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Friday, November 30, 2012
Spider silk may act as pest repellant
Spider silk can be scary enough to insects to act as a pest repellant, researchers say.
These findings could lead to a new way to naturally help protect crops, scientists added.
Spiders are among the most common predators on land. Although not all spiders weave webs, they all spin silk that may serve other purposes. For instance, many tiny spiders use silk balloons to travel by air.
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Science news from NBCNews.com
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Scientists build with bricks of DNA
Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: Researchers have coaxed single strands of DNA to fit together like Lego bricks and form scores of complex three-dimensional shapes.
- Did dinosaurs roam Grand Canyon?
- Polar ice melting faster than thought, scientists warn
- Shark goes airborne in pursuit of prey
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Scientists build with bricks of DNA
Researchers suspected that insects and other regular prey of spiders might associate silk with the risk of getting eaten. As such, they reasoned silk might scare insects off.
The scientists experimented with Japanese beetles (Popillia japonica) and Mexican bean beetles (Epilachna varivestis). These plant-munching pests have spread across eastern North America within the past half-century. [ Ewww! Nature's Biggest Pests ]
The beetles were analyzed near green bean plants (Phaseolus vulgaris) in both the lab and a tilled field outdoors. The investigators applied two kinds of silk on the plants ? one from silkworms (Bombyx mori) and another from a long-jawed spider (Tetragnatha elongata), a species common in riverbank forests but not in the region the researchers studied.
Both spider and silkworm silk reduced insect plant-chewing significantly. In the lab, both eliminated insect damage entirely, while in the field, spider silk had a greater effect ? plants enclosed with beetles and spider silk experienced about 50 percent less damage than leaves without spider silk, while silkworm silk only led to about a 10 to 20 percent reduction. Experiments with other fibers revealed that only silk had this protective effect.
"This work suggests that silk alone is a signal to potential prey that danger is near," researcher Ann Rypstra, an evolutionary ecologist at Miami University in Ohio, told LiveScience.
Rypstra was most surprised that the effect occurred even though the species involved do not share any evolutionary history together as predator and prey. This suggests "herbivores are using the silk as some sort of general signal that a spider ? any ol' spider ? is around and responding by reducing their activity or leaving the area," she said.
While more work will need to be done before this research might find applied use, the fact that the presence of silk alone reduced damage caused by two economically important pest insects "suggests that there could be applications in agricultural pest management and biological control," Rypstra said.
Rypstra is also interested in the chain reaction of events that silk might trigger in an ecosystem.
"For example, if an herbivore encounters a strand of silk and alters its behavior in a particular manner, does that make it more susceptible to predation by a non-spider?" Rypstra asked. "Do spiders that leave lots of silk behind have a larger impact in the food web, and how does it vary from habitat to habitat? These are just a couple of questions that we might be exploring in the near future."
Rypstra and her colleagues detailed their findings online Wednesday in the journal Biology Letters.
Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We're also on Facebook and? Google+.
? 2012 LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/50018574/ns/technology_and_science-science/
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Thursday, November 29, 2012
HaHa and Byul reveal details to their wedding ceremony
HaHa and Byul revealed details for their upcoming wedding ceremony.
They have revealed that Kim Jae Dong will be MCing the ceremony, and Kim Jong Kook will be singing the congratulatory songs for the wedding. They will not have an officiating minister, but HaHa?s mother will be giving a speech instead.
Fans said, ?What happened to the Kim Jong Kook-Yoo Jae Suk package??, ?They?re really good friends?, and ?The wedding seems like it?ll be fun?.
HaHa and Byul?s wedding ceremony will take place on November 30th at 7PM KST.
Source: http://www.allkpop.com/2012/11/haha-and-byul-reveal-details-to-their-wedding-ceremony
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Steven Tyler Apologizes To Nicki Minaj For 'Cornfield' Dis
Minaj insisted Tyler's diss was a 'racist comment,' but the Aerosmith frontman insists 'I am the farthest thing [from being racist].'
By James Montgomery
Steven Tyler and Nicki Minaj
Photo: Getty Images
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1698059/steven-tyler-nicki-minaj-apology.jhtml
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Relative length of adults' fingers indicator of verbal aggression: Prenatal exposure to testosterone linked
ScienceDaily (Nov. 29, 2012) ? A new study in the Journal of Communication links verbal aggression to prenatal testosterone exposure. The lead researcher, at University at Buffalo -- The State University of New York, used the 2D:4D measure to predict verbal aggression. This study is the first to use this method to examine prenatal testosterone exposure as a determinant of a communication trait.
Allison Z. Shaw, University at Buffalo -- The State University of New York, Michael R. Kotowski, University of Tennessee, and Franklin J. Boster and Timothy R. Levine, Michigan State University, predicted that a neuroendocrine factor, prenatal testosterone, would lead to more verbal aggression. In order to investigate this, Shaw and colleagues used the 2D:4D measure, which is the ratio of the length of the second digit (index finger) to the length of the fourth digit (ring finger), to measure prenatal testosterone exposure. This method involved measuring each finger from where it meets the palm of the hand to the tip. In addition, each hand was photocopied individually with the palm flat, facing downward, with the fingers splayed naturally, and the same measures were made from the photocopy. Subjects then filled out the Verbal Aggression scale as well as the HEXACO Personality Inventory and the Argumentativeness scale.
The findings suggested that both men and women with smaller 2D:4D ratios self-reported themselves to be more verbally aggressive. Although a small degree of verbal aggression may be beneficial for a person (e.g., being able to stand up for yourself if attacked), higher degrees of verbal aggression have been shown to be detrimental to one's personal life (e.g., problems maintaining close personal relationships, loss of job).
"Understanding the causes of verbal aggression, both biological and social, will allow therapists to have a greater understanding of how to work with individuals who may be more prone to use verbal aggression. What the findings of the current study suggest is that verbal aggression may result from a number of cognitive and affective decisions that are made throughout an interaction," Shaw said.
"This research is the future of communication science where studies examine biological bases of behavior to understand and predict fundamental human communication processes, such as verbal aggressiveness." Said Thomas Feeley, professor and chair of the Department of Communication at the University at Buffalo -- The State University of New York. "With multiple observations of a given relationship, there is greater external validity and confidence in the study findings."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by International Communication Association, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Allison Z. Shaw, Michael R. Kotowski, Franklin J. Boster, Timothy R. Levine. The Effect of Prenatal Sex Hormones on the Development of Verbal Aggression. Journal of Communication, 2012; 62 (5): 778 DOI: 10.1111/j.1460-2466.2012.01665.x
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/living_well/~3/cfcaB3KIg64/121129093703.htm
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Remember QR Codes? The Leading Reader, Scan, Has Been Downloaded 25 Million Times, Scans 27 Million Codes A Month
Something there is that doesn't love a QR code, but that hasn't stopped leading QR code scanner makers Scan from serving up 25 million copies of their software. The company, which currently processes 27 million codes per month, is offering version 2.0 of their product.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/xZJj32kqN5I/
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Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Video: Will Groupon's CEO Get the Boot?
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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/49995785/
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Patient's own immune cells may blunt viral therapy for brain cancer
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Doctors now use cancer-killing viruses to treat some patients with lethal, fast-growing brain tumors. Clinical trials show that these therapeutic viruses are safe but less effective than expected.
A new study led by researchers at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center ? Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC ? James) shows that the reason for this is in part due to the patient's own immune system, which quickly works to eliminate the anticancer virus.
The findings, published in the journal Nature Medicine, show that the body responds to the anticancer virus as it does to an infection. Within hours, specialized immune cells called natural killer (NK) cells move in to eliminate the therapeutic virus in the brain.
The researchers discovered that the NK cells attack the viruses when they express specific molecules on their surface called NKp30 and NKp46. "These receptor molecules enable the NK cells to recognize and destroy the anticancer viruses before the viruses can destroy the tumor," says co-senior author Dr. Michael A. Caligiuri, director of Ohio State's Comprehensive Cancer Center and CEO of the James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute, and a senior author of the study.
"When we blocked those receptors, the virus has more time to work, and mice with these brain tumors live longer. The next step is to block these molecules on NK cells in glioblastoma patients and see if we can improve their outcome," says Caligiuri, who is also the John L. Marakas Nationwide Insurance Enterprise Foundation Chair in Cancer Research. This study of cancer-cell-killing, or oncolytic, viruses is an example of the value of translational research, in which a problem observed during clinical trials is studied in the laboratory to devise a solution.
"In this case, clinical trials of oncolytic viruses proved safe for use in the brain, but we noticed substantial numbers of immune cells in brain tumors after treatment," says senior author and neurosurgeon Dr. E. Antonio Chiocca, who was professor and chair of neurological surgery while at Ohio State University.
"To understand this process, we went back to the laboratory and showed that NK cells rapidly infiltrate tumors in mice that have been treated with the therapeutic virus. These NK cells also signal other inflammatory cells to come in and destroy the cancer-killing virus in the tumor."
The study used an oncolytic herpes simplex virus, human glioblastoma tumor tissue and mouse models, one of which hosted both human glioblastoma cells and human NK cells. Key technical findings include:
- Replication of the therapeutic virus in tumor cells in an animal model rapidly attracted subsets of NK cells to the tumor site;
- NK cells in tumors activated other immune cells (i.e., macrophages and microglia) that have both antiviral and anticancer properties;
- Depletion of NK cells improves the survival of tumor-bearing mice treated with the therapeutic virus;
- NK cells that destroy virus-infected tumor cells express the NKp30 and NKp46 receptors molecules that recognize the virus.
"Once we identify the molecules on glioblastoma cells that these NK cell receptors bind with, we might be able to use them to identify patients who will be sensitive to this therapy," Caligiuri says.
###
Ohio State University Medical Center: http://medicalcenter.osu.edu/Pages/index.aspx
Thanks to Ohio State University Medical Center for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/125448/Patient_s_own_immune_cells_may_blunt_viral_therapy_for_brain_cancer_
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Taking it Home for November 25 Youth Class: Thinking of Death ...
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The question is not whether we will die but how we have lived.
? Joan Borysenko, psychologist
Talk about the quote. What does it mean to you?
WHAT WE DID TODAY
Today?s Big Question was ?What happens when you die?? We talked about some different answers to the question which come from a variety of belief systems. We heard what a Unitarian Universalist minister said when he had cancer and expected to die soon. We found out that UUs talk more about heaven- and hell-like situations on Earth and what to do about them, than we talk about an afterlife. That is because many UUs believe we live on after life through what we did when we were alive?as well as in the memories of our families and friends. We also explored rituals to memorialize people after they die.
ANSWERING TODAY?S BIG QUESTION
What do family members have to say about the question: ?What happens when we die??
What does your family do so relatives who have died live on, through you?
VISIT THE DEAD
Go to a cemetery and look at the gravestones. What can you learn from them? Do those messages help the people buried there live on? Are there flowers and mementos? Why do people put them there?
SHARED SEARCH
Go through a family photo album or ?family tree.? Choose somebody you know little about who has died. Find out as much as you can about that person so they can live on through you.
REFLECT ON YOUR BELIEFS
Ask another big question: Is anything worth dying for? Patrick Henry was a famous patriot who said, ?Give me Liberty or Give me Death.? Was he right? What do you think is worth dying for?
PHOTO CHALLENGE
Photograph a cycle of life and death. You might start with a seed, photograph a flower as it grows through the summer, and photograph it again when it dies in a frost. You might photograph spring buds and then beautiful dying leaves.
FIND OUT MORE
Bereaved Children: A Support Guide for Parents and Professionals by Earl A.Grollman (Beacon, 1996) offers insight into how children and adolescents experience death and grieving and how adults can help them through such experiences. The book presents ways children and adults might bring various faith perspectives to the subject of death.
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A Unitarian Universalist minister who has written extensively on this session?s Big Question is Rev. Forrest Church. Obtain Love and Death: My Journey through the Valley of the Shadow (Boston: Beacon Press, 2008) from the UUA Bookstore (at www.uuabookstore.org/) in hardcover or paperback or as an audio CD.
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A 2008 Time magazine article (at www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1842627,00.html) details one scientist?s attempts to find out what happens after death.
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Source: http://religiousexploration.wordpress.com/2012/11/26/taking-it-home-for-november-25-youth-class-thinking-of-death/
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Tokyoflash mixes time and geometry to make its Kisai Polygon watch (video)
This week's Tokyoflash watch will certainly tickle the fancy of those who sleep with a set square beneath their pillow. The Kisai Polygon has a ring of triangles representing the hours and the nearest 10 minutes, with the individual minute being shown as a single digit through the middle. If you'd like to indulge in some retail therapy, you can take advantage of the company's pre-sale. Available in black, mirror, blue or pink, it'll set you back $99 (€77, £61) until Thursday, after which it'll cost $129 (€100, £80). Fancy learning how to read it from the team to built it? Head down past the break for the video tutorial.
Continue reading Tokyoflash mixes time and geometry to make its Kisai Polygon watch (video)
Filed under: Wearables
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/11/27/tokyoflash-polygon/
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Tuesday, November 27, 2012
TaskRabbit, One Kings Lane, Fab and Others Team ... - The Next Web
?Cyber Monday? is here and for those waiting to find great deals online need not wait any longer. Already, comScore reported that more people have shopped online than ever before, with sales topping $1 billion.
Today holds a great deal of importance to many other companies besides Amazon, Target, Walmart, Apple, and eBay because they?re part of the growing segment of the retail industry where more shoppers can find what they want that is cheaper, faster, and more convenient.
Your one-stop e-commerce shop
For the venture capitalist firm, First Round Capital, finding ways to help e-Commerce companies succeed is important to it. That?s why this year, the firm has created its Cyber Monday Gifts Site designed to help provide consumers with a one-stop website that will share all the special deals at some of the Internet?s hottest e-Commerce startups. Nearly two dozen companies are listed, ranging from Birchbox to Hotel Tonight, TaskRabbit to Grubwithus, Sincerely to One Kings Lane, and many more.
On this site, customers can find specials for some of their favorite e-Commerce websites. Not all of them are exclusive to ?Cyber Monday? and will run throughout the holiday season. Simply navigate through this simple one-page site and select a company that has a deal. A pop-up card will appear to reveal the discount along with any rules/stipulations. Customers can tweet or Like the deal to share with their friends.
For First Round Capital, creating this site was another ?unique way? for it to help their companies ?tell their stories and reach new customers?. Its portfolio is filled with dozens of e-commerce startups that have exploded onto the scene, all of which have gone to raise over $350 million in ?follow on capital? and stand to do big business this holiday season. Through this Gifts Site, the hope is that its companies will succeed in what has typically been a quarter for e-Commerce and retail companies need to either break even or reap a profit.
With the holiday season already seeing a great deal of increased activity over previous years, the online space is getting increasingly crowded by a lot of services ?trying to capitalize on this medium. But while most companies are adding in a traditional shopping cart mechanism to their existing website, there are dozens of other services out there eager to take advantage of their specialities and targeting a very specific community and buying model.
If you have that particular friend or family member who?s particularly difficult to shop for and you can?t normally find it on a traditional site like Amazon or eBay, perhaps looking at one of these niche websites like Fab, Birchbox, Modcloth or any other similar service might help you find the gift you want. First Round looked to make it simple to find all the holiday specials for these popular companies.
A bit hard to find
But while it?s great all of these sites are curated in one place, finding it is going to be rather difficult, especially for those outside of the tech scene ? quite honestly, a VC firm?s website isn?t one of the places someone would go to in order to find these great deals.
First Round tells us that the site will be promoted through social media channels like Facebook and Twitter, while also being shared by the individual companies who have huge followings themselves. Additionally, paid channels like display ads, Facebook advertising, etc. will be leveraged to help drive people to the site.
A winner nevertheless?
When it?s all said and done, it looks like these e-Commerce companies could win big in the end. Based on the trends IBM?s Digital Analytics Benchmark revealed after Black Friday, a monumental amount of business could be done by the end of Cyber Monday or even the holiday season.
There are three trends that weight to these companies? advantage: an increase in mobile purchases, higher usage of the iPad in online shopping, and the effect of social media on sales. The First Round Capital companies have previously incorporated these into their services so it might appear to be good for them.
Photo credit:?Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Source: http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/11/26/first-round-capital-cyber-monday-holiday-marketplace/
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Monday, November 26, 2012
Apple Mac mini (Late 2012)
The Apple Mac mini (Late 2012) may look the same?it is, after all identical to the Mac mini (Thunderbolt)?but it has been updated with Intel's latest Ivy Bridge processor, faster USB 3.0 ports, and given a performance boost with Apple's new Fusion drive. It's everything we loved about the Apple Mac mini (Thunderbolt) , just faster, making it an easy pick for Editors' Choice.
Design and Features
The Mac mini is just what you expect from an Apple product. The design is the very picture of minimalist refinement, a CNC-milled aluminum block housing a full desktop-worth of hardware. And, true to form for Apple, it looks exactly like the previous iteration, and very similar to the model before that?the last easily spotted change on the Mac mini was when Apple dropped the optical drive and added a Thunderbolt port.
Measuring 1.4 by 7.7 by 7.7 inches (HWD), the compact Mac mini is small enough to sit unobtrusively on your desk, next to your display and keyboard. The rounded corners and subtle curves will be familiar looking to anyone that's seen an Apple product in the last few years. Unlike other tiny desktops that set up vertically, like the Polywell Poly i1000A-3770T , the Mac mini sticks with the low horizontal design it has used for years. On the top is a glossy black Apple logo; on the bottom is a round black plastic hatch. It can be opened without any tools, giving you a limited view of the internals, only providing real access to a few specific components. RAM modules can be added and swapped, the fan removed for cleaning, though the rest of the components can be accessed, assuming you have the necessary tools and a lot of patience. In such a small, tightly packed package, there's not really room for upgrades.
Apple has beefed up several features in the new Mac mini. The USB ports have all been upgraded to USB 3.0, though the ports aren't labeled as such, nor do they have the blue port connectors to indicate as such. Joining the faster USB ports are the same port used before, with a Thunderbolt port (which doubles as a mini-DisplayPort), FireWire 800 connection, HDMI output, an SDXC card slot, and audio line in and line out connections. Gigabit Ethernet is joined by 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0. It's a robust selection of features for such a small system; other compact desktops often drop features in the interest of saving space, such as the Shuttle X6100 , which omits Wi-Fi connectivity.
The processor has been upgraded to the latest Ivy Bridge technology, and our review unit was outfitted with a 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7 quad-core processor and 4GB of 1600MHz DDR3 memory. Last year's $799 mid-tier model had a Core i5 processor in it. There are also 8GB and 16GB configurations available (for an extra $100 and $300, respectively). Graphics processing got a bump with the integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000, but this time around there is no configuration available with a discrete GPU. The Mac mini also equipped with Apple's new Fusion drive technology and the latest version of Mac OS X Mountain Lion.
Fusion Drive
The Mac mini's specifications tell us that our model is equipped with a 1.12TB Fusion Drive, but that's not even half of the story. Apple's Fusion Drive combines hard disk and flash storage?Apple's nomenclature for both solid-state drives and custom flash modules?but it's neither a hybrid drive, nor is it a traditional dual drive. Instead of there being two drive volumes to manage (which can be a nuisance for the tech savvy, and downright mystifying for others), the Mac mini presents the two drives as one volume. As far as managing your files and programs, that's all you need to know, because the Fusion Drive software does the rest.
Pull back the curtain a bit, and there's more going on. Every piece of data?be it program, media file, document, and even the operating system?is initially written to the 128GB of Flash storage to provide the faster performance offered by Flash media. As your data is used from day to day, however, the drive shifts the less frequently used data to the 1TB hard drive, which offers slower speed, but more storage capacity. The result is speedy SSD performance for the data you use most frequently, without the cramped storage you'd contend with on a pure SSD.
What makes this set up different from hybrid drives, however, is that the Flash storage is not acting as a cache, mirroring data from the drive. Also, the evaluation process is ongoing, continuously evaluating each piece of data as it is accessed by the user, shifting it back and forth to maximize performance. Once your Mac mini gets into a routine and is optimized, this setup can save wear and tear on the spinning hard drive, since oft-used programs and files will eventually reside on Flash storage. All of this work happens in the background, with data evaluated in real time, and shifted to and from the Flash storage during idle times so as not to slow down performance during data intensive actions. From the algorithmic evaluation of data use to the shifting of data, it all happens seamlessly in the background, and offers optimal performance without the need for constant tweaking.
Mac OS X and Software
Like the other members of the current Mac family, the Mac mini comes preinstalled with OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion (OS X 10.8.2 on our review unit), along with programs from iLife 2011, like iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand. The programs themselves are top-rated, and Mountain Lion itself was picked as one of the best tech products of 2012. It also features all of the same gesture support seen in the MacBook Pro line-up, so you might consider getting an Apple Magic Mouse or Magic Trackpad to take advantage of the intuitive controls.
In addition to the operating system and programs, Apple covers the Mac mini with a one-year warranty, and offers free tech support for the first 90 days after purchase. For extra protection and longer coverage, you can also purchase AppleCare ($149 per year).
Performance
With the new processing hardware, and the bump from dual-core Core i5 to quad-core Core i7, the Mac mini (Late 2012) more than doubled the processing performance over the previous iteration, scoring 5.95 points where the Mac mini (Thunderbolt) scored 2.69 points. It's necessarily a fair comparison, however, because the hardware is so different. Alternatively, the Polywell Poly i1000A-3770T, which has a 2.5GHz Intel Core i7-3770T processor, scored 6.30 points.
The Mac mini also made quick work of our current multimedia tests, finishing Handbrake (version 0.9.8) in 37 seconds, and Photoshop CS6 in 3 minutes 58 seconds. While the Polywell Poly i1000A-3770T has slightly faster raw performance, the Mac mini's Core i7 still offers enough processing power to continue to feel speedy even after a few years of use.
Though the integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000 is more than sufficient for most day-to-day tasks, it isn't enough to support high-end 3D gaming. When tested with Heaven at both medium and high settings, it failed to produce playable results, rendering 19 frames per second (fps) and 12 fps, respectively. The Intel HD Graphics 4000 are certainly enough to play games with lighter requirements, such as Torchlight or one of the World of Warcraft titles.
While this configuration may not be the most inexpensive member of the Mac family?the starting configuration sells for a more affordable $599?the Apple Mac mini (Late 2012) compact desktop offers top features and performance to spare. While the previous Editors' Choice Polywell Poly i1000A-3770T does boast a slightly beefier processor, it doesn't offer the highly polished refinement offered by Mac mini. The seamless 1.12TB Fusion Drive is superb, and the array of display outputs and connectivity options is far larger than most compact desktops can muster. Add in the beautiful design and industry-leading operating system, and the Mac mini is an easy pick for our Editors' Choice.
BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS:
COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the Apple Mac mini (Late 2012) with several other desktops side by side.
More desktops reviews:
??? Apple Mac mini (Late 2012)
??? Asus ET2300INTI-B022K
??? Lenovo H520s
??? Sony VAIO Tap 20 (SVJ20215CXW)
??? Lenovo ThinkCentre M92z
?? more
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/cE5J-KG8Fsc/0,2817,2412365,00.asp
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Crash landings
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Public release date: 26-Nov-2012[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Michaela Gumpenberger
michaela.gumpenberger@vetmeduni.ac.at
43-125-077-6451
University of Veterinary Medicine -- Vienna
Diagnosing an injury in a swan is a far from easy undertaking. Not only are swans large, frequently weighing over 10 kg, but they are generally not happy at being handled and thus many of them can only be examined after sedation, which naturally represents a risk. The hip joints of many species of bird are known to be vulnerable to injury but swans are believed to suffer broken hips only rarely. The traditional way of examining the birds' hips relies on radiography but Gumpenberger and Scope now show that computerized tomography (CT) gives more reliable findings.
The researchers examined the hip joints of five swans that had been brought to the Clinic for Avian, Reptile and Fish Medicine of the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna because they were unable to stand. Radiographs were taken of three of the birds, while all of them were subjected to CT scans. The results were highly illuminating. Radiography gave indications that one of the swans might have problems with its hip joint but the diagnosis was not conclusive and the other two swans examined seemed to have intact joints. In contrast, CT showed correctly that all five swans had lesions of the hip.
Computerized tomography is thus much better able to identify problems with the hip joint than classical radiographic methods. In addition, it is often less stressful for the animals: imaging can be performed without the need for narcosis by simply placing the bird in a darkened cardboard box and allowing it to sit comfortably, whereas radiography of many species requires their sedation.
It seems, then, that hip problems in swans are more common than previously believed. It is likely that the majority of injuries of this kind arise when the birds attempt to land on hard surfaces, when the landing forces are transmitted through their legs to their hips. Of course, such emergency landings may simply be the result of air turbulence but Gumpenberger notes that "many injured swans are found near roads or railway lines, so it is possible that they misinterpret shiny rails or even concrete road surfaces as being water and thus try to land."
The paper "Computed tomography of coxofemoral injury in five mute swans (Cygnus olor)" by Michaela Gumpenberger and Alexandra Scope is published in the journal "Avian Pathology" (Vol. 41(5), 465-468).
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Abstract of the scientific article online (full text for a fee or with a subscription): http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abstract/10.1080/03079457.2012.712205
About the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna
The University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna is the only academic and research institution in Austria that focuses on the veterinary sciences. About 1000 employees and 2300 students work on the campus in the north of Vienna, which also houses the animal hospital and various spin-off-companies.
http://www.vetmeduni.ac.at
Distributed by:
Klaus Wassermann
Public Relations/Science Communication
University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna
T 43-250-771-153
klaus.wassermann@vetmeduni.ac.at
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Public release date: 26-Nov-2012[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Michaela Gumpenberger
michaela.gumpenberger@vetmeduni.ac.at
43-125-077-6451
University of Veterinary Medicine -- Vienna
Diagnosing an injury in a swan is a far from easy undertaking. Not only are swans large, frequently weighing over 10 kg, but they are generally not happy at being handled and thus many of them can only be examined after sedation, which naturally represents a risk. The hip joints of many species of bird are known to be vulnerable to injury but swans are believed to suffer broken hips only rarely. The traditional way of examining the birds' hips relies on radiography but Gumpenberger and Scope now show that computerized tomography (CT) gives more reliable findings.
The researchers examined the hip joints of five swans that had been brought to the Clinic for Avian, Reptile and Fish Medicine of the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna because they were unable to stand. Radiographs were taken of three of the birds, while all of them were subjected to CT scans. The results were highly illuminating. Radiography gave indications that one of the swans might have problems with its hip joint but the diagnosis was not conclusive and the other two swans examined seemed to have intact joints. In contrast, CT showed correctly that all five swans had lesions of the hip.
Computerized tomography is thus much better able to identify problems with the hip joint than classical radiographic methods. In addition, it is often less stressful for the animals: imaging can be performed without the need for narcosis by simply placing the bird in a darkened cardboard box and allowing it to sit comfortably, whereas radiography of many species requires their sedation.
It seems, then, that hip problems in swans are more common than previously believed. It is likely that the majority of injuries of this kind arise when the birds attempt to land on hard surfaces, when the landing forces are transmitted through their legs to their hips. Of course, such emergency landings may simply be the result of air turbulence but Gumpenberger notes that "many injured swans are found near roads or railway lines, so it is possible that they misinterpret shiny rails or even concrete road surfaces as being water and thus try to land."
The paper "Computed tomography of coxofemoral injury in five mute swans (Cygnus olor)" by Michaela Gumpenberger and Alexandra Scope is published in the journal "Avian Pathology" (Vol. 41(5), 465-468).
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Abstract of the scientific article online (full text for a fee or with a subscription): http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abstract/10.1080/03079457.2012.712205
About the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna
The University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna is the only academic and research institution in Austria that focuses on the veterinary sciences. About 1000 employees and 2300 students work on the campus in the north of Vienna, which also houses the animal hospital and various spin-off-companies.
http://www.vetmeduni.ac.at
Distributed by:
Klaus Wassermann
Public Relations/Science Communication
University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna
T 43-250-771-153
klaus.wassermann@vetmeduni.ac.at
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Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-11/uovm-cl112612.php
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Helpful Tips And Advice For Home Improvement: backless wedding ...
You might want to do some home improvements that can change the structure of the home. It can also impact landscaping and other structures that are outside. The following paragraphs are chock full of tips and techniques that you can use to have an amazing home. The goal of any home improvement project is to reduce your home ownership costs. With new appliances, you will save on electricity. Fixing a roof and upgrading insulation reduces heating costs Make it your goal to budget your finances well and keep setting goals. Hot glue your screws,The travel xinjiang which are there to see may also be within different provinces of the state and it is not easy for you personally to travel from destination for an another. nuts, bolts and other hardware to their storage containers!
Trying to locate one screw or bolt may be problematic, even if you are organized. Written labels will get clumped together. You can stop any floor squeaks with construction adhesive. You will need to do the work from your basement or crawlspace,The Mobile crusher plants aggregate various crusher machines and Screening and Transmission. but the outcome is worth the trouble.The Touch screen pos system software by Touch screen pos system manufacturer does the work of a regular cash register, but the difference is that the software is incorporated into the store's customer database. You just need to run a bead of glue down the floor joist seams to help secure the sub-flooring. When partaking in outdoor home improvement projects, try to ask yourself if your house will stick out in a bad way in your neighborhood. If the answer is yes, do you really want to be known for having the neighborhood eyesore?
Logically, it's better for your own bottom line if you take some time to consider the implications of the changes you make and how they will appear within your community. If you do not have a signed contract, your contractor should not begin work. If at all possible,There are many fuel hoses available for each type of vehicle in a wide range. fuel hose is made up of rubber or plastic hose. have the contract reviewed by a lawyer before proceeding. Beginning and end dates, guarantees, deadlines, cost and the work that will be performed should be defined. When it comes to fasteners there are many options available.In parquet flooring, different wooden pieces are fitted together. This gives it a mosaic look that makes it look very stylish. Be aware of which ones you'll need for your specific project.
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Sunday, November 25, 2012
New Congress: Fewer moderates make deals harder
WASHINGTON (AP) ? When the next Congress cranks up in January, there will be more women, many new faces and 11 fewer tea party-backed House Republicans from the class of 2010 who sought a second term.
Overriding those changes, though, is a thinning of pragmatic, centrist veterans in both parties. Among those leaving are some of the Senate's most pragmatic lawmakers, nearly half the House's centrist Blue Dog Democrats and several moderate House Republicans.
That could leave the parties more polarized even as President Barack Obama and congressional leaders talk up the cooperation needed to tackle complex, vexing problems such as curbing deficits, revamping tax laws and culling savings from Medicare and other costly, popular programs.
"This movement away from the center, at a time when issues have to be resolved from the middle, makes it much more difficult to find solutions to major problems," said William Hoagland, senior vice president of the Bipartisan Policy Center, a private group advocating compromise.
In the Senate, moderate Scott Brown, R-Mass., lost to Democrat Elizabeth Warren, who will be one of the most liberal members. Another GOP moderate, Richard Lugar of Indiana, fell in the primary election. Two others, Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas and Olympia Snowe of Maine, are retiring.
Moderate Democratic senators such as Kent Conrad of North Dakota, Herb Kohl of Wisconsin, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Jim Webb of Virginia are leaving, as is Democratic-leaning independent Joe Lieberman.
While about half the incoming 12 Senate freshmen of both parties are moderates, new arrivals include tea party Republican Ted Cruz of Texas, conservative Deb Fischer of Nebraska, and liberals such as Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Hawaii's Mazie Hirono.
There's a similar pattern in the House, where 10 of the 24 Democratic Blue Dogs lost, are retiring or, in the case of Rep. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., are moving to the Senate. That will further slash a centrist group that just a few years ago had more than 50 members, though some new freshmen might join.
Among Republicans, moderates like Reps. Judy Biggert of Illinois and New Hampshire's Charles Bass were defeated while others such as Reps. Jerry Lewis of California and Steven LaTourette of Ohio decided to retire.
"Congress seems to be going in the opposite direction of the country, just as the country is screaming for solutions to gridlock," said Democratic strategist Phil Singer.
Whether the changes are good is often in the eye of the beholder.
Seventy-one of the 83 House GOP freshmen of 2010 were re-elected Nov. 6, but 11 lost, including one of the group's highest profile members, conservative Rep. Allen West, R-Fla. Another faces a runoff in December.
"Some of the people who are the anti-government ideologues, some of them are gone," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. "And that message has been rejected by the American people."
Sal Russo, strategist for the Tea Party Express, said such departures would be balanced by newly elected conservatives, including the Senate's Cruz and GOP Reps.-elect Ted Yoho of Florida and Mark Meadows of North Carolina.
"Pretty much everybody that ran in 2012 was talking about the economic woes we face, stopping excessive spending, controlling unsustainable debt," he said.
Overall, the new House is on track for a 234-201 Republican majority, a narrowing of their 242-193 advantage today, which includes five vacancies. Democrats will control the Senate 55-45, up from 53-47.
A dozen of the 100 senators and at least 81 of the 435 House members, almost one-fifth, will be in their first term, slightly above historic averages. The Associated Press hasn't declared winners in two House races.
Many newcomers, in Washington for orientation sessions after their election, described a need to compromise. Some also made it clear there will be plenty of fuel for partisan clashes.
"I'm going in open-minded," said conservative Rep.-elect Roger Williams, R-Texas. "But I have certain core values like we all do and I'm not going to waver on that."
All together, there will be 73 women in the House and 20 in the Senate. Both are records.
For the first time, more than half of House Democrats ? 105, in this case ? will not be white males.
One white male will be Rep.-elect Joseph Kennedy III, a Massachusetts Democrat whose father was Rep. Joe Kennedy, D-Mass., and grandfather was New York Sen. and Democratic presidential candidate Robert Kennedy. When the newest Kennedy takes office, it will end the only two years since 1947 without a member of his family in Congress.
Those leaving include several who have been in the middle of recent years' policy battles.
Among them are Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., the GOP's No. 2 Senate leader; Indiana's Lugar, a longtime GOP power on foreign policy; North Dakota's Conrad, the Senate Budget Committee chairman and one of his party's chief deficit foes; and Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., who heads the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
Gone from the House will be California Democratic Reps. Pete Stark, a major force on health issues, and Howard Berman, long influential in foreign affairs, plus liberal Massachusetts stalwart Barney Frank, whose name is on the new law overhauling the government's regulation of banks and other financial institutions.
Also leaving: House Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier, R-Calif., and Ron Paul, 77, who charted his own libertarian course in Congress and long-shot campaigns for the GOP presidential nomination in 2008 and 2012.
"The status quo will continue," Paul, who sees little difference between the two political parties, said of the new Congress. As for his own departure, he said, "Nobody will notice."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/congress-fewer-moderates-deals-harder-092942465--politics.html
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Congo rebels advance as regional leaders seek cease-fire
The war continues to expand in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with rebels vowing to extend the gains they've made in the east of the country as more civilians are forced to flee their homes.
Refugees flee the town of Sake in Congo after the government failed to liberate the town from the M23 rebel movement.
Jerome Delay/AP
EnlargeAs regional leaders talked peace in plush hotel rooms a country away, fighting between rebels and government troops in the Democratic Republic of Congo's east rumbled on.
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On Friday, civilians carrying meager bundles of their belongings continued to stream out of the town of Sake a day after the Congolese national Army and an allied local militia tried ? and failed ? to retake the town from the M23 rebels.
Where those fleeing can go is unclear. Already tens of thousands of people displaced by the swirl of fighting are struggling to survive in makeshift camps studding the stony countryside.
The rebels pushed on with their offensive, capturing towns and villages around the regional capital Goma ? which they have controlled without challenge since seizing it from Congo's ragtag military on Tuesday. Buoyed by their victory the rebels said they were going much farther ? Congo's capital Kinshasa, a thousand miles to the west.
The continuing advance comes despite a flurry of diplomatic efforts to end the fighting.
As Goma fell, the three men who are widely seen as having played a central role in creating the conflict ? and could play the key role to end it ? met for talks at a luxury hotel on the shores of lake Victoria outside Uganda's capital Kampala.
On the one side was Congo's beleaguered president Joseph Kabila ? who had just seen his army melt away and angry protestors torch his party offices in several cities. On the other side was Rwandan President Paul Kagame ? the man whose own defense minister is in de facto command of the M23 rebels, according to the UN and Congo.
And somewhere in the middle was Uganda's wily leader Yoweri Museveni, a compromised mediator given that some senior Ugandan officials, including Mr. Museveni's own younger brother, have been accused by the UN of supporting the rebels.
Backing DRC?
At a hastily convened press conference on Wednesday the three presidents, looking weary after hours of talks, demanded the rebels stop fighting and pull out of Goma, while Museveni and President Kagame said they could not ?entertain the idea of overthrowing the legitimate government of the DRC or undermining its authority.?
"Wherever they [M23] are we shall tell them to go back. The region is saying to them to go back ... and I can assure you they will go back," Museveni said.
For its part, the government of Congo said it would ?look expeditiously into the causes of [the rebels'] discontent and address them as best as it can.? Mr. Kabila was noncommittal when asked about the possibility of direct negotiations ? the rebels' major demand.
While the presidents seemed confident about stopping the violence, no one seemed to have told the rebels to stop fighting. Rebel leaders said they would not be withdrawing from Goma any time soon.
Museveni reportedly sent a chopper down to the Congo border on Thursday to spirit M23's political chief to Kampala for talks, and Kagame and Kabila are expected back in town over the weekend.
But whether Kabila will agree to negotiate face-to-face with the rebels remains the big question, say analysts.
?Given that the FARDC [Congo's Army] is not strong enough to defeat M23 it's not clear that he is in a position to block such an agreement. It may be his only choice,? says Laura Seay, a regional expert at Morehouse College in the US. ?That said, Kabila only wants to deal with Rwanda, not the M23, as he sees Kigali as the source of M23's strength.?
And despite intense international pressure to find a solution, both sides remain far apart.
?It's hard to see what a negotiated solution would look like at this stage,? Ms. Seay says
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Saturday, November 24, 2012
Early start to "Black Friday" shopping frenzy
NEW YORK/BLOOMINGTON, Minnesota (Reuters) - The U.S. shopping frenzy known as "Black Friday" kicked off at a more civilized hour, with shoppers welcoming decisions by retailers such as Target Corp and Toys R Us Inc to move their openings to Thursday night.
They also seemed to show little concern that the U.S. economy could be pushed over a "fiscal cliff," if a combination of tax hikes and spending cuts take effect in January. Economists worry that unless U.S. President Barack Obama and Congress don't agree on a plan, the economy could fall into another recession.
The National Retail Federation expects sales during the holiday season to grow 4.1 percent this year, not as strong as last year.
"I think spending is better for the economy. I think you should spend. If you save all your money that will only make it worse," said Saiful Islam, 21, a New York accounting student who stood in line at Best Buy to purchase a television, a laptop and a PlayStation. "The line is bad, but the deals are good."
According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll, two-thirds of shoppers were planning to spend the same amount of money as last year or were unsure about spending plans, while 21 percent intended to spend less, and 11 percent planned to spend more.
"I definitely have more money this year," said Amy Balser, 26, at the head of the line outside the Best Buy store in the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota. "I definitely don't think (the economy) has bounced back anywhere near as much as it needs to, but I see some improvement," she said.
STARTING EARLY
Across the country, store lines were long - in the hundreds or more in many places - though the move toward earlier opening hours appeared to have helped.
While the shift was denounced by store employees and traditionalists because it pulled people away from families on the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, many shoppers welcomed the chance to shop before midnight or in the early morning hours.
"I think it's better earlier. People are crazier later at midnight," said Renee Ruhl, 52, a hotel worker, at a Target store in Orlando, Florida, where she was already heading to her car with an air hockey game in her shopping cart 2-1/2 hours before the chain opened last year.
Others were not as happy with an earlier Black Friday.
A petition asking Target to "save Thanksgiving" had 371,606 supporters as of Thursday afternoon.
Some workers used the day to send a message.
OUR Walmart - a coalition of current and former Wal-Mart staff seeking better wages, benefits and working conditions - has staged months of protests outside stores and targeted "Black Friday" for action across the country.
HIGH STAKES
The stakes are high for U.S. retailers, who can earn more than one-third of their annual sales during the holiday season, which generally starts with Black Friday.
The National Retail Federation said 147 million people would shop Friday through Sunday, when deals are at their most eye-catching - down from 152 million the same weekend last year.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc's U.S. discount stores, which have been open on Thanksgiving since 1988, offered some "Black Friday" deals at 8 p.m. on Thursday and special deals on certain electronics, like Apple Inc iPads, at 10 p.m.
The earlier hours lured people who had not braved the crowds before on Black Friday, said Jason Buechel, a senior executive in the retail practice of consultancy Accenture, in observing mall activity.
Retailers also made things more orderly.
"There's no stress, no bustling, no people busting down doors," said Richard Stargill, a 43-year-old construction worker from New York, referring to incidents such as the 2008 death of a Walmart worker, trampled by a mob of shoppers.
For Edward Segura, 50, at a Target in Tucson, Arizona, with his wife Belinda, 44, and their daughter, the earlier hours were a blessing.
"We'll shop tonight and tomorrow is freed up for enjoyment. I get to play golf and we're going to a football game later," said Segura. "My wife thinks of this as the Super Bowl of shopping, but I'd rather do something else."
Like many Black Friday shoppers, Segura was looking at televisions. But electronics were not the only hot sellers.
At Macy's in Herald Square in Manhattan, the line at the Estee Lauder counter was four deep shortly after its midnight opening. The cosmetics department's "morning specials" included free high-definition headphones with any fragrance purchase of $75 or more, and a set of six eye shadows for $10.
At the Target on Elston Avenue on Chicago's Northwest side - known as one of the highest-volume stores in the chain - the $25 Dirt Devil vacuum that normally goes for $39.99 was sold out, though there were still several large televisions available. Items such as towels for $2, blankets, kids' slippers and pajamas were hot sellers.
At 2 a.m. CST (0800 GMT), Mall of America was poised to beat the record number of shoppers - 217,000 - that came on the same day last year, according to mall spokesman Dan Jasper.
The day is also a test for retailers shifting strategies, like J. C. Penney Co Inc, which has been suffering from plunging sales as it moves away from coupons toward lower pricing and specialized boutiques within stores.
Amina Kebbeh, 18, of the Bronx, New York, was on line for the 6 a.m. EDT (1100 GMT) opening of Penney's Manhattan store. Others stood with her, though the line was relatively tame, compared to larger stores and those that opened earlier.
"If they remove the coupons, no one is eager to come," she said.
(Additional reporting by Phil Wahba in New York, Jessica Wohl in Chicago, Paul Ingram in Tucson, Arizona, Jason McLure in Littleton, New Hampshire, and Barbara Liston in Orlando, Florida; Writing by Brad Dorfman and Ben Berkowitz; Editing by Nick Macfie, David Holmes and Jeffrey Benkoe)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/black-friday-thursday-kicks-off-u-holiday-shopping-025954866--finance.html
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Google?s Nexus 4 Coming To Three In The U.K. December 13 On Contract And Pre-Paid Plans
Google is bringing the Nexus 4 to another carrier in the U.K., expanding availability to Three after debuting the device with O2 as its initial partner in that country. The Android 4.2-powered smartphone will be available starting December 13 on Three, either on a ?35 per month contract with an upfront cost of just ?29 on the One Plan, or pre-paid for ?399.99.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/jmR3CpE-520/
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How Do You Know It's A Payday Loan Scam? - Business Debt Relief ...
Last Updated on Wednesday, 14 November 2012 05:31 Written by Ebiz Friday, 23 November 2012 05:30
Consumers on the west coast and in other states are getting stung by a payday loan scam. More than 300 people have been victim to several payday loan companies with the same Las Vegas address and with identical websites.
Apparently, consumers looked into a payday loan site without really officially signing for the loan and found out that $30 was taken from their checking account without their authorization. Another case stated that, after merely checking out one payday loan lender online, they received over 100 offer from other payday lenders and had $30 taken from their checking account.
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The companies named in these accusations are Capital Advance Capital, Pacific Advance, Ideal Advance Loan Tree Advance, Palm Loan Advance, Vantage Funding and Your Loan Funding. The BBB says many of these companies already had bad ratings and complaints; although some of these companies try to make amends, most people just want their money back.
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A lesson to the wise, do not share your personal information so readily on the internet. Definitely do more research on the loan company before you give out any information, especially bank account and credit card numbers? What has happened to these consumers is identity theft in a sense, but because the information was freely given, it is hard to prove.
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Payday lending and auto title lending businesses can be unscrupulous, as it is. Many short term lenders will prey on the unfortunate poverty stricken consumer by giving them hope of urgently needed money. The promise of instant cash to a paycheck to paycheck survivor is overwhelming and hard to resist. The details involved in such a venture are often overlooked by the borrower in their haste to obtain the much needed funds. The borrower is so anxious to receive any type of loan, that he volunteers personal information readily without forethought.
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A payday loan and a car title loan are necessary for some people but the consumer still needs to take precaution. The cost of these loans are high, but the consumer with a poor credit rating needs a place to be able to find finds, when? they are living from pay check to paycheck and an emergency arises. Checking out the various lenders on the internet is the ideal way to precede, however, the consumer should not give out his personal financial information to all the lenders that they are purveying.
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The potential borrower should proceed by taking notes on the various lenders fees and interest rates and repayment offers without giving back information other than an email address. Only after the potential borrower decides on which lender is legitimate and would suit his/her needs the best, should he /she give out the financial information asked for. An honest lender will keep this all this knowledge confidential and use this information only with the borrower?s consent, after all the terms and conditions of the loan are disclosed and agreed upon.
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The consumer need not fear or avoid the payday lender or the auto title lender altogether, the consumer just needs to be aware and informed of what is true and what is false in the industry. It takes patience and knowledge. All the information needed is out there; you must find it and utilize it to your best ability.
Source: http://blog.ebusinessdebtrelief.com/debt/how-do-you-know-its-a-payday-loan-scam
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Friday, November 23, 2012
Small Business Marketing - tistheosmegas
Most small business owners fail when it comes to their small business marketing plans. They've got excellent technical skills in their line of work, but that just doesn't translate to having effective marketing skills.
As a result, profitability of many small businesses has been declining over the years. Ever increasing competition is making it more challenging in many ways. For those businesses that aren't losing money, most are not producing the profit they could be if they knew how to market themselves properly.
These business owners usually just copy what they see other businesses doing, or they follow the advice of some media sales person. The problem is they copy the wrong types of businesses, and the media sales people typically only know as much about effective marketing as the business owner does.
Without the right kind of marketing system in place, the success of any business is by pure chance. To help remedy this situation, below are seven things a small business can do to increase profits while spending less on marketing.
1. Use the power of free stuff
Everyone likes getting free stuff and you can use that to your advantage. If your business lends itself to giving away free samples of your product, do that. It helps get people hooked on it. Business profits have boomed on this marketing model.
As Chris Anderson author of the book titled, "Free: The Future of a Radical Price" says, "You can make make money giving things away."? In his book he talks about how businesses are giving away products and services they used to charge for, and in return, a percentage of their customers are buying something else. As a result, they are making more money than ever.
When you give something away, you often activate a universal law called the "Law of Reciprocity." It says that when people get something free, they feel obligated to do something for you. Obviously it doesn't work every time, but it does work enough of the time.
But there is another way to give away free stuff that can greatly benefit your business. When you do it right you get something very valuable in return: customer contact info...which leads us to the next tip.
2. Start capturing customer contact info and use it
One of the biggest mistakes small business owners make is not tapping their current customer base. They let customers visit their business (online or offline) all day long without ever trying to capture their contact info so they can continue to market products or services to them.
You likely know how expensive it can be to get a new customer. But you can market to your current customers for little or no cost. Capturing and using customer contact info can mean the difference between a profitable business and one that barely gets by.
Your business has more customer value in it than a customer can possibly digest in a short visit so if you aren't continually marketing to your customers, you are throwing money away!
You can make customer contact capture easier simply by using the power of free from tip number one. Simply start a monthly drawing to give away something free and print some registration slips visitors can fill out. Also have people register online on your website.
Tell customers they only have to register once for all drawings and you will contact them monthly via email to let them know who won. Of course you will always include an offer for a product or service!
What do you give away? Anything with a perceived value makes a great free item. Free items do not have to be expensive. Buy something on sale at WalMart or at eBay and offer it. You can also offer free informational reports that help people solve their problems. People are always looking for ways to solve problems they are having.
Of course, once you capture this information you have to do something with it. If you're too busy to take on any more work, then the next tip will help you out.
3. Use automated tools to keep in touch with customers
Once you have a customer list, I recommend you send a minimum of 25 "messages" a year to it. A message could be an email, direct mail piece, fax, or phone call.
If you don't use an automated tool to do the work for you, you'll likely be too busy to get the job done. When you automate, your messages go out regardless of how busy you get (the more messages that go out, the busier you'll get).
One tool you can use is an email autoresponder, which is a web-based system that sends out emails when someone signs up. It sends out emails at intervals you set up. You can also set it up to send an email on a specific day, such as a holiday.
The great thing about an autoresponder tool is that you enter your messages in the autoresponder one time, then it automatically sends emails to your list. You can also broadcast messages any time you want.
Using this tool, keeping in touch with your customers is easy and it will help keep the competition from creeping in and stealing your customers because they've forgotten about you and the services you provide.
4. Stop marketing like you're a big business.
Marketing a small business like it's a big business is something almost every small business owner does. They just copy the marketing they see being done at large companies with big brands. This kind of marketing is called "brand identity," "brand building," or "image" marketing.
This is a HUGE waste of advertising money for a small business. You simply don't have the resources you need to support a successful branding campaign.
Brand advertising typically has no "call to action," (they don't ask you to do anything). They just give you features of the product or service, or they entertain you without asking you to do anything.
Brand advertising is usually benefit free. The viewer has to determine if there is a benefit to them. It may contain a list of features and the user will have to assign their own benefit to each feature. It is usually focused on the product or provider of the product instead if the customer.
A successful marketing campaign for a small business is created around direct response marketing techniques.
5. Use old fashioned direct response techniques in new ways
The kind of marketing plan that works for a small business is direct response marketing. It doesn't require a huge marketing budget to use effectively. It can be used for all types of products and services.
And the good news is that you don't even have to hire an advertising agency to do it since it doesn't require creativity. All you have to do is learn the basic structure of direct response marketing and you can easily increase the sales your business makes.
Direct response sales copy always asks the reader or viewer to take some sort of action i.e. "Call in the next 5 minutes, and we'll include a free set of Ginzu steak knives!".
It may ask for the sale directly if a full "sales presentation" was done (one-step advertising), or it may ask them to request more information (two-step advertising). It will at a minimum, ask the reader to take some form of "traceable" action so you know if it is working or not.
There should always be a headline for written advertisements! Never put your company logo at the top of a direct response advertisement. That's brand advertising.
Whenever you create an advertisement in any form always look at them from the customer point of view. Look it and ask "Who gives a crap?" about everything in it. Do you think the customer cares about your logo. No! They care about what you can do for them. Put in benefits and not features. Let the customer know what's in it for them. A successful direct response ad for a small business includes several things:
?? * An offer to buy something
?? * Sufficient information for the consumer to make a decision to act now (or directions on how to get more info)
?? * An explicit "call to action" sooner rather than later
?? * A clear way to respond such as a telephone number or web page
?? * A means of tracking the response.
Direct response advertising is not just used for mail campaigns. You use it in all forms of media: print, web, mail, and broadcast. Take a look at all the advertising you are currently doing no matter where it is and start making the change now.
6. Use the Internet to advertise for free
Even though websites as we know them have existed since around the early 90s, only 49%* of small businesses currently have a website *9/08, Barlow Research. It's surprising how many businesses do not understand how powerful this marketing tool is. If you don't have a website, get one because there is no better source of free advertising!
The Internet has hundreds of "Web 2.0" websites where you post "content" for free. The content can be text, videos, or audios you create and it can lead people to your business. Plus, it helps establish you as an expert in your field.
EzineArticles.com is one such place you can post content. There was no charge to post this article. All I had to do is write it, post it, and then you found it.
You can put links in the "author resource" section, to drive traffic to a page on your website. The articles you post in EzineArticles can rank extremely well in Google search results with a little help from you.
You also want to get your business listed in places like Google Local if you do local business. Once again this is absolutely free.
Once you learn how to do use the Internet for promotion you'll have a head start on the future of advertising and you get customers for free!
7. Outsource routine marketing tasks so you can work on the growing your business
One of the biggest problems small business owners have is that they get so consumed by working IN their business, they don't have time to work ON their business. So no growth can occur.
When it comes to marketing yourself on the Internet, there are ways to use "virtual assistants" to do most of the work for you. A virtual assistant is someone you hire on a full or part-time basis who does the work for you.
But a virtual assistant is not a direct employee so you don't provide benefits or have the normal hassles of an employee. They are usually located somewhere in the world that has low-cost wages so they are very affordable. That's the beauty of the Internet and the communication it provides.
Virtual assistants aren't just confined to small business marketing plan tasks though. They can do almost anything for you: reservations, schedule appointments, answer phones, customer service, send flowers, buy a present for your spouse, find someone to fix your car, website development, accounting, software development, writing, graphics, or anything you need.
There are lots of resources on the Internet that can help you find a virtual assistant.
Create Your Small Business Marketing Plan Now!
Use these seven marketing tips to start building your small business marketing plan right now. If you procrastinate, your busy life will get in the way of business growth. Even if you only take a little of the advice you've been given, you'll find it can have a big impact on the profitability of your business.
Source: http://tistheosmegas.blogspot.com/2012/11/small-business-marketing-plan-increase.html
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