StockTwits Official Microblogger of the Value Investing Congress ...

• ppearlman
• September 28th, 2012

Each Fall, some of the best investment minds in the universe converge in New York City for the much anticipated Value Investing Congress.

Smart market?participants?jump at the chance to attend the event and there are always multiple big stories that trickle out and move markets.

StockTwits will be the official microblogger of the event in New York City this coming Monday and Tuesday October 1 & 2.

Josh Brown (aka?@reformedbroker) and I (@ppearlman) will be there tweeting it and interviewing participants but if you can make it live, it?s a hot ticket for good reason.

The cast is stellar.

David Einhorn, President of Greenlight Capital

Bill Ackman, Managing Member and Portfolio Manager of Pershing Square

Barry Rosenstein, Founder and Managing Partner of JANA Partners

Bob Robotti, Founder and CIO of Robotti & Company Advisors

Whitney R. Tilson, Founder and Managing Partner of T2 Partners

John Mauldin, President of Millenium Wave Advisors

Glenn Tongue, Managing Partner of T2 Partners

Alexander Roepers, President of Atlantic Investment Management

Guy Gottfried, Founder and Manager of Rational Investment Group

Jeffrey W. Ubben, Founder, Chief Executive Officer & Chief Investment Officer of ValueAct Capital

Lloyd Khaner, General Partner of Khaner Capital

Kian Ghazi, Founder and Managing Partner of Hawkshaw Capital Management

Mick McGuire, Founder and Managing Member of Marcato Capital Management

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The information in this blog post represents my own opinions and does not contain a recommendation for any particular security or investment. I or my affiliates may hold positions or other interests in securities mentioned in the Blog, please see my Disclaimer page for my full disclaimer.

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Source: http://blog.stocktwits.com/stocktwits-official-microblogger-of-the-value-investing-congress/

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The Best Advice On Mobile Marketing Like A Pro | Eric Chua : Life ...

Mass advertising is easy now that mobile marketing is on the scene. To learn how to market your business on mobile devices, which will reach more people than ever, read the tips and advice presented here.

Don?t squander your customers? limited attention. In your excitement and rush to use mobile marketing, remember to do things that have a purpose. Provide information that can help your customers and potential new customers. Build customer loyalty by providing your customers with what they want.

Examine what techniques your competitors are using via mobile marketing. Follow them on Facebook and Twitter. Find a way to differentiate yourself from you competitors.

TIP! Get yourself short codes that are dedicated as opposed to sharing them. They?re not cheap at about $2,000 but they can link to your brand.

You should have clear objectives before you launch a mobile marketing effort. It is important to know what your objectives are for your business and the ways to achieve those goals. Are you looking to monetize your existing customers more or are you attempting to get long term customer retention?

A/B testing can be a useful strategy in developing a mobile landing page. This will help you test which strategies work and which ones don?t, which is as crucial to mobile site development as it is to creating standard web pages. Create two different landing pages (A&B) to see which is more effective for conversions. Then when you find what works, add that to your end game strategies.

MMS, otherwise known as Multimedia Messaging Service, is an excellent tool that you can employ to deliver coupons in order to reward your customer base, or attract new customers. You can include certain promotional codes with the coupons that you send out. Codes that can be tracked can easily be linked to your online product pages. Coupons are useful in both gaining new customers and rewarding your loyal customers.

TIP! Adding maps to your website, that are mobile friendly, can help bring in new customers. Your maps can let them find your location quickly on their phone.

Almost everyone is familiar with the idea of offering free apps, but not everyone understands just how easy it can be to develop one that meets the needs of your business. You could offer apps specific to your business to better promote your company via mobile marketing. There are a lot of services that assist in designing apps, and a lot of features these apps could offer to your customers.

Be concise and user-friendly. Your customers should access the information they need in a few clicks. Remember that the keypad in mobile devices are very small and typing is not easy. Therefore, you want to keep the campaign to the absolute must.

Mobile Marketing

TIP! When you design your campaign, make a plan to get your mobile marketing message across to different platforms. Do not exclude anyone from your campaign by neglecting a platform.

In the content area of your mobile marketing campaign, it?s important to keep the message short so it can be easily understood. Make all of your mobile marketing memorable and to the point.

Labor for your clients. Knowing the goals and desire of your buyers is the fundamental principle of mobile marketing. Without knowing your customers? interests, you can?t effectively provide products they?ll buy. Try and get as much information out of your customers, so you understand them and that will lead to success.

Your mission statement will help you design the best campaign possible. Having the mission statement around will help you stay ethical.

TIP! When doing this kind of marketing, you can?t go wrong by investing some money to ensure your website is well-optimized for mobile use. The constraints of mobile browsers make creating a nice-looking mobile site more difficult than creating a good traditional site.

Start by building a proper database. Do not slap customers? cell numbers onto your subscriber list just because you have access to them. You really need to get their permission before starting. Ask your existing online customers to join your mobile database, and give them a coupon for referring friends.

Use several marketing pieces at the same time to provide detailed information about an event for maximum effect. For instance, you can use direct mail to let them know about the upcoming event and any discounts that you plan to offer. Email your customers a little while before the event, then send then an SMS on the day of the event.

Don?t start a new mobile marketing campaign until you have had a chance to judge the success of your first one. To calculate the success you are getting, you should check your campaign longevity and not the sales numbers. Design new campaigns by using strategies that have been successful in the past.

TIP! Make sure that you add mobile friendly directions and maps to your website. A lot of people use mobile websites to help them to get to different locations.

Going viral is one of the best ways for your ads to be effective. They could recommend it to friends and family, which will increase your customer base.

Qr Codes

For a great way to bring in customers and help your brand become more well-known, use QR codes in your campaigns. They can be used to share many things including both information about your product and discounts. They are easy to capture via a cellphone and easy to use. Incorporating QR codes into your mobile marketing campaign is a great way to get your customers the information they want without pestering them with messages.

TIP! An important key in your mobile marketing plan is conducting a test to see how usable it is to end consumers. It is very important that consumers see your content in the way you have intended.

Your advertising techniques always have room for improvement. You need to consider what your competition is doing as well. This article has provided some ideas to help you stay a step ahead with your mobile advertising campaigns

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Source: http://www.maynaseric.com/the-best-advice-on-mobile-marketing-like-a-pro-3

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Video: Touch-sensitive tentacles catapult prey into carnivorous plant traps

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Swift predators are common in the animal world but are rare in the plant kingdom. New research shows that Drosera glanduligera, a small sundew from southern Australia, deploys one of the fastest and most spectacular trapping mechanisms known among carnivorous plants.

The study, published Sep. 26 in the open access journal PLOS ONE, is a collaboration between the Plant Biomechanics Group at the University of Freiburg and private sundew cultivators from Weil am Rhein, and provides the first experimental demonstration of fast-moving snap tentacles in sundew plants propelling prey into the plant's leaf trap, where they are captured and digested. The authors also provide a biophysical explanation for the quick motion of these touch-sensitive tentacles.

Glue-covered tentacles and leaf traps in sundew species work like flypaper to trap insects, but this is the first study to show how fast-acting 'snap' tentacles are involved in prey capture. The researchers found that insects walking on the snap tentacles trigger a touch-sensitive catapult action, propelling prey onto the nearby glue tentacles. Glue tentacles then gradually move the prey down to the leaf trap for digestion and assimilation.

This image shows how snap tentacles capture an insect.Credit: Citation: Poppinga S, Hartmeyer SRH, Seidel R, Masselter T, Hartmeyer I, et al. (2012) Catapulting Tentacles in a Sticky Carnivorous Plant. PLoS ONE 7(9): e45735. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0045735

The authors suggest that these catapulting snap tentacles could help increase the reach of a leaf trap beyond just the glue tentacles, and perhaps allow the plant to capture larger insects that may be strong enough to struggle free of the glue tentacles alone. Catapulting prey towards the center of the plant could also improve digestion of the insect and prevent theft of the captured prey by other predators.

"Such plants are of particular interest to plant biologists because of their sophisticated and complex structural and mechanical adaptations to carnivory", says Thomas Speck, lead author on the study.

###

Public Library of Science: http://www.plos.org

Thanks to Public Library of Science 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/123914/Video__Touch_sensitive_tentacles_catapult_prey_into_carnivorous_plant_traps

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PayDay Loans Online Mag For ProAdvice and Finance News ...

Harley said that DHL is new to the energy business. It has been the company?s primary growth area. Last year alone, the energy sector had around $1.3 billion in revenue. Its primary clients are oil service companies as well as exploration and production companies. It hopes to expand its clientele list.

Harley added that competition in the logistics industry in Houston is tough. The company has to compete against Crane Worldwide Logistics and Gulf Winds International. But Harley said that DHL has the advantage over its rivals. He believes that DHL is the leader in logistics.

He said that he worked for a number of years in Houston and he realized that DHL has a unique position. It can handle everything in the logistics market, from small packages to major supply chains. He added that their competitors can?t do it. He confessed that its competition is in the specialist areas.

Source: http://www.paydayloansmag.com/competition-in-logistics-industry-tough/

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How to rescue a stately home: raid the antique bookcases | Christian ...

Lancashire TV viewers don?t often see expert John Foster of Antiques Roadshow lose his cool, but he got perilously close in Antiques to the Rescue ? a brand new series in which he tries to save historic houses from struggling by persuading the owners to sell their family heirlooms.

A hybrid of Country House Rescue and Cash In The Attic, the BBC2 production made its debut on Wednesday 19th September, with John going to the aid of Morgan and Sara Kavanagh of Borris House, their family seat in Ireland?s County Carlow. The striking 50-room mansion has a fascinating history, but time and the elements have taken their toll. One wing has already been abandoned, and the rest of the house could follow suit unless ?20,000 is found to aid the opening of a visitor centre and offset some of the ?200,000 a year maintenance costs.

When John first entered the magnificent state rooms, furnished with antique cabinets, Victorian balloon back dining chairs and other heirlooms, the task seemed straightforward ? but he had reckoned without Morgan?s reluctance to part with family treasures. A massive antique dining table (actually an Irish Wake Table) had to stay, as did the paintings, Persian rugs, porcelain and contents of the antique bookshelves. John eventually managed to forage enough antiques to make around 23,000 Euros ? although commission charges brought this down to 21,250 Euros. Luckily, the Kavanaghs were also awarded an enhanced heritage grant, helping to make their visitor centre a reality.

If you want to sell your antique dining table, a Preston antique dealer will offer you a better deal than you?d get at auction.

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Source: http://blog.christiandaviesantiques.co.uk/how-to-rescue-a-stately-home-raid-the-antique-bookcases-2584.html

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Greek coalition has 'basic agreement' on austerity

ATHENS, Greece (AP) ? Greece's coalition government reached a "basic agreement" Thursday on a new round of harsh austerity cuts demanded by its international lenders.

The measures, secured after weeks of fruitless efforts, had to be agreed or Greece would have been cut off from vital bailout loans that it needs to pay its way and keep it in the 17-country group that uses the euro.

Finance Minister Yiannis Stournaras said the long-delayed agreement placed him in a stronger negotiating position ahead of talks Monday with representatives of the country's bailout creditors, who will have the final word on the cutbacks.

He said Prime Minister Antonis Samaras' deliberations with the heads of his two junior coalition partners resulted in "a basic agreement" on the measures intended to ax some ?11.5 billion ($14.8 billion) off state spending in 2013-14.

Under its bailout commitments, Athens must also boost state revenues by an additional ?2 billion over the next two years through tax reform and improved tax collection.

The three-party meeting came a day after more than 50,000 anti-austerity protesters took to the streets of Athens, in a demonstration marred by clashes between hooded anarchist youths and riot police.

Greece has relied on international bailouts since May 2010. In return, it imposed a punishing austerity program, repeatedly slashing incomes, hiking taxes and raising retirement ages. The new measures are expected to include further pension and salary cuts, and raising the age of retirement from 65 to 67.

Parliament is expected to vote on the cutbacks between Oct. 8, when eurozone finance ministers meet in Luxembourg, and the Oct. 18-19 European Union summit, a Greek government official said.

He spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to discuss the issue on the record.

The government should easily win the vote, despite fierce opposition from anti-austerity parties and potential dissenting votes, as it controls 178 of the house's 300 seats.

Approval from EU, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank officials monitoring the country's three-year effort to right its finances will allow the disbursement of ?31 billion, expected after mid-October.

With that money, whose payment was delayed for months after two successive national elections in May and June, Greece will complete the recapitalization of its battered banking system and pay off long-outstanding debts to domestic suppliers.

Without the cash, the country would have trouble paying its bills. That could force Greece to default on its debts and, possibly, ditch the euro.

The conservative-led coalition has been debating the new cutbacks for about two months, but a deal was delayed by opposition from the two center-left junior partners ? coupled with disagreements with EU, IMF and ECB austerity inspectors.

Fotis Kouvelis, head of the small Democratic Left party, said after Thursday's two-and-a-half hour talks that, despite the overall agreement, "some issues are still outstanding."

And Socialist PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos said he would "struggle to the end to ensure that these measures are not across the board and are fair ... and that they are truly the last," as Samaras has pledged.

____

Elena Becatoros in Athens also contributed to this article.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/greek-coalition-basic-agreement-austerity-103913376--finance.html

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China reacts with surveillance ships to Japan's purchase of disputed islands

Chinese surveillance ships briefly entered waters near disputed islands in the East China Sea that fuel nationalist passions on both sides. Will Beijing ultimately accept Japan's reasoning for the move?

By Peter Ford,?Staff writer / September 14, 2012

An aerial photo shows the Chinese marine surveillance ship Haijian No. 51 (l.) cruising as a Japan Coast Guard ship Ishigaki sails near Uotsuri island, one of the disputed islands, called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, in the East China Sea, September 14.

Kyodo/Reuters

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China sent six surveillance ships into waters near disputed islands in the East China Sea on Friday, but quickly withdrew them in a sign that Beijing does not want tensions with Japan to rise too sharply.

Skip to next paragraph Peter Ford

Beijing Bureau Chief

Peter Ford is The Christian Science Monitor?s Beijing Bureau Chief. He covers news and features throughout China and also makes reporting trips to Japan and the Korean peninsula.

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The civilian vessels were engaged in ?the normal performance of their duty,? Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters. The ships withdrew soon after being ordered to leave the area by Japanese coast guards, Japan?s Kyodo news agency reported.

The sovereignty dispute has flared up again since Tuesday, when the Japanese government purchased three of the five contested islands from the Japanese family that had owned them. The uninhabited islands are known as the Diaoyu in China and as the Senkaku in Japan.

Beijing clearly had to react, if only because popular sentiment is running high on the issue in China; protestors have staged demonstrations in a number of cities, Japanese citizens have been assaulted on the streets of Shanghai, tempers are flaring in Internet posts and nationalism is rampant.

Aside from that, the islands could also be valuable; ownership of them gives rights over rich fishing grounds and a claim to potentially huge oil reserves under the nearby seabed.

Senior Chinese officials have limited themselves, however, to strong words and saber rattling. Today?s edition of the ?People?s Daily,? the ruling Communist party?s official organ, carried a full page article detailing China?s recent military modernization program, for example.

On Thursday, in a thinly veiled hint at retaliatory economic steps, Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce Jiang Zengwei told a news briefing that "with Japan's so-called purchase of the islands, it will be hard to avoid negative consequences for Sino-Japanese economic and trade ties."

Behind the bluster, though, it might well be that Beijing has decided privately to accept the Japanese government?s explanation that it bought the islands to prevent further trouble.

Shintaro Ishihara, the stridently nationalist governor of Tokyo, had announced his own plan for the Tokyo municipality to buy the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands. Had he done so he could have caused untold mischief, provoking the Chinese at will by starting to build, or even to settle people.

Still, the sight of a Japanese citizen selling the islands to the Japanese government, regardless of China?s insistence that they are not anybody else?s to sell, has been painful here.

The authorities have salved their national pride with gestures. Last Tuesday, China began issuing weather forecasts for the islands and their surrounding waters, after publishing baseline coordinates setting out the Chinese view of which bits of rock and water belong to Beijing.

Eventually, tensions will doubtless fade, China and Japan will quietly acknowledge that they can never resolve the issue of sovereignty, and both sides will end up doing some sort of resource-sharing deal, just as they have elsewhere in the East China Sea. But that might take a while.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/O699KhvPLeM/China-reacts-with-surveillance-ships-to-Japan-s-purchase-of-disputed-islands

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Campaign 2012: The Future of Marriage | First Things

Campaign 2012: The Future of Marriage

September 26, 2012

George Weigel

Back in the day, altar boys loved to serve weddings because it involved ready cash: minimally, $5 (which in those days meant something), often a ten-spot. Once in a great while, an exceptionally generous best man would slip each server an envelope with $25?a small fortune to a boy in the early 1960s.

Serving weddings should have enlarged more than the youthful exchequer, however. For wedding servers were exposed, time and again, to the prescribed ?exhortation? the priest read to the couple before they pronounced their vows. That exhortation is worth recalling, now that the very idea of marriage is being contested on four state ballots, and in the national election, on Nov. 6:

My dear friends: You are about to enter upon a union which is most sacred and most serious. It is most sacred, because established by God himself. By it, he gave to man a share in the greatest work of creation, the work of the continuation of the human race. And in this way he sanctified human love and enabled man and woman to help each other live as children of God, by sharing a common life under his fatherly care.

Because God himself is thus its author, marriage is of its very nature a holy institution, requiring of those who enter into it a complete and unreserved giving of self. But Christ our Lord added to the holiness of marriage an even deeper meaning and a higher beauty. He referred to the love of marriage to describe his own love for his Church, that is, for the people of God whom he redeemed by his own blood. . . . It is for this reason that his apostle, St. Paul, clearly states that marriage is now and for all time to be considered a great mystery, intimately bound up with the supernatural union of Christ and the Church, which union is also to be its pattern. . . .

No greater blessing can come to your married live than pure conjugal love, loyal and true to the end. . . .

It?s impossible to imagine a Catholic priest pronouncing those words at a gay wedding. And that impossibility illustrates several Catholic theological objections to the notion that same-sex couples can marry. Gay marriage is opposed to the divine order built into creation and to the Gospel: for gay marriage, by its very nature, cannot be a fruitful one-flesh union, and gay marriage, which by definition involves grave sin, cannot be an image of Christ?s spousal love for the Church. Thus Catholics who support gay marriage are deeply confused about both Word and Sacrament, the twin pillars of Catholic life.

In public policy terms, the Catholic critique of gay marriage reflects the Catholic idea of the just state. Rightly understood, marriage is one of those social institutions that exist ?prior? to the state: prior in terms of time (marriage existed before the state), and prior in terms of the deep truths embedded in the human condition. A just state thus recognizes the givenness of marriage and seeks to protect and nurture this basic social institution.

By contrast, a state that asserts the authority to redefine marriage has stepped beyond the boundaries of its competence. And if that boundary-crossing is set in constitutional or legal concrete, it opens up a Pandora?s box of undesirable results. For if the state can decree that two men or two women can make a marriage, why not one man and two women? Two women and two men? These are not paranoid fantasies; the case for polyandry and polygamy is now being mounted in prestigious law journals.

And if the state can define marriage by diktat, why not other basic human relationships, like the parent-child relationship, the doctor-patient relationship, the lawyer-client relationship, or the priest-penitent relationship? There is no principled reason why not. Thus gay marriage is another expression of that soft totalitarianism that Benedict XVI aptly calls the ?dictatorship of relativism.?

Conscientious voters will keep this?and the Democratic Party platform?s endorsement of gay marriage?in mind on Nov. 6.

George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. His previous ?On the Square? articles can be found here.

Become a fan of First Things on Facebook, subscribe to First Things via RSS, and follow First Things on Twitter.

Source: http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2012/09/campaign-2012-the-future-of-marriage

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french speaking writers needed | Articles

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Biologists uncover dynamic between biological clock and neuronal activity

ScienceDaily (Sep. 25, 2012) ? Biologists at New York University have uncovered one way that biological clocks control neuronal activity -- a discovery that sheds new light on sleep-wake cycles and offers potential new directions for research into therapies to address sleep disorders and jetlag.

"The findings answer a significant question -- how biological clocks drive the activity of clock neurons, which, in turn, regulate behavioral rhythms," explained Justin Blau, an associate professor in NYU's Department of Biology and the study's senior author.

Their findings appear in the Journal of Biological Rhythms.

Scientists have known that our biological clocks control neuronal activity. But not previously understood is how this process occurs -- that is, how does information from biological clocks drive rhythms in the electrical activity of pacemaker neurons that, in turn, drives daily rhythms?

To understand this mechanism, the researchers examined the biological, or circadian, clocks of Drosophila fruit flies, which are commonly used for research in this area. Earlier studies of "clock genes" in fruit flies allowed the identification of similarly functioning genes in humans.

In their study, the researchers focused on eight master pacemaker neurons located in the central brain -- these neurons set the timing of the daily transitions between sleep and wake in the fly. Specifically, they were able to isolate these neurons from animals and identify sets of genes differentially expressed between dawn and dusk.

In a series of follow-up experiments, they concentrated on one gene, Ir, whose expression was found to be much higher at dusk than at dawn and much more highly expressed in pacemaker neurons than in the rest of the brain. Ir encodes a potassium channel that helps set the resting state of neurons -- and so its rhythmic expression makes it an excellent candidate to help link the biological clock to pacemaker neuron activity. High levels of Ir expression at dusk should make it much harder for pacemaker neurons to signal than the low levels seen at dawn, a finding that fits with earlier studies showing that pacemaker neurons fire more at dawn than at dusk.

The authors also found that genetic manipulations that either increase or decrease Ir levels affect behavioral rhythms. Perhaps more interestingly, these were also associated with changes in the timing and strength of oscillations in the core clock.

"Biology is never as simple as we imagine it will be," explained Blau. "We were looking for an output of the biological clock that would link the core clock to neuronal activity. Ir seems to do this, but it also, remarkably, feeds back to regulate the core clock itself. Feedback loops seem to be deeply engrained into the biological clock and presumably help these clocks work so well."

The study's other co-authors were: Marc Ruben, a doctoral candidate; Mark Drapeau, a former postdoctoral researcher; and Dogukan Mizrak, a doctoral candidate. The study was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health.

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Journal Reference:

1. Marc Ruben, Mark D. Drapeau, Dogukan Mizrak, and Justin Blau. A Mechanism for Circadian Control of Pacemaker Neuron Excitability. Journal of Biological Rhythms, 2012; 27: 353-364 DOI: 10.1177/0748730412455918

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/health_medicine/genes/~3/aodZMkuaICU/120925171220.htm

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Ravens Receiver Leads Team to Win After Learning of Brother's ...

7:56 pm ET September 24, 2012

Less than 24 hours before last night?s game, Baltimore Ravens receiver Torrey Smith?s 19-year-old brother died in a motorcycle crash. Smith played through the heartache, helping the Ravens win a come-from-behind victory against the New England Patriots. He caught six passes for 127 yards and two touchdowns. Family members said Smith wanted to do it for his little brother and he told the press later, ?I didn?t want to hurt my team.?

Source: http://foxnewsinsider.com/2012/09/24/ravens-receiver-leads-team-to-win-after-learning-of-brothers-untimely-death/

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In Europe crisis, connection culture stifles youth

ROME (AP) ? Maria Adele Carrai has two master's degrees from Italian universities in economics and Asian languages and is now earning her Ph.D. in international law in Hong Kong. Her linguistic credentials are formidable: Besides native Italian, she has nearly flawless English, a rarity in Italy, as well as French, Arabic, Japanese and Mandarin.

But the 26-year-old from a family of physicians in a small town near the Adriatic Sea, lacks an increasingly crucial key to unlocking the door to work in Italy: a "raccomandazione." It's Italian for the right word from the right person to get you hired, even if you might not be the best one for the job.

As Europe's economic crisis darkens the future of millions of youth, the culture of connections that has lain at the heart of hiring practices in much of the continent is becoming ever more entrenched, even as it harms prospects of recovery. It is blocking young talent or driving it overseas, and contributing to a vicious circle of stagnation that threatens to leave Europe behind in the game of globalization.

___

Editors: This is the latest installment in Class of 2012, an exploration of Europe's financial crisis through the eyes of young people emerging from the cocoon of student life into the worst downturn the continent has seen since the end of World War II.

___

"What matters is not how good you are, but who you know," laments Carrai, who first spoke to the AP for a Class of 2012 story on the continent's devastating brain drain. To be sure, having a good connection never hurts, anytime, anywhere. But in much of Europe, especially the crisis-hammered south, it's often the main ticket to economic opportunity: Without one, young people and experts say, there's little chance of being launched on a promising career.

Marco Pacetti, rector of Ancona's Polytechnical University, puts it this way: "In the U.S. ... connections matter, but you'd better be good. In Italy, nobody counts on the one with the connection to have competence, merit."

"That's the difference between a letter of recommendation and a 'raccomandazione,'" Pacetti says with a wry chuckle. In America, "the letter writer takes on the responsibility of sending over someone who is well prepared ? who's not an idiot."

A scandal at Rome's Sapienza, one of Italy's oldest and best-known universities, drives home the point. In a case dubbed "relative-gate," the wife, daughter and son of Sapienza's longtime rector landed prestigious teaching posts despite having limited qualifications. The real shocker came when it emerged that the rector's son passed his cardiology exam thanks to an examining panel made up of three dentists and two dental hygienists.

Spain has its own deep-rooted system of connections ? called "enchufismo." As in Italy, it's an outgrowth of a Mediterranean culture of family networks where members of the clan look out for each other. Many southern Europeans have a practically inbred distrust of the state, often associated with corruption ? and family is the one institution they can count on.

Connections became less critical during Spain's economic boom from the late 1990s until 2008, but are now proving crucial again in a country with unemployment at nearly 25 percent.

"In Spain, you always had 'enchufismo,' but at least in boom times you had access to interviews and work (without connections)," said Maria Astilleros, an unemployed teacher in Madrid. "Since the crisis hit, the interviews have ended and we've gone back to 'enchufismo.'"

Astilleros recently secured her first job interview in two years, with a public relations company, because the owner is a client of her uncle.

Gayle Allard, an American professor of managerial economics at the IE Business School in Madrid, estimated that about 95 percent of jobs in Spain depend on connections.

"It was one of the things that shocked me in Spain," said Allard, "that you could only move around in the labor market with contacts."

The professor said that such an ingrained culture of nepotism has a corrosive effect on economic growth, which is more crucial than ever as Spain reels under staggeringly high youth unemployment of nearly 53 percent. Spain is "definitely not a meritocracy," Allard said. "You're probably not getting the best qualified candidate for a job. You're just getting the candidate with the best contacts."

Class of 2012 member Moira Koffi, who recently completed her studies at the prestigious Sorbonne university in Paris, talks about the importance of connections in France: "If you are recommended by someone, it's the first thing you say: It's how you get a job."

While Koffi, a 22-year-old communications grad, has herself benefited from the system, she still wishes connections weren't so decisive in finding employment. "In the U.S.," Koffi said, "people give you a chance because of what you are."

Sorbonne sociology professor Jean-Francois Amadieu said that 70 percent of French people find a job through personal connections or through an internship ? which itself is usually only possible with the right connection. "Youths from modest backgrounds have great difficulties finding internships compare to those from the middle or wealthy classes because of more restricted family networks," he said.

In Italy, the connections culture "has grown even more with the worsening of the economic crisis," said economist Emiliano Mandrone. He's well-positioned to know: Every year, Mandrone helps prepare a state-funded telephone survey of some 40,000 citizens to learn how Italians find their jobs.

"The issue of 'raccomandazioni' isn't, do you find work or don't you," said Mandrone. "Rather, the problem is, you take work away from someone who is better."

Mandrone said the price of the "raccomandazione" system to Italian society and economy has not been quantified in financial terms, but it's clearly "huge."

Italy's connections culture has long been blamed in large part for spurring the "brain drain" of many of Italy's best and brightest. The Institute for Competitiveness, a non-profit Italian think tank, recently estimated that brain drain costs Italy some euros 1.2 billion (more than $1.5 billion) annually in terms of lost patent and other royalties from inventions that highly qualified emigrants from Italy developed while working abroad.

In Greece, ground zero for Europe's financial crisis, a vast connections-based political machine is seen as a major factor in the economic implosion. In return for votes, the major parties slotted job seekers with political connections into cushy bureaucratic jobs ? with little experience or qualifications.

The result: When the financial crisis erupted in late 2009, the government didn't even know how many people it had on its payroll or how much it was paying them.

Germany may be an exception to the trend of European talent taking flight or being stymied in realizing professional dreams. In former communist East Germany, who you knew in the party apparatus was very important to climbing the economic ladder. But in today's united Germany, connections are not seen as a major part of corporate culture.

Class of 2012 member Lutz Hentschel, 27, who completed his master's in electrical engineering earlier this year, sent out about 40 applications before landing a job in Berlin developing electrical circuits for elevators.

During his job hunt, he said, he was once interviewed for a job that ultimately went to a less qualified applicant who knew the interviewer.

But, in Germany, said Hentschel, "if you are qualified, you will get a job in the end,"

Britain grapples with another longstanding system of patronage ? its "old school tie network" that conjures up images of men sporting school blazers or hobnobbing in exclusive gentleman's clubs. While Britain has made great strides in becoming more meritocratic, complaints remain rife that access to prestigious jobs often relies on upper-crust social background and education.

In southern Europe, however, the culture of "raccommandazioni" permeates all social classes and sectors ? from landing a job in a bank to winning a building contract.

Carrai, the linguist and aspiring international law expert, ruefully learned how much connections count even in the rarefied world of academia. She moved to Hong Kong to escape the stifling atmosphere of university nepotism: "I saw how it worked. I didn't want to stay in Italy and stick with this system."

"'Raccomandazioni' are to a certain degree a normal, human," she said. But cross a certain line "and it becomes corruption."

___

AP reporters David Stringer in London, Greg Keller in Paris, Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal, Alan Clendenning in Madrid, Spain, David Rising in Berlin, Derek Gatopoulos in Athens, and Paola Barisani in Rome contributed to this report.

___

Follow The Class of 2012 on the AP Big Story page:

http://bigstory.ap.org/topic/class-2012

___

Follow The Class of 2012 on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/(hash)!/AP/class-of-2012

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-09-24-Class-of-2012-The-Right-Connection/id-b4624810c784473aa31d62add038b8e2

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Follow These Hints For Easy Home Improvement | AulaParty Blog

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

Source: http://aulaparty.com/follow-these-hints-for-easy-home-improvement

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Karl Guenther Column: Michigan Agriculture - AM 590 - FM 96.5 ...

Michigan Agriculture, second place contributor to our state?s economy, provider of one in four or five jobs in the state, is on the verge of growing, if not exponentially, (that would be a lot!) then at least significantly.? That?s according to? ?Project 2025?, a report by the?East Lansing?based Michigan Agri-Business Association.? The report predicts crop yields will continue growing because of technological advances in seed and crop management.? Beyond that, overall production is forecast to increase because of increased acreage availability.That?s pretty interesting, considering the constant drumbeat of the doom-sayers, bemoaning ?paving over of prime farmland?.

Ignoring that for the moment, we do need to look more closely at another concern, also in the ?Project 2025? report.? That has to do with ?infrastructure challenges? that could limit growth, threaten existing investments and restrict our ability to compete in the global economy.

Now - - if you?re looking for a challenge to which you can devote your unique talents, whatever they may be - - here?s a list:? Infrastructure, in this report, refers to: Rail Transportation, Roads and Bridges, Water Issues, including irrigation and transportation, Utility Access, Broadband Access,? and, one that may be a little more difficult to pinpoint, Talent and Workforce issues.

To follow up on these matters, check it out with the Michigan Agri-Business Association. The Association?s WEB address is:?www.miagbiz.org.

To further support this concept of continual expansion of?Michigan?s agriculture, contemplate an October 23d planned event.? It?s being billed as the first Export Promotion Event in?Michigan?to include agriculture in a full-service export forum. Reflecting its?Southwest Michigan?sphere of influence, the Export Promotion event is to be held in Allegan, at the Allegan County Facility,?3255 122nd Avenue.? It?s being put together by BC CAL KAL Inland Port Development Corporation.? That?s?Battle Creek,?Calhoun?County,?Kalamazoo?County.? The whole thing is intended to assist small and medium-sized business get access to government funding, best utilize international freight forwarding and logistics, export industrial or agricultural products and consider Foreign-Trade Zones for global advantage.

The panel of experts includes George Erickcek, Upjohn Institute for Employment Research; Maureen Lyon who heads the State Trade Export Promotion Program for Michigan Economic Development Corporation, and Dr. Donna LaCourt, also MEDC, specialist in International Trade and Agriculture and Rural Development.

And this I predict:? No matter who wins the Presidential Election, Michigan Agriculture will survive, and thrive!!

Karl Guenther is a retired farm broadcaster at WKZO and can be reached at?khguenther@charter.net. He is a member of Michigan Farm Bureau and an emeritus member of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting.

Source: http://wkzo.com/news/articles/2012/sep/24/karl-guenther-column-michigan-agriculture/

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The Long and Disreputable History of Repressing the Black Vote (Atlantic Politics Channel)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/250629003?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Early Childhood Education: No Place for Men? ? Organizations ...

Even after years of studying gender as a sociologist, I was not prepared to see a man in the infant room on my daughters? first day at a new child care center in August 2011.? I assumed the man was a dad.? When my three year old happily introduced me to ?Teacher Adam? the next day, I realized that he was the first male child-care worker I had ever met (thus, my Biblically-based pseudonym for him? ?Adam?).? I left the center very pleased that my family had chosen a seemingly progressive child-care facility in the small California city to which we had just moved.

I soon found out that not all of the parents or female staff were so pleased.? These staff and parents believe that men should not care for small children, especially infants, in a child-care facility, and that any man who wants to do so is a pedophile.? Thanks to their beliefs, Adam, the only man ever to be hired in the 25 year history of my daughters? child-care center, no longer works there.? In fact, he will no longer be able to work with children ever again.

The mistrust of male child-care workers is a widespread phenomenon.? Ronald V. McGuckin ?aka ?The Child Care Lawyer,? said that in his 30 years of professional experience male caregivers have been more subject to the fear and scrutiny of parents of young children than have female caregivers, especially with regard to changing diapers and potty training.

Returning to my own situation, it was a female staff member?s conviction that men should not change diapers that compelled her and others to keep a careful eye on Adam at the center.? Their sexist paranoia led one of them to suspect Adam of having an erection after bouncing an infant on his lap.? This suspicion, once reported, not only ended Adam?s career in early childhood education, but also the career of the center?s director who had hired him.

Neither private nor state investigations concluded that Adam was guilty of sexual abuse.? Also ignored was the opinion that many staff and families (including mine) found a state investigator to ask leading questions and twist our words.

After reading the state investigation report, many parents had made up their minds:? Adam was a threat to children everywhere because he is a man.

Even though the director denied having heard prior complaints about Adam?s conduct, at a meeting she held with parents, her denial fell on deaf ears.? The majority of parents put all their faith in the content of the poorly written state report.

The Community Care Licensing Division of California now intends to prevent Adam from ever working at a child-care facility again.

In less than five months, Adam went from being one of the best-loved teachers among the children at my daughters? child care center to a complete outcast in the field of early childhood education.? Such is the power of our society?s fear of male child-care workers.? It?s a small wonder then that men make up only 5.2 percent of child care workers and a mere 3 percent of pre-school teachers in the U.S.

While men in other female-dominated professions experience what sociologist Christine Williams calls a ?glass escalator? ?quick promotions to the top administrative positions in their fields, based primarily on their sex, Adam?s case leads me to believe there is no such glass escalator for men in early childhood education.? How can a man rise to an administrative role in a field requiring care for children if he is not trusted with children?s basic care?? Even directors must often change diapers, help children use the toilet, and put children down for naps.

And maybe that?s what distinguishes early childhood education from other female-dominated professions.? The entire field, from caregiver to director, is hands-on, service-oriented care for children.? Declaring men unfit to provide such care is not only about sexism against men, however.? It?s also about sexism against women.? The greater the fear of men in caring professions, the more women are left to shoulder the responsibility of care work.? If women experienced equality in all professions, then perhaps they wouldn?t regard child care as their exclusive domain, and wouldn?t feel threatened by the participation of men. After all, without glass ceilings for women, there would be no glass escalators for men.

But without more men in child care centers, how are stereotypes about them going to break?? How can we teach U.S. children not to regard early childhood education as the exclusive domain of women, when they see only women caring for them?? What message are we sending today?s youth when we glorify involved fathers and stay-at-home dads but vilify male child-care workers?? Other nations are tackling these questions head on, by holding conferences on men in early childhood education and encouraging more men to enter the field.? I think it?s high time the U.S. did the same, so that seeing men like Adam with our nation?s children is a cause for celebration, not fear.

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Source: http://oowsection.org/2012/09/22/early-childhood-education-no-place-for-men/

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Roche underscores leadership in oncology with new data in HER2 ...

You are here: Home ? News ? Industry news ? Roche underscores leadership in oncology with new data in HER2 positive breast cancer and skin cancer

Publication date: 24 September 2012
Author:?

Tagged with: Breast cancer, ESMO 2012, Roche

Roche has announced that data on thirteen of its investigational and approved products will be presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress taking place in Vienna, Austria on 28 September ? 2 October 2012.

During the past 50 years Roche has developed and secured approval for ten cancer medicines. The data presented at ESMO 2012 reflect not only the continuing role being played by Roche?s early discoveries, but also the potential of the company?s newer treatments. Highlights will include data on personalised medicines from the company?s HER2 and skin cancer franchises

?Our mission is to develop therapies that transform medicine,? said Hal Barron M.D., Chief Medical Officer and Head, Global Product Development. ?The improvement in survival with trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) and other data presented at ESMO reflect our commitment to make a real difference for people living with cancer.?

HER2-positive breast cancer

Since it was first licensed in 1998, Herceptin has become the foundation of care in HER2-positive breast cancer. Data presented at ESMO 2012 will reflect both the pivotal role Herceptin continues to play, but also highlights how decades of research into HER2-positive cancer is enabling Roche to lead the next wave of developments that may further improve the treatment and outcomes for women with this aggressive disease:

Further results including overall survival data will be presented from the Phase III EMILIA study. The trial compared trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) to Xeloda plus lapatinib in patients with HER2-positive unresectable locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer who had previously been treated with Herceptin and a taxane chemotherapy.

Roche and the Breast International Group (BIG) will present the final analysis of the 5,000 patient, Phase III HERA (HERceptin Adjuvant) study. The study assessed how adjuvant treatment with Herceptin has impacted the disease free survival (DFS; the time lived without return of the disease) of women with HER2-positive early breast cancer after completion of standard chemotherapy. Data will be presented comparing the DFS of women given Herceptin treatment for two years compared to those treated with Herceptin for one year. In addition, an update will be provided on Herceptin given for one year versus observation after eight years of follow-up.

Results from the PHARE study (run by the French National Cancer Institute), investigating six months versus one year of Herceptin treatment, will also be presented.

Skin cancer

In the past, patients with metastatic melanoma could expect to live for as little as six to nine months after diagnosis. Today, treatments such as Zelboraf (vemurafenib) are helping to stall the growth or spread of the cancer and are enabling patients to survive longer, for the first time extending life expectancy beyond one year for many patients. Despite this progress, more still needs to be done to improve outcomes and to ensure that patients have treatment options at all stages of the disease:

At ESMO 2012, results from a pilot study of 24 patients with BRAF V600 mutation-positive metastatic melanoma and symptomatic brain metastases who were treated with Zelboraf will be presented.

Roche is building on its extensive clinical experience with Zelboraf to investigate a number of combination approaches, which may in the future expand the treatment options available to patients with this incurable disease. At ESMO 2012 the first results from BRIM7, a Phase Ib dose ranging study assessing the potential of combining Zelboraf with the MEK inhibitor GDC-0973 will be presented. Roche will further study the combination of Zelboraf and the MEK inhibitor GDC-0973 in a Phase III clinical investigation.

Key abstract information:

Pre-planned, final analysis of the Phase III HERceptin Adjuvant (HERA) trial (two years versus one year of treatment with Herceptin) (Abstract # LBA6_PR). [Monday 1 October. Hall A, 16.15].

Updated Overall Survival Results from EMILIA, a phase 3 study of trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) vs capecitabine (X) and lapatinib (L) in HER2-positive locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer (MBC) (Abstract #LBA 12). [Monday 1 October 2012. Hall A, 14.10].

Phase IB Study of vemurafenib in combination with the MEK inhibitor, GDC-0973, in patients with locally advanced/unresectable or metastatic BRAFV600 mutation positive melanoma. (Abstract # LBA28). [Saturday 29 September. Hall C, 09:30].

Open-label pilot study of vemurafenib in previously treated metastatic melanoma (mM) patients (pts) with symptomatic brain metastases (BM). (Abstract #1125P). [Monday 1 October. Hall XL, 13:00].

About Herceptin

Herceptin (trastuzumab) is a humanised monoclonal antibody, designed to target and block the function of HER2, a protein produced by a specific gene with cancer-causing potential when it is overexpressed. The mode of action of Herceptin is unique in that it activates the body?s immune system and suppresses HER2 signalling to target and destroy the tumour. Herceptin has demonstrated unprecedented efficacy in treating both early and advanced (metastatic) HER2-positive breast cancer. Given on its own as monotherapy as well as in combination with or following standard chemotherapy or following surgery, Herceptin has been shown to improve overall survival, response rates and disease-free survival while maintaining quality of life in women with HER2-positive breast cancer.

A subcutaneous (SC) formulation of Herceptin, administered as a five minute injection under the skin, is currently being investigated. An application for Herceptin SC (vial) formulation has been submitted to some Regulatory Authorities, including EMA and Swissmedic, and is currently under assessment.

Herceptin is marketed in the United States by Genentech, in Japan by Chugai and internationally by Roche. Since 1998, Herceptin has been used to treat more than 1.2 million people with HER2-positive breast cancer worldwide.

About trastuzumab emtansine

Trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) is an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) being studied in HER2-positive cancers. It is comprised of the antibody trastuzumab and the chemotherapy agent DM1 attached together using a stable linker. Trastuzumab emtansine is designed to target and inhibit HER2 signalling, and to deliver the chemotherapy agent DM1 directly inside HER2-positive cancer cells. Trastuzumab emtansine binds to the HER2-positive cancer cells and is thought to block out-of-control signals that make the cancer grow while also calling on the body?s immune system to attack the cancer cells. Once trastuzumab emtansine is absorbed into those cancer cells, it is designed to destroy them by releasing the DM1.

About Zelboraf?

Zelboraf is a personalised oral medicine designed to specifically inhibit the activity of the mutant BRAF protein. It is the first and only approved BRAF inhibitor and has been proven to help patients with BRAF V600 mutation-positive metastatic melanoma in two important ways; it stalls the growth or spread of the cancer (PFS) and helps patients survive longer (OS), for the first time extending life expectancy beyond one year for many patients.

Clinical experience with Zelboraf is growing every day; it is already approved in 40 countries and has been used for the treatment of more than 7000 BRAF V600 mutation-positive metastatic melanoma patients worldwide.

To further enhance the potential treatment options available to patients at all stages of the disease, Roche is building on its extensive clinical experience with Zelboraf to investigate a number of combination approaches, including Zelboraf with the MEK inhibitor GDC-0973 and Zelboraf with immunotherapies.

Zelboraf was co-developed under a 2006 license and collaboration agreement between Roche and Plexxikon, now a member of the Daiichi Sankyo Group.

GDC-0973 [XL518] is a potent, highly selective inhibitor of MEK, a serine/threonine kinase that is a component of the RAS/RAF/MEK/ERK pathway. GDC-0973 is being developed by Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, under a collaboration agreement with Exelixis.

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Source: http://www.europeanpharmaceuticalreview.com/14964/news/industry-news/roche-underscores-leadership-in-oncology-with-new-data-in-her2-positive-breast-cancer-and-skin-cancer/

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