phone especially if you are coming from iPhone or feature phone. The screen is very large - I can't stress this enough - THE SCREEN IS HUGE. I know a few people who have bad experience with the size of the first Galaxy Note simply because it is not easy to grip such large phone with one hand and people end up dropping it. The GN2 has a slightly larger screen but Samsung has done a very good job of improving the ergonomics - I do not have a big hand but I don't think I will drop it because of the size. The pen detects and writes better than any of the stylus pen available for tablet or pad devices. The battery lasts very long - unless you are watching HD movies with maximum brightness all day, you won't even need the extra battery that comes with the phone. I go to work at 9 AM and come home at 1 or 2 AM and my phone still has about 15% battery left. I simply charge it while I sleep and I am good to go for the next day. The phone itself is flawless - probably the closest thing to perfection for the lack of a better word though many of the additional features are largely dependent on preference (SUPER AMOLED vs. Retina, 5.5-inch screen vs 4 inch'ish screen, fixed vs removable battery etc
Display 5/5
Battery Life 5/5
Apps & Media Support 5/5
Reception & Call Quality 5/5
Design/Form Factor 5/5
Overall 5.0
Official Smartphone Rankings?,?vote now?then leave a review. ?
Did you pick up the Samsung Galaxy Note II? ?Tell us about it?here.
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Source: http://feeds.phonedog.com/~r/phonedog_cellphoneblog/~3/r4XG2ob3C2k/
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