A sampling of celebrity tweets in response to Clint Eastwood's odd conversation with an invisible President Barack Obama in an empty chair before the Republican National Convention on Thursday:
? "This seat's taken." ? President Barack Obama, accompanied by a photo of the back of Obama's chair with him sitting in it.
? "20 years ago I wanted Clint Eastwood to make my day. Now I just want him to take his pills and b grateful he doesnt need medicare." ? Nancy Lee Grahn, "General Hospital" actress.
? "I demand to see Invisible Obama's invisible birth certificate." ? Michael Schaffer, The New Republic.
? "Clint Eastwood made my day." ? Charlie Daniels, country singer.
? "And so on this day, August 30, 2012, (at)MittRomney became a better actor than Clint Eastwood." ? Lawrence O'Donnell, host of MSNBC's "The Last Word."
? "I can't believe I just watched (hash)ClintEastwood turn into somebody's DRUNK UNCLE HARRY on the stage of the (hash)GOP (hash)RNC. He humiliated himself." ? Star Jones, "Today" contributor.
? "I. Love. Clint Eastwood." ? Blake Shelton, country singer and judge on "The Voice."
? "I heard that Clint Eastwood was channeling me at the RNC. My lawyers and I are drafting our lawsuit." ? comic actor Bob Newhart, referring to his signature one-way-conversation routines.
? "'If Clint Eastwood ever talks to a chair on national TV, people will need a way to reassure each other' ? inventor of Twitter, March 2006." ? Patton Oswalt, comedian and actor on "The King of Queens."
? "Clint Eastwood's RNC speech was to imaginary Obama in an empty chair. I'm drafting a DNC speech to imaginary Romney in an empty factory." ? George Takei, Mr. Sulu of "Star Trek."
Merchants in Europe would be horrified to see the ugly, black plastic bags handed out by so many U.S. business owners. No matter where I shopped in Amsterdam, Paris or throughout Italy, even the smallest purchase was beautifully wrapped and presented to me like a gift.
So toss out those horrible plastic bags and make an effort to create a positive and memorable package to delight your customers.
Elegant Touches?
In Paris, the sterling silver and leather bracelets I bought were nestled in silk pouches and tucked into black and silver bags with drawstrings. The colorful, printed cotton scarves I bought from a Turkish merchant were folded carefully into paper bags as if they were cashmere. A silk scarf I bought at a small boutique was wrapped in tissue. Stapled to the top of the bag was a business card and curly ribbons.
Customer service is a two-way street in Europe. It is customary to make eye contact and greet the merchant behind the counter when you walk in the door. No matter that you don?t speak the local language ?it?s easy to smile and say, "bonjour" or "buon giorno"?and offer your thanks with a "merci" or "grazie."
An elegant presentation is also part of providing great customer service. Throughout Europe, jewelry and accessory shops resemble museums. Merchandise is well-lit and displayed with plenty of space around each item, rarely piled up like it is in the United States.
Not Just Retail
Service at restaurants is also geared toward making customers, especially foreigners, feel welcome. I ate dinner every night at Lo Scudo, a small restaurant near il Duomo, the massive cathedral in Florence. The first evening, Tania, the Latvian-born waitress (who is studying law in Florence), took time to chat with me between courses. At the end of my meal (the best pizza I?ve ever eaten), the owner sent over a complimentary after-dinner liqueur.
The next night, I returned with my son, Evan, who happened to be in Florence that night. The staff greeted us like family. By the third night, as I savored the most delicious pasta with seafood, I was felt sad about saying goodbye.
Keeping Up Appearances
Gioele Romanelli, owner of the Novecento hotel in Venice, says that despite the economic challenges faced by Italian business owners, providing excellent customer service is a tradition. Small touches go a long way at his nine-room hotel near the Grand Canal.
Every day, the maid placed a fresh apple on my pillow. Breakfast, which is included in the price of the room in most fine hotels, always featured the freshest and most delicious breads and pastries that rivaled anything I tasted in Paris. ?
Before I left, Romanelli asked me what American business owners paid in taxes.
"A tax rate of 30 to 35 percent would be paradise,? he says. ?Italy?s small businesses are struggling to pay a 60 percent tax rate, while many Italian professionals such as attorneys and doctors, refuse to pay their fair share.?
?Romanelli?s family, who also owns the Hotel Flora, has been in the hotel business for 40 years. He says tax evasion is a terrible problem in Italy, and that it is well-know that tax evaders send their money to Switzerland, contributing to economic instability and massive debts.
"The smaller merchants try to do the right thing, while many professionals who are making 10,000 or 20,000 euros a month, pay little or no taxes.?
?When I mentioned that most streets in Venice seemed to feature only pricey boutiques with the occasional tacky souvenir shop wedged in, he said real estate prices have driven out most small-business owners.
??When I was growing up, there was a wonderful bakery located in front of my family?s Hotel Flora,? he says. ?Now, the bakery is gone and has been replaced by Bulgari, a fancy jewelry boutique.?
Jane Applegate is the author of four books about entrepreneurial success, including 201 Great Ideas for Your Small Business, published by Bloomberg/John Wiley & Sons. She's writing her fifth book: The Power of Personal Connections in an Impersonal World.??
An aircraft that resembles a four-point ninja star could go into supersonic mode by simply turning 90 degrees in midair. The unusual "flying wing" concept has won $100,000 in NASA funding to trying becoming a reality for future passenger jet travel.
The supersonic, bidirectional flying wing idea comes from a team headed by Ge-Chen Zha, an aerospace engineer at Florida State University. He said the fuel-efficient aircraft could reach supersonic speeds without the thunderclap sound produced by a sonic boom ? a major factor that previously limited where the supersonic Concorde passenger jet could fly over populated land masses.
"I am hoping to develop an environmentally friendly and economically viable airplane for supersonic civil transport in the next 20 to 30 years," Zha said. "Imagine flying from New York to Tokyo in four hours instead of 15 hours."
The U.S. military's B-2 Spirit stealth bomber that debuted in 1989 represents the only previously successful flying wing aircraft, even though experimental flying wings flew before then. Zha's bidirectional flying wing kicks the general concept up a notch by essentially laying two flying wings on top of one another at a 90 degree angle, so that the aircraft faces one way for subsonic flight and rotates another way for supersonic flight. [Supersonic Biplane Design Stops Sonic Booms]
The midair transformation allows the aircraft to fly in its most fuel-efficient modes at both subsonic and supersonic speeds, Zha explained. Jet engines located on top of the aircraft in concept illustrations appear to rotate independently of the aircraft so that they can always point forward in flight.
Such midair spinning might sound unpleasant for people riding the aircraft. But a five-second rotation would only cause pilots and passengers to experience a "g-force" just one-tenth the force of gravity ? less than what airline passengers experience during takeoff.
NASA liked the idea enough to give Zha and his colleagues a $100,000 grant from the Innovative Advanced Concepts program. But the U.S. space agency does not expect such funded concepts to fly for at least another 20 years or so.
"We are inventing the ways in which next-generation aircraft and spacecraft will change the world and inspiring Americans to take bold steps," said Michael Gazarik, director of NASA's Space Technology Program.
The bidirectional flying wing aircraft could also lead to the first supersonic drones soaring over the U.S. homeland or distant battlefields. Zha previously pitched the robotic military version to the U.S. Air Force at an unmanned aerial systems conference in 2009.
Both the U.S. government and aircraft manufacturers also have begun pushing for hypersonic aircraft capable of flying more than five times the speed of sound (Mach 5). Aerospace giant EADS displayed one passenger jet concept at the Paris Air Show in 2011, but aviation experts suggested a ticket to board the flight would cost at least $10,000.
The U.S. has already begun carrying out tests of unmanned hypersonic aircraft, but with mixed results. A U.S. Air Force test of the unmanned X-51A WaveRider ended prematurely when the aircraft plunged into the Pacific Ocean on Aug. 14.
This story was provided by InnovationNewsDaily, a sister site to LiveScience. Follow InnovationNewsDaily on Twitter @News_Innovation, or on Facebook.
Copyright 2012 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Greg Kus, a delivery person for New Belgium Brewery, removes 12-packs from a palette as he delivers beer to Wilbur's Beverage in Fort Collins, Colo. on July 7, 2012. The maker of Fat Tire beer says it's using a reserve water supply because the water in northern Colorado's Poudre River is tainted by a wildfire that destroyed hundreds of homes in June. (AP Photo/Fort Collins Coloradoan, V. Richard Haro)
Greg Kus, a delivery person for New Belgium Brewery, removes 12-packs from a palette as he delivers beer to Wilbur's Beverage in Fort Collins, Colo. on July 7, 2012. The maker of Fat Tire beer says it's using a reserve water supply because the water in northern Colorado's Poudre River is tainted by a wildfire that destroyed hundreds of homes in June. (AP Photo/Fort Collins Coloradoan, V. Richard Haro)
FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) ? A Colorado brewery said Thursday that it's monitoring the water it gets from the city of Fort Collins to make sure residue from a deadly wildfire that blackened a northern Colorado river doesn't befoul the taste of its beer.
New Belgium Brewing, the maker of Fat Tire beer, says so far there haven't been any problems. Brewery chemists, however, will be keeping watch after identifying six compounds in Poudre River water that could cause problems.
The river runs through an area where a June wildfire killed one person, destroyed more than 250 homes and scorched 136 square miles.
Fort Collins hasn't taken any of its drinking water from the Poudre since rainfall put ash from the High Park Fire into the river, turning it black, said Lisa Voytko, of the Fort Collins utility department.
The utility hopes to start drawing a small percentage of its water from the river next month, The Fort Collins Coloradoan reported Wednesday (http://tinyurl.com/9dygwqo), and the city is aware of the brewery's concerns, Voytko said.
None of the water the brewery is using has been affected, New Belgium spokesman Bryan Simpson told The Associated Press on Thursday.
The quality of the brewery's beer depends on the quality of the water from Fort Collins' treatment plant, New Belgium official Jenn Vervier said this week to members of a group working to restore the burn area.
"The health of the watershed equals the quality of our beer," she said Tuesday.
___
Information from: Fort Collins Coloradoan, http://www.coloradoan.com
This book cover image released by Dutton shows "No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission that Killed Osama Bin Laden," by Mark Owen with Kevin Maurer. A first-hand account of the Navy SEAL mission that killed Osama bin Laden is coming out Sept. 11. Dutton announced Wednesday that Mark Owen?s ?No Easy Day? will ?set the record straight? on the raid in Pakistan in May 2011. ?Mark Owen? is a pseudonym for the combat veteran who was one of the first fighters to enter bin Laden?s third floor hideout and also witnessed his death, according to Dutton, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA). (AP Photo/Dutton)
This book cover image released by Dutton shows "No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission that Killed Osama Bin Laden," by Mark Owen with Kevin Maurer. A first-hand account of the Navy SEAL mission that killed Osama bin Laden is coming out Sept. 11. Dutton announced Wednesday that Mark Owen?s ?No Easy Day? will ?set the record straight? on the raid in Pakistan in May 2011. ?Mark Owen? is a pseudonym for the combat veteran who was one of the first fighters to enter bin Laden?s third floor hideout and also witnessed his death, according to Dutton, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA). (AP Photo/Dutton)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? A firsthand account of the Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama bin Laden contradicts previous accounts by administration officials, raising questions as to whether the terror mastermind presented a clear threat when SEALs first fired upon him.
Bin Laden apparently was hit in the head when he looked out of his bedroom door into the top-floor hallway of his compound as SEALs rushed up a narrow stairwell in his direction, according to former Navy SEAL Matt Bissonnette, writing under the pseudonym Mark Owen in "No Easy Day." The book is to be published next week by Penguin Group (USA)'s Dutton imprint.
Bissonnette says he was directly behind a "point man" going up the stairs. "Less than five steps" from top of the stairs, he heard "suppressed" gunfire: "BOP. BOP." The point man had seen a "man peeking out of the door" on the right side of the hallway.
The author writes that bin Laden ducked back into his bedroom and the SEALs followed, only to find the terrorist crumpled on the floor in a pool of blood with a hole visible on the right side of his head and two women wailing over his body.
Bissonnette says the point man pulled the two women out of the way and shoved them into a corner and he and the other SEALs trained their guns' laser sites on bin Laden's still-twitching body, shooting him several times until he lay motionless. The SEALs later found two weapons stored by the doorway, untouched, the author said.
In the account related by administration officials after the raid in Pakistan, the SEALs shot bin Laden only after he ducked back into the bedroom because they assumed he might be reaching for a weapon.
White House spokesman Tommy Vietor would not comment on the apparent contradiction late Tuesday.
"No Easy Day" was due out Sept. 11, but Dutton announced the book would be available a week early, Sept. 4, because of a surge of orders due to advance publicity that drove the book to the top of the Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com best-seller lists.
The Associated Press purchased a copy of the book Tuesday.
In another possibly uncomfortable revelation for U.S. officials who say bin Laden's body was treated with dignity before being given a full Muslim burial at sea, the author reveals that in the cramped helicopter flight out of the compound, one of the SEALs called "Walt" was sitting on bin Laden's chest as the body lay at the author's feet in the middle of the cabin.
The publisher says the author used pseudonyms for all the SEALs.
Bissonnette also writes disparagingly that none of the SEALs were fans of President Barack Obama and knew that his administration would take credit for ordering the May 2011 raid. One of the SEALs said after the mission that they had just gotten Obama re-elected by carrying out the raid.
But he says they respected him as commander in chief and for giving the operation the go-ahead.
Bissonnette writes less flatteringly of meeting Vice President Joe Biden along with Obama at the headquarters of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment after the raid. He says Biden told "lame jokes" no one understood, reminding him of "someone's drunken uncle at Christmas dinner."
Beyond such embarrassing observations, U.S. officials fear the book may include classified information, as it did not undergo the formal review required by the Pentagon for works published by former or current Defense Department employees.
Officials from the Pentagon and the CIA, which commanded the mission, are examining the manuscript for possible disclosure of classified information and could take legal action against the author.
In a statement provided to The Associated Press, the author says he did "not disclose confidential or sensitive information that would compromise national security in any way."
Bissonnette's real name was first revealed by Fox News and confirmed to The Associated Press.
Jihadists on al-Qaida websites have posted purported photos of the author, calling for his murder.
___
Follow Kimberly Dozier on Twitter: http://es.twitter.com/KimberlyDozier
Rafael Soriano has had a fantastic season overall. Really, if back in April you told the Yankees Universe that Mariano Rivera was gonna miss almost all of the season because of a torn ACL, people would have assumed disaster. Instead, Soriano has nailed down most saves ? he?s 33 for 36 where even Mariano River blew five saves last year ? and has kept the bullpen humming.
But he got lit up last night and then he bolted the clubhouse before the press got there. John Harper says that?s bad news.?Of course, because this is Harper, the notion is put forth with enough sanctimony and drama to choke a horse:
One thing for sure: Soriano doesn?t handle himself in defeat the way his predecessor did. Nobody was more accountable or classier when he did blow one than Rivera ??He was gone before the Yankees? PR people could even find him to ask if he would answer questions from the media.?And don?t get this wrong: it?s not a media issue, it?s an accountability issue. It?s about being a professional in a clubhouse that has oozed professionalism since the day Derek Jeter showed up some 16 years ago.
Overwrought phrasing aside, he?s not wrong. I personally think that to a lot of reporters it is a media thing, but Harper correctly notes that players hate it when the guy everyone wants to talk to because of his screw up leaves and they have to give the quotes for the next day?s unhappy stories.
Harper wants to make it into some harbinger of doom and by the constant comparison to Rivera he wants to make it much larger than it is, which is kinda silly. ?But it?s not nothing. Soriano probably annoyed his teammates with that.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were little changed on Wednesday for a third consecutive day of muted action as economic data did little to spark investor interest before Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is scheduled to speak on Friday.
Daily volume so far this week has been light even for a seasonally slow period, with the trading volumes well below their daily average, an indication that market participants are reluctant to make any major investment moves ahead of the Fed chairman's speech.
Bernanke addresses a conference of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and could announce new measures to boost growth. He is expected to stoke expectations for a third round of quantitative easing, though he may not detail the timing of such a measure.
Further damping activity was the European Central Bank meeting on September 6 and a host of U.S. economic data scheduled for next week, including the Labor Department's payrolls report for August.
"Putting that all together into the mix, investors are sitting on the sidelines and we've seen a flat market most of the week," said Bucky Hellwig, senior vice president at BB&T Wealth Management in Birmingham, Alabama.
"The bets are all squared off and it's in a wait-and-see mode."
The S&P dipped over the past two sessions, but the decline was less than 0.1 percent on both days. It hasn't closed with a 1 percent move in either direction since August 3.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> gained 7.32 points, or 0.06 percent, to 13,110.31. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> gained 0.98 point, or 0.07 percent, to 1,410.28. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> gained 0.16 points, or 0.01 percent, to 3,077.30.
The S&P 500 has been pinned in a fairly tight range over the last three weeks, finding support at 1,400 while also unable to convincingly pierce the April high of 1,422.38, which has acted as a resistance point.
Gross domestic product grew 1.7 percent in the second quarter, the government said in a revised estimate. The figure was in line with economists' expectations. Last month the government estimated GDP rose 1.5 percent.
Pending home sales rose 2.4 percent in July, a bigger rise than had been expected and reaching their highest level in more than two years, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Later in the session, investors will parse the Federal Reserve's Beige Book of economic conditions at 2 p.m. (1800 GMT).
Shares of customer reviews website Yelp Inc jumped 21 percent to $22.10, the day insiders were free to sell their holdings, in a bit of a surprise for investors.
WellPoint Inc Chief Executive Angela Braly abruptly stepped down late Tuesday following growing investor dissatisfaction with the health insurer's financial performance. Shares rose 7.8 percent to $61.86.
Joy Global Inc slipped 0.6 percent to $53.47 as one of the worst performers on the S&P 500 after cutting its profit outlook for a second time this year, citing slowing growth in Asia and Europe.
ASUS is expanding its Zenbook lineup to include a larger 15-inch model. The company just announced the Zenbook U500, an Ultrabook packing some pretty robust internals. There's an Ivy Bridge Core i7 processor under the hood, along with an optional NVIDIA GT650M graphics chip and up to 512GB of storage. No word on weight yet, but the package measures 0.78 inches at its widest. The U500 also keeps in line with other Zenbooks' aluminum design, complete with the famous spun-metal lid.
The 15-inch form factor gives the U500 room for a separate numpad on the keyboard (there's backlighting here, too). For storage options, you get either dual SSDs with up to 512GB capacity or the combination of a 128GB solid-state drive and a 500GB hard drive. And, like ASUS' other latest Zenbooks, this machine will sport a full HD, anti-glare display with IPS technology. The company has yet to announce pricing and availability -- that info will come at the company's Windows 8 press event.
ScienceDaily (Aug. 28, 2012) ? Researchers at Polytechnic Institute of New York University (NYU-Poly) have created an ultra-sensitive biosensor capable of identifying the smallest single virus particles in solution, an advance that may revolutionize early disease detection in a point-of-care setting and shrink test result wait times from weeks to minutes.
Stephen Arnold, university professor of applied physics and member of the Othmer-Jacobs Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and researchers of NYU-Poly's MicroParticle PhotoPhysics Laboratory for BioPhotonics (MP3L) reported their findings in the most recent issue of Applied Physics Letters, published by the American Institute of Physics.
Their technique is a major advance in a series of experiments to devise a diagnostic method sensitive enough to detect and size a single virus particle in a doctor's office or field clinic, without the need for special assay preparations or conditions. Normally, such assessment requires the virus to be measured in the vacuum environment of an electron microscope, which adds time, complexity and considerable cost.
Instead, the researchers were able to detect the smallest RNA virus particle MS2, with a mass of only 6 attograms, by amplifying the sensitivity of a biosensor. Within it, light from a tunable laser is guided down a fiber optic cable, where its intensity is measured by a detector on the far end. A small glass sphere is brought into contact with the fiber, diverting the light's path and causing it to orbit within the sphere. This change is recorded as a resonant dip in the transmission through the fiber. When a viral particle makes contact with the sphere, it changes the sphere's properties, resulting in a detectable shift in resonance frequency.
The smaller the particle, the harder it is to record these changes. Viruses such as influenza are fairly large and have been successfully detected with similar sensors in the past. But many viruses such as Polio are far smaller, as are antibody proteins, and these require increased sensitivity.
Arnold and his co-researchers achieved this by attaching gold nano-receptors to the resonant microsphere. These receptors are plasmonic, and thus enhance the electric field nearby, making even small disturbances easier to detect. Each gold "hot spot" is treated with specific molecules to which proteins or viruses are attracted and bind.
Arnold explained that the inspiration for this breakthrough technique came to him during a concert by violinist Itzhak Perlman: "I was watching Perlman play, and suddenly I wondered what would happen if a particle of dust landed on one of the strings. The frequency would change slightly, but the shift would be imperceptible. Then I wondered what if something sticky was on the string that would only respond to certain kinds of dust?"
In experiments, the researchers successfully detected the smallest RNA virus in solution, and they are now training their sights on detecting single proteins, which would represent a major step toward early disease detection.
"When the body encounters a foreign agent, it responds by producing massive quantities of antibody proteins, which outnumber the virus. If we can identify and detect these single proteins, we can diagnose the presence of a virus far earlier, speeding treatment," Arnold said. "This also opens up a new realm of possibilities in proteomics," he said, referring to the study of proteins. "All cancers generate markers, and if we have a test that can detect a single marker at the protein level, it doesn't get more sensitive than that."
This patent-pending technology, co authored with postdoctoral fellow Siyka Shopova and graduate student Raaj Rajmangal, is ultimately designed for a point-of-care device capable of detecting viruses or disease markers in blood, saliva or urine. Testing for commercial applications is already under way.
The sensor itself, called a Whispering Gallery-Mode Biosensor, is unique to Arnold's work. Its name derives from the famous Whispering Gallery in the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral in London. Much the way its unique acoustics allow a whisper to be heard anywhere within the circular gallery, light traveling within the glass sphere of the biosensor orbits many times, ensuring nothing on the surface is missed.
The technique was pioneered by NYU-Poly MP3L post-doctoral researchers, graduate and undergraduate students, along with Stephen Holler, NYU-Poly alum and now an assistant professor of physics at Fordham University. A technology entrepreneur, Holler founded NovaWave Technologies, a chemical sensor company, at one of NYU-Poly's business incubators. Thermo Fisher Scientific, one of the world's leading providers of scientific and laboratory equipment, acquired NovaWave in 2010. Other authors of the paper are Venkata Dantham, NYU-Poly postdoctoral fellow; Vasily Kolchenko, now professor at New York City College of Technology's Department of Biological Sciences; and Zhenmao Wan, currently a graduate student in the Department of Physics at Hunter College of CUNY.
This research was originally supported by provost seed funds from the New York University (NYU) School of Arts and Sciences, in a grant jointly awarded to Arnold and NYU Professor of Physics David Grier. The National Science Foundation provided additional funding.
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Journal Reference:
V. R. Dantham, S. Holler, V. Kolchenko, Z. Wan, S. Arnold. Taking whispering gallery-mode single virus detection and sizing to the limit. Applied Physics Letters, 2012; 101 (4): 043704 DOI: 10.1063/1.4739473
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We are getting closer to the end of ?What Your Child Should Know? series. We have made it to Middle School and your child should be well prepared. By the 7th grade most homeschooled children know much more than their public schooled counterparts. There are a lot of reasons for this but the biggest is that homeschooled children don?t have the stress and pressure that others do. Here are some basic things that your 7th grader student should learn over the course of the year:
Math
Ability to multiply and divide fractions, percentages and decimals.
Ability to use graphs and charts and create them.
Ability to use a protractor and a compass.
Ability to decipher and create? word problems.
Begin pre-algebra.
? Language Arts
?
Memorize twenty spelling and vocabulary words per week.
Ability to write a fiction and nonfiction book report.
Ability to give an oral report .
Ability to use proper grammar and sentence structure.
Ability to use a dictionary and a thesaurus.
? Social Studies
?
Understand in detail how America began.
Understand thirteen colonies and the earliest forms of government.
Understand the government we have today.
Understand pollution and recycling.
Participate in a community service project (collect food and toys for a local animal shelter, etc.)
Science
?
Ability to conduct a scientific experiment and use proper tools.
Understand matter and energy.
Begin studying the periodic table, the elements, and their symbols.
Begin studying the human body,how each of the organs works, and systems of the body.
Understand the solar system and how the moon affects the tides.
?
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Study questions technique to repair ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysmsPublic release date: 27-Aug-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jim Ritter jritter@lumc.edu 708-216-2445 Loyola University Health System
MAYWOOD, Ill. - A new study raises a cautionary note about the increasing use of a minimally invasive procedure to repair ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysms, according to vascular surgeon Dr. Jae Sung Cho of Loyola University Medical Center.
A ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) causes massive internal bleeding that requires immediate emergency surgery to save the patient.
The rupture can be repaired either with an open surgery or with a newer, less-invasive endovascular technique that involves the use of a catheter.
At first glance, the endovascular technique would appear to be a better option because it is minimally invasive and has lower complication rates. It's being increasingly used to repair ruptured AAAs.
But a study in the Journal of Vascular Surgery, published online ahead of print, found that the endovascular technique does not conclusively improve survival.
In the retrospective study, Cho and colleagues compared 37 patients with ruptured AAAs who underwent emergency endovascular surgery and 241 patients with ruptured AAAs who underwent open surgery. The groups were matched by sex, age, surgeon experience, patient condition and other factors. The average age was 74.9 in the endovascular group and 75.6 in the open surgery group.
The endovascular group's probability of survival was 50 percent after the first year and 42 percent after three years. By comparison, the open surgery group's probability of surviving was 54 percent after the first year and 47 percent after three years.
The overall complication rate was 66 percent in the open surgery group and 54 percent in the endovascular surgery group, but this difference was not statistically significant.
Cho and colleagues wrote that preferential use of the endovascular technique "should be deferred until results of prospective, randomized trials are available and predictive factors for its success are identified. Some patients may be harmed by indiscriminate insistence on (the endovascular technique)."
The study was conducted at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, where Cho practiced before recently joining Loyola as chief of vascular surgery. Cho is a professor in the Department of Surgery, Division of Vascular Surgery and Endovascular Therapy at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine.
An AAA is a bulge in the large blood vessel that supplies blood to the abdomen and legs. Risk factors for AAAs include smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, male gender, emphysema, genetic factors, obesity and increasing age. The bulge typically develops slowly over many years. The larger the aneurysm, the more likely it is to rupture and cause massive bleeding. About 15,000 people per year die from ruptured AAAs. Many die before getting to the hospital. But certain patients can be saved if they make it to the hospital on time.
In the open surgery technique, the surgeon makes a large incision and opens up the abdomen. The surgeon clamps the aorta to stop the bleeding, then replaces or bypasses the ruptured section with an artificial blood vessel.
In the endovascular technique, the surgeon inserts a catheter in a groin artery and guides the catheter through blood vessels to the site of the burst aneurysm. The surgeon deploys a device called a stent graft. The device, shaped like an inverted Y, is made of GoreTex or Dacron, and is supported by metal webbing. After it is deployed from the catheter, the stent graft expands outward to the walls of the artery. This allows blood to flow safely through the stent graft, rather than gushing into the abdominal cavity.
While much less invasive than open surgery, the endovascular technique has drawbacks, Cho said. There can be more internal bleeding because of a delay in clamping the aorta. And even after a successful stent graft placement, there may be ongoing blood loss. Also, the large amount of blood left in the abdomen can compress other organs and the chest cavity and may require surgery to remove the blood.
The endovascular technique also can put a significant strain on hospital resources. The hospital must stock various sizes of stent grafts, which cost at least $12,000 each. And skilled endovascular, radiologic and nursing teams must be available around the clock.
"It is not pragmatic to undertake such systemic and systematic changes in the absence of clear evidence of (the endovascular technique's) superiority," Cho and colleagues wrote.
###
Cho is a nationally known expert in the treatment of AAAs and other vascular diseases. He said he uses his best judgment to decide whether a particular patient should undergo endovascular surgery or open surgery.
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Study questions technique to repair ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysmsPublic release date: 27-Aug-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jim Ritter jritter@lumc.edu 708-216-2445 Loyola University Health System
MAYWOOD, Ill. - A new study raises a cautionary note about the increasing use of a minimally invasive procedure to repair ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysms, according to vascular surgeon Dr. Jae Sung Cho of Loyola University Medical Center.
A ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) causes massive internal bleeding that requires immediate emergency surgery to save the patient.
The rupture can be repaired either with an open surgery or with a newer, less-invasive endovascular technique that involves the use of a catheter.
At first glance, the endovascular technique would appear to be a better option because it is minimally invasive and has lower complication rates. It's being increasingly used to repair ruptured AAAs.
But a study in the Journal of Vascular Surgery, published online ahead of print, found that the endovascular technique does not conclusively improve survival.
In the retrospective study, Cho and colleagues compared 37 patients with ruptured AAAs who underwent emergency endovascular surgery and 241 patients with ruptured AAAs who underwent open surgery. The groups were matched by sex, age, surgeon experience, patient condition and other factors. The average age was 74.9 in the endovascular group and 75.6 in the open surgery group.
The endovascular group's probability of survival was 50 percent after the first year and 42 percent after three years. By comparison, the open surgery group's probability of surviving was 54 percent after the first year and 47 percent after three years.
The overall complication rate was 66 percent in the open surgery group and 54 percent in the endovascular surgery group, but this difference was not statistically significant.
Cho and colleagues wrote that preferential use of the endovascular technique "should be deferred until results of prospective, randomized trials are available and predictive factors for its success are identified. Some patients may be harmed by indiscriminate insistence on (the endovascular technique)."
The study was conducted at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, where Cho practiced before recently joining Loyola as chief of vascular surgery. Cho is a professor in the Department of Surgery, Division of Vascular Surgery and Endovascular Therapy at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine.
An AAA is a bulge in the large blood vessel that supplies blood to the abdomen and legs. Risk factors for AAAs include smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, male gender, emphysema, genetic factors, obesity and increasing age. The bulge typically develops slowly over many years. The larger the aneurysm, the more likely it is to rupture and cause massive bleeding. About 15,000 people per year die from ruptured AAAs. Many die before getting to the hospital. But certain patients can be saved if they make it to the hospital on time.
In the open surgery technique, the surgeon makes a large incision and opens up the abdomen. The surgeon clamps the aorta to stop the bleeding, then replaces or bypasses the ruptured section with an artificial blood vessel.
In the endovascular technique, the surgeon inserts a catheter in a groin artery and guides the catheter through blood vessels to the site of the burst aneurysm. The surgeon deploys a device called a stent graft. The device, shaped like an inverted Y, is made of GoreTex or Dacron, and is supported by metal webbing. After it is deployed from the catheter, the stent graft expands outward to the walls of the artery. This allows blood to flow safely through the stent graft, rather than gushing into the abdominal cavity.
While much less invasive than open surgery, the endovascular technique has drawbacks, Cho said. There can be more internal bleeding because of a delay in clamping the aorta. And even after a successful stent graft placement, there may be ongoing blood loss. Also, the large amount of blood left in the abdomen can compress other organs and the chest cavity and may require surgery to remove the blood.
The endovascular technique also can put a significant strain on hospital resources. The hospital must stock various sizes of stent grafts, which cost at least $12,000 each. And skilled endovascular, radiologic and nursing teams must be available around the clock.
"It is not pragmatic to undertake such systemic and systematic changes in the absence of clear evidence of (the endovascular technique's) superiority," Cho and colleagues wrote.
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Cho is a nationally known expert in the treatment of AAAs and other vascular diseases. He said he uses his best judgment to decide whether a particular patient should undergo endovascular surgery or open surgery.
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Professional business and life coaching is action-focused and results-oriented. Coaches enable clients to enhance their focus on developing successful solutions and to mitigate self-defeating beliefs about their performance.
Coaches have and instill a single-minded focus on achievement.
Professional Coaching is not for everyone and not all coaches are created equal.
Coaching is a learned discipline and a powerful medium between therapy, mentoring, and consulting. The character traits needed to be?an exceptional coach are many and begin with the ability to truly listen and discern meaningful information in real-time. Also, the ability to manage empathy at its highest level is essential for developing the necessary connection between coach and client that leads to synergistic success. Furthermore, the ability to understand the client?s personal and professional position in life and to provide overly valuable and timely feedback that challenges and motivates the client to develop relative skills to improve.
Coaching provides a comparative advantage over the competition for the client and enables an intense learning experience about oneself and the respective situation at an accelerated speed. ?This style of learning greatly enhances self-esteem and self-awareness inside the confines of a secure and confidential experience with a qualified personal coach.
A coaching candidate requires the ability to handle unbiased feedback that at times can challenge self-identity. A potential client should be?resilient enough to overcome self-doubt and to meet predetermined goals for overall improvement. A determined need to be?successful in life is a prerequisite for an outstanding client. Ultimately, having a coach is a fashion statement that says that you are an overachiever that has the ability to employ a professional coach.
Quality coaching is not cheap and the cost of coaching is relative to the expertise and support that is provided. A coach should constantly challenge their belief system and make constant changes for improvement in their personal and professional development. A coach should walk the talk and have a total commitment to the craft of coaching.
Coaching branches off into niches and specialties because of creating a target market and expanding from that formed foundation, but coaching skills are universal and apply to multiple levels in personal and professional worlds. A truly skilled coach has the ability to adapt to the situation and rework their coaching tools to conform to the desired goals of their client.
Education is the ultimate equalizer and utilizing a coach to enhance personal and professional development to maintain equilibrium in today?s fast-paced, 24/7 globalized environment is becoming a mandatory choice for continued excellence.
Why are some leaders exceptionally better than their counterparts? Why do some workers always excel in their work? Why are some parents better than others? They have a confidential secret that enables them to create an intense focus on achievement and that secret is professional coaching.
Million Dollar Coaching Company| (855) MY-PRO-COACH | 855-697-7626www.EliteProCoach.com | ?Changing the Way the World Works?
Keith works with prestigious clientele to generate earnings, career satisfaction, strategic solutions, high-level leadership, awareness, & overall alignment. Interested? If you could afford the luxury of having a professional development coach/consultant ? Contact Keith. Limited availability. Keith provides Certified Professional Solution-Focused Personal & Professional Development Coaching/Consulting for Executive Leadership & Career Development for Maximizing Opportunity & Growth through Behavioral Change, Communication, & Transitioning + S.M.A.R.T. Goal Setting.
(August 25, 2012) WOODCLIFF LAKE, N.J. ? BMW Motorcycles is revving up Bloomingdale's Fall fashion campaign. The BMW R 1200 R Classic is featured in the men's department at Bloomingdale's stores nationwide, inside the fall men's catalog, and in the store windows of Bloomingdale's flagship store on 59th St. in Manhattan, NY.?
And that's not all!? Shoppers will also have the opportunity to win their very own bike ? both in-store and on www.bloomingdales.com.
"Partnering with Bloomingdale's is a natural extension of the BMW brand as both a cultural and product icon," observed James Callahan, Marketing Communications Manager, BMW Motorrad USA.? "For decades, our bikes have been featured in films, music videos, magazine photo shoots and special events.? From James Bond to "Jay Leno's Garage" and the recent Summer Olympics, BMW motorcycles are seen and ridden 'round the globe."
Bloomingdale's new "On the Road" shops for guys on-the-go celebrate the "moto trend" with cool travel essentials like leather fingerless gloves, hooded knits, leather totes, cool tees, and the opportunity to check out the BMW R 1200 R Classic in person.??
According to Callahan, the in-store motorcycle displays in Bloomingdale's men's departments are turning more than a few heads.? "An R 1200 R was sold the very first day it appeared in the Tyson's Corner, Va., Bloomingdale's store," he reported.
Sir...Would you like the bike gift wrapped with the belt?
CACAK, Serbia (Reuters) - Police in Serbia ordered the evacuation of several thousand villagers in the southwest of the country on Saturday as over-stretched emergency services, backed by a Russian plane, battled wildfires scorching the western Balkans.
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Near the Serbian town of Cacak, fires raged through hillsides and cornfields dried to a crisp by drought, a Reuters correspondent reported. Several houses were ablaze.
Police said they had ordered the villages of Miokovci and Gornja Gorevnica, near Cacak, to be evacuated.
"The situation ... is extremely serious and both settlements are endangered," said Predrag Maric, head of the Serbian Interior Ministry's Emergencies Department. "We are relocating manpower from throughout Serbia as well as helicopters to fight this."
The western Balkans is in the grips of a heatwave that has seen temperatures top 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), triggering hundreds of wildfires.
Serbia and neighboring Bosnia appear to be worst hit.
A Russian Beriev Be-200 fire-fighting aircraft, with a capacity of 12 tonnes, arrived in Serbia on Saturday to provide extra air support. A Russian helicopter has been in action for days.
Police said the worst fires were in the Cacak region and the western Tara National Park, a popular tourist spot.
Fires also burned in the eastern Bosnian region of Bratunac, where helicopters of the European Union's Bosnian peacekeeping force were deployed on Friday to help douse the flames.
(Writing by Matt Robinson; Editing by Alison Williams)
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Check for restrictions at: http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
By its very nature, social media will not capture 100 percent of your company?s total fan base or potential customers. Instead, you may need to increase your digital marketing reach to include online forums.
Business owners should explore specialized forums or question and answer websites such as Quora. These venues provide your company with an opportunity to increase grassroots communication. Here are three tips on how to market your small business using online forums:
Answer Questions
Online forums and question websites allow you to leverage your business experience for organic marketing and lead generation. No one knows your business topic better than you do: so share your knowledge with the world by posting replies and answering questions about relevant topics. This can establish you as a subject matter expert and allow you to share you experiences with no real cost to the company. Similarly, forums and discussion pages often contain high numbers of non-participating readers who are on the site to learn. By posting information, and hopefully including a back link, you are advertising your company to potential customers.
Provide Customer Service
One of the main reasons to reach out to question and answer services or forums is to offer customer service. Much like replying to a review on Yelp, posting on a forum allows you to reach out to future and past consumers to discuss any of their comments about your business. By addressing concerns, you show that your company cares about its customers and follows-through.
Engage with Your Customers
In the same manner that social media engagement allows you to form bonds with your customers, using online forums can help you reach an untapped group of fans. Always post as an ambassador for your business, and remember to contribute quality content to the discussions. With thousands of different interest-based communities taking root online, you should be able to find a discussion group or blog that caters to possible customers of your products or services.
Forums can be free marketing venues for your company. Small businesses who want to connect with their online fans and build a stronger brand should contact New York-based online marketing strategist Brad Sharenow. Brad can help your business use online marketing to increase sales and website traffic. Call (877) 411-3777 to schedule a free consultation today!
Twitter?and Hootsuite have partnered up for an ad campaign by giving away US$ 100 Twitter advertising?vouchers to Hootsuite Pro account holders.
30,000 of them to be exact. Not all Hootsuite Pro accounts are getting vouchers, but the move does give us a bit more understanding of what Twitter is up to now that the company has?decided to change some of the user restrictions involved with its API.?
Twitter Sees Value in the Enterprise
Twitter isn't the only social network that integrates with Hootsuite, but those lucky enough to get the US$ 100?advertising credit can redeem it right when they log in to the popular app. Hootsuite is sending out emails to the?selected voucher winners, and a dashboard pop-up will appear to nudge them into redeeming it.?
By changing its API rules, Twitter is trying to make better use of its partner and devloper relationships in order?to promote its own platform. One way to monetize Twitter is to charge enterprise companies for access to?tweets and things like trending topics through apps like Hootsuite. The API changes are also made to encourage people to build apps in areas like analytics and CRM.?
Hootsuite the Big Winner
Hootsuite integrates with other social networks and apps, but with Twitter taking away some features through its?API change. Hootsuite now becomes perhaps the most robust Twitter client. The new ad campaign solidifies the Twitter and Hootsuite relatitionship, and whatever future moves Twitter makes will surely include more of this type of cross promotion.
Twitter looking to small and medium sized businesses with its Hootsuite partnership.
The Hootsuite ad vouchers are only available to U.S. based accounts and then only for those who have never advertised on Twitter before. Additioanlly, the vouchers must be used up by the end of the year.?
Nina Curtis, Founder and President of The Nile Institute in West Hollywood, CA, has over 25 years experience in the professional personal care and wellness industry. She is a well-respected Holistic Esthetician, certified Natural Health Professional, certified Health and Wellness Coach, certified Health and Fitness Professional and now a certified Living Light Institute Associate Chef and Instructor.
Get to know Nina Curtis in Living Light?s Chef Spotlight. Chef Experience: How did you get interested in raw foods? Nina Curtis: My journey with raw food started 12 years ago. I was ready for something new in my life. I jumped in feet first, read every book available, took every class I could find, with the best of the best, throughout Los Angeles, attended potlucks, lectures and traveled miles to eat at raw food restaurants.
CE: Are you currently eating a raw food diet? If so, how long have you been eating raw foods? NC: I am currently eating an 80/20 raw, vegan food diet, (80% raw, plant-based foods). Three years into my all raw food diet, my acupuncturist told me that my ?earth? element needed some warmth. Always, one to let the pendulum swing, I said, ?What the heck?? I listened to him and began eating cooked grains and other cooked carbs? I now concentrate on being a ?Conscious? plant-based eater, as I don?t like ?labels? and I like to listen to what my body needs.
CE: How has raw foods changed your life? NC: It?s made me realized the power behind the quote, ?Let food be thy medicine?. I love trying as many new plant-based foods as I can get my hands on as variety is key with this food style!
CE: When did you know that you wanted to be a raw vegan chef? NC: Once I realized that so many of my family, friends and clients where more interested in this way of eating and they trusted my experiences. I wanted to really be able to prepare gourmet meals that would appeal to all of their senses.
CE: How did you find out about Living Light Culinary Institute? NC: Many of the people I took classes from early on in my journey had studied with Cherie Soria and that was before Living Light moved to Fort Bragg. I knew when the time was right I would attend Living Light as it is the premiere raw food culinary school of choice!
CE: When deciding on a school, what were the major factors that played a part in your decision? What were you looking for? NC: The quality of training is key; I likened it to my decision to attend Pepperdine University for my MBA. I wanted to attend a school that was not only on the cutting edge, but could offer me ?real? time experience. I wanted personal attention to my specific needs and goals, and the success of previous graduates was also important to me. When I looked at what many of the graduates of the Living Light Culinary Institute were accomplishing, and so many are accomplishing great and exciting things, I knew this was where I wanted to attend school.
Another factor important to me was the emphasis put on chef and instructor skill sets. I am a business owner, teacher, writer and lecturer in the spa and wellness industry and my certification as a Raw Culinary Arts Associate Chef and Instructor, allows me to expand my business offerings in many innovative ways! I am working on a rebranding of my business and there are some very exciting things to come!
CE: What was your first week at the Living Light Culinary Institute like? NC: It was fast paced, lots of learning and teaming up with people from all over the continent. There was no messing around! We jumped right in and started making all kinds of dishes. I loved it!
CE: What is your favorite dish that you have created so far? NC: I really enjoyed so many dishes, but if I have to narrow it down to one, I would say it?s been the Mediterranean Dolmas as it?s a favorite food of mine.
CE: What was so special about this particular dish? NC: I had pretty much given ?traditional? dolmas up as I did not want the rice it contained. When I saw that we were going to make it in class with zucchini as a rice replacement, I was a bit skeptical? I thought, let?s just leave well enough alone but I was pleasantly surprised that the mouthfeel of the zucchini was much like the rice. I?m enjoying making it at home, along with the savory zucchini hummus!
CE: Which Living Light courses are you most looking forward to taking? Why? NC: Armed with the Living Light Culinary training that I currently have, I am really looking forward to attending the Gourmet series, especially the ?Rawfusion Spa Cuisine?. This is right up my alley as I am in the spa industry and I will be able to offer this specialty to many spas across the globe. It fits so well with my current consulting and training services and I think more consumers and spas want to learn about this style of cuisine.
CE: What was your typical day at school like? NC: I was up at about 5:30 a.m. each morning and I volunteered to work in the kitchen at 7:30 am before class started every chance I got (you learn so much by observing the management operations of the kitchen). Green smoothies were served at 8:45am and Instructor training commenced at 9 a.m. By 10 a.m. we started our demos and hands on, which continued all the way through to gastronomy and lunch. More demos and hands on after lunch with the day ending with gastronomy and facility management. Don?t think I?m done yet, as we had plenty of home work; reading, research and recipe development to complete. I think that the lights went out in my room on average by midnight. This program is not a vacation. What you put into it, you get out of it!
CE: What do you like most about attending Living Light? NC: The team at Living Light, including the teachers, administrators and advisors are truly passionate about what they do and they are sincerely interested in each ?student?s success. I was very impressed that Cherie Soria, the founder of Living Light, was very involved with our training when she was in town. She is truly the Mother of Raw Gourmet Cuisine, she taught classes, was very hands on in our development and she is a stickler for detail and perfection! I truly appreciated that. I feel that I have received a strong foundation to continue to build on.
CE: What is the most challenging? NC: Having to leave until next time?
CE: Where do you see yourself after graduation from Living Light Culinary Institute? NC: I am currently working on my business plan to include; offering lectures, workshops, writing and private and business consultation. I am ?breaking where I am the strongest?, as they say, in the spa industry and then I plan to expand from there.
CE: What advice do you have for anyone thinking about a career in the raw foods? NC: I think it?s important to identify your passion and be clear on what you want, not what others want of you. I love teaching, so my emphasis will be on teaching about the raw food lifestyle, through many different mediums.
CE: Do you have any exciting projects in the works? NC: Yes, I am very excited as I will be speaking to a group of about 150 spa owners, directors, and estheticians on the benefits of a raw food, plant-based diet. I want people to really start thinking about beauty and wellness from the inside out and what that truly means? ?You Are What You Eat? and ?Eat Right for Your Skin Type? concepts. When I started my raw food journey 12 years ago, people looked at me with a ?raised brow?, now some of those same people are interested with what I have to say, that?s exciting!
CE: Where do you see yourself five years from now and what path will you take to get there? NC: I love to plan but I?ve also learned to stay open to the Universe. I have a lot of ideas which I look forward to bring to fruition such as authoring a couple of books, raw food travel and possibly a line of ?skin food?.
I constantly remind myself that, ?I?m not in a hurry for anything, but on time for everything!? ~Nina Curtis
The Nile Institute 620 1/2 North Doheny Drive West Hollywood, CA 90069 310-275-NILE (6453) www.styleseat.com/ninacurtis
? If you would like further information on attending Living Light classes, please call an Enrollment Specialist at 707-964-2420