Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Canada export agency cuts 2012-13 forecasts, sees U.S. rebound

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's export credit agency cut its 2012 forecast for growth in exports of goods and services on Tuesday in the wake of the European crisis, but it said exporters will see benefits next year from a recovery in the U.S. private sector.

Export Development Canada said 2012 exports would increase by 4.6 percent from 2011, down from the 7.1 percent it forecast in April. The agency also cut its 2013 export growth forecast to 6.3 percent from an earlier 7.3 percent.

Canada is heavily dependent on exports of goods and services, which accounted for just over 31 percent of gross domestic product in 2011. Around 75 percent of all exports go to the United States.

Canada, bolstered by the huge U.S. market, ran trade surpluses for more than three decades until the economic crisis of 2008. In December of that year it posted a deficit, the first since March 1976, and since then has put in a much more mixed performance as the economy of its largest trading partner has struggled.

Exporters are finding it hard to compete because of the strength of the Canadian dollar, increased competition, and weak markets. Canada recorded five straight trade deficits from April to August.

"We had a very soft underbelly in the economy in the summer," the agency's chief economist, Peter Hall, said in a phone interview, referring to investor concerns about U.S. debt and about the Greek election in June.

"There was a lot of worry ... but what we are seeing now is that that indeed was a temporary event."

Hall said Canada's close ties to the United States mean exporters will benefit as the recovery there takes hold.

Real U.S. retail sales have grown at an 8 percent annualized rate for the last three months, while housing construction is up 35 percent year-over-year, he said. Canada is a major supplier of building materials to the United States.

U.S. corporations, Hall said, are sitting on $5.7 trillion worth of cash.

"You take a slight sliver of that and that has a dramatic impact. That's the way we're adding things up ... How can you possibly have aggressive growth numbers like that and see GDP at 2 percent or less going forward?" he said.

EDC says the U.S. economy will expand by 2.8 percent in 2013 following 2.3 percent growth this year.

"The Canadian trade numbers don't look great at the moment and certainly the third quarter numbers are very disturbing. But when we put it in context, there is no reason that we have to believe that that should continue, given what's going on in the United States," Hall said.

The EDC forecast Canadian growth of 2 percent in 2012 and 2.2 percent in 2013. It said the Canadian dollar will dip from parity with the U.S. dollar this year to 97 U.S. cents next year. (Editing by Janet Guttsman; and Peter Galloway)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/canada-export-agency-cuts-2012-13-forecasts-sees-162848765--finance.html

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I'm a Jerkie Junkie! Product Review | Simply Filipina


I?ve always loved jerky, sometimes I crave for this on breakfast and snacks. Being a jerky junkie, I thought I?m going to go for sodium-rich jerky all my life. Not until I?ve tried Krave Jerky. This healthy jerky with all its natural seasonings plus flavors that sounds delish! I simply loved it! So what do I have here? Garlic Chili Pepper Beef Jerky which leaves your mouth on fire, not really for children but girls my nieces likes it. Chili Lime Beef Jerky, the flavors come out as soon as I open the pack, Sweet Chipotle Beef Jerky unlike garlic chili, this one?s heat is moderate, and my favorite- Smoky Grilled Teriyaki Pork Jerky which is made from pork and the ingredients are perfectly combined and has a hint of sweetness. Just right texture and smoky and not salty at all! Well, it?s re-sealable after all so you can actually open a few packs all at the same time, so to taste, lol!?
Oh well I can?t wait to get more. So, if you?re a jerky junkie like me, then you?ve got to try Krave! Check them out for a ton of stuff for you to crave! Try the Krave Jerky Sampler?so you know what am talking! Wink!

Source: http://www.simplyfilipina.com/2012/10/im-jerkie-junkie-product-review.html

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With One Week Until Election Day, Will Jobs ... - Yahoo! Finance

One week from today Americans will take to the polls and judging from the latest numbers the Presidential race will be won or lost on the razor's edge. According to the latest ABC News/Washington Post tracking poll in eight key swing states (Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin) the race is a statistical tie with President Obama slightly ahead of Gov. Mitt Romney 49% to 48% before factoring in the margin of error. (See Related: Does Obama Still Get Black Voters' Approval?, Sleepless in Vegas: Behind the Scenes of Final Grueling Days on Campaign Trail)

So what, if anything, will push voters into one camp or the other? Some suggest that Hurricane Sandy, which has and will continue to dominate the news cycle, may act as an October surprise. But with both Obama and Romney freezing their campaigns during the storm, the impact on voters remains to be seen. (See Related: Romney Campaign 'Hunkering Down' During Hurricane Sandy, Clinton Speaks at UCF After Obama Cancels Orlando Visit Ahead of Sandy's Landfall)

What very well could impact the race is Friday's jobs report from the Labor Department. For a time yesterday it was reported that the numbers could be delayed because of Hurricane Sandy, but the Labor Department has promised to keep the release on schedule.

Consensus is calling for 120,000 new jobs created in October and the unemployment rate is expected to tick up to 7.9% from 7.8%

Jerry Webman, chief economist at OppenheimerFunds, says that voters will be more influenced by anecdotal evidence of the job status of friends and family than the broad government data. Still he admits, "the coverage and discussion around an especially strong or especially weak [jobs] number may push the remaining undecided voters to make up their minds one way or another."

For Webman, the data could be a motivational factor. "I'd expect that turnout factor to be more powerful among potential Romney voters reacting to a very disappointing [jobs] report than among less motivated Obama supporters," he says.

Will this final jobs report be enough to sway this extremely tight presidential race? Are you waiting for the number before making up your mind? Let us know your thoughts on our Facebook page.

Source: http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/breakout/one-week-until-election-day-jobs-report-deciding-142048093.html

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Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Afghan raid kills 4 Taliban, 3 civilian bystanders

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How to Build Ripped, Shredded Muscle Fast Without Any Fat ...

You are here: Home / General / How to Build Ripped, Shredded Muscle Fast Without Any Fat



How to Build Ripped, Shredded Muscle Fast Without Any FatClick Image To Visit SiteThe SMM is a truly customized, unique, anabolic approach to nutrition. The SMM is breakthrough nutritional software that when combined with proper weight training, packs-on pure shredded muscle in record time without any fat. It is designed to explode you through any muscle building plateau while staying lean and turning heads 365 days a year!

The SMM is EXACT and tailors anabolic nutrition for you in every way possible using 4 patented formulas. These 4 formulas took years of testing and tweaking with world renowned nutritionists, fitness models and big time bodybuilders to perfect. The SMM customizes the nutrition to everything about you; your age, weight, height, and metabolism. Most importantly, the SMM customizes the nutrition to your somatotype and your weight training regimen. The SMM specifically allocates your calories and macronutrients throughout the day DEPENDING on when or if you?re working out. You will give your body exactly what it needs, when it needs it to build muscle without fat. The SMM customizes your exact pre and post workout needs and takes advantage of the 2 anabolic windows you have every day that will take you from skinny to jacked in a hurry. On your off day?s from the gym, your recovery nutrition is custom structured to repair and rebuild broken down muscle tissue quickly.? Using unique calorie and macronutrient shifting techniques your muscle recovery is extremely rapid and muscle soreness is often 100 % eliminated. The SMM provides easy to understand charts and graphs that track your transformation progress and will make sure you are on the fastest pace possible to your new, leaner, more muscular physique.

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Source: http://www.theyellowads.com/health_fitness/how-to-build-ripped-shredded-muscle-fast-without-any-fat/

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Guest Blogger: Top Design Tips to Consider in Your Tiny Apartment

Guest Blogger #755, Entry #1768, October 30, 2012

If you have a small apartment, you might think that your d?cor options are limited. Actually, that?s not so much the case. You simply have to be a bit more creative when it comes to designing your space in a way that will not monopolize what ?little? room that you have.

This definitely requires some forethought, but don?t fret. We have five great designing ideas that anyone with a tiny apartment should consider; ones that will have you ending up with a place that will be just as impressive as anyone in the finest mansion in town:

small apartment living

Make the most of your apartment

?

Make the most of your walls.

Of course, walls serve a purpose. After all, apartments would not exist without them. However, sometimes we think that when it comes to the interior wall space, all we can pretty much do is hang a picture up. Nothing could be further from the truth. You can use your wall to put in a flat screen (which removes the need for a table for your television). You can use your wall to build a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf against. You can also use your wall to hang up a huge mirror that will provide the optical illusion that you actually have more space than you do (especially if it?s reflecting another room on the house).

Use lots of color.

In many cases, you have to get permission from your landlord first, but if s/he is OK with you painting your walls, don?t be coy about it. Purples, greens, blues and yellows are all shades that provide plenty of personality to an apartment and if you use them as accent walls, it can also make a room look large than it actually is.

Purchase multi-purpose furniture.

A sturdy futon can be a ?couch? by day and a sleeper by night should you have a guest come and stay with you. An ottoman is perfect as a seat, a footstool and also a storage area for some of your magazines and other items. These are just two examples of how one piece of furniture can be used in more than one way. So, when you?re out shopping for a chair or desk, think of how you can use it for several purposes.

small apartment living idea

Simple tips to enjoy your small apartment living

Create a washer/closet.

If you look at some London or?Rome apartment rentals, you might see this particular idea: Some spaces, like studio apartments, are so small that you have to double-up the use of rooms; including storage closets. Take a closet that has washer/dryer hook-ups, for instance. Why not purchase a stackable to put in there on one side and on the other, build your own closet where you can put some of the out-of-season items that you don?t presently need? It?s not only a space-conscious option, but it?s also a really cute design as well.

Invest in your windows.

A beautiful window treatment work do wonders in any home whether it?s an apartment or a house. Therefore, make sure to spend some time looking at all of the ways that you can decorate your windows from curtains and drapes to blinds and shades. All you have to do is go to your favorite search engine and put ?window treatment ideas? in the search field. The possibilities are (literally) endless. Have fun!

Image sources: 1, 2

For more small living ideas on Stagetecture, click here.

Source: http://stagetecture.com/2012/10/guest-blogger-top-design-tips-to-consider-in-your-tiny-apartment/

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Source: http://internetbusinessdigest.blogspot.com/2012/10/hot-new-niche-market-product-launching.html

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Monday, October 29, 2012

Integrative Coping Skills Group - DukeHealth.org

Integrative Coping Skills Group - DukeHealth.org
Date
Thursday, Nov. 1, 2012
Click here for a list of other dates
Time
4:00 p.m. - 5:15 p.m.
Organization
Duke Psychosocial Treatment Clinic
Description

Child Yoga

12 Weekly Sessions include:

  • Integration of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and mindfulness and yoga-based principles to learn anxiety management and general coping skills
  • Relaxation techniques that include breathing exercises, body poses, guided imagery and music

Program Details:

  • Children 8-12 years old
  • Thursdays from 4 - 5:15 PM
  • September 27 - December 20
  • A maximum of 8 children per group
Contact
Call 919-681-0040 or contact Taryn Allen at taryn.allen@duke.edu or Anava Wren at anavanessa.wren@duke.edu
Registration status
Registration open
Registration Requirements
Maximum of 8 children
Location
Pavilion East at Lakeview
2608 Erwin Road
Suite 300
Durham, NC 27705

About This Page

Updated: Sept. 17, 2012
URL: http://www.dukehealth.org/events/integrative-coping-skills-group/20121101

Source: http://www.dukehealth.org/events/integrative-coping-skills-group/20121101?utm_source=dukehealth.org&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS_events

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Truck Accidents (DWI) And Personal Injury Lawyer : Legal Information

You are here: Home / General / Truck Accidents (DWI) And Personal Injury Lawyer



In general, states require truck proprietors to have liability insurance to pay for statements that come from car accidents. But unless their state has no-fault insurance, you may make up for harm from the person who?s into a major accident due to negligence. Intoxication is evidence and manifestation of negligence. A person may be negligent disobeying the law but if you encounter an infringement, a very important thing to perform is to consult a accident lawyer so that you will be aware of the way to submit your situation.

Carelessness means that somebody wasn?t in a position to apply ordinary care that ought to be expected from the individual. There are more samples of negligence just like traffic violation. In several states, the harmed individual is probably not in a position to recover instantly while in prison for negligence, even as it is simply to a little level just like contributory negligence.

Other states have a principle called comparative negligence. The injured person can recover but the compensation he?ll obtain is going to be minimized in line with the degree where he was to blame in the accident. The court may find out the injured party was 30 % responsible, and decide to minimize his injuries as they are. Driving while intoxicated may be hazardous to an individual concerned.

The automobile driver will be accountable for any careless action he does. It was once a law that the car owner is blamed only when the driver was an employee or driving without permission. In several states, it was assumed that any family member of the owner was functioning on his behalf (family purpose rule). But a lot of states now take the owner accountable if the car is driven with permission. A careless driver would be somebody who allows others to drive his car while intoxicated.

If you ever go driving while drunk while you get involved into one of these truck driving incidents, tell your insurance provider instantly when you can. If you fail to take action, or delaying things is extremely bad for your insurance coverage. Given the situation, you need to look for the ideal insurance defense attorney to manage your case.

Source: http://www.theyellowads.com/legal/truck-accidents-dwi-and-personal-injury-lawyer

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Reports: UK rocker arrested as part of Savile case

FILE - In this Jan, 11, 2000 file photo, British performer Gary Glitter, during a press conference in London. Police investigating the sex abuse scandal surrounding late BBC children's television host Jimmy Savile have arrested pop star Gary Glitter in connection with the case, British media said Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012. Metropolitan Police said they arrested a man in his 60s early Sunday morning at his London home, on suspicion of sexual offenses, and that he remains in custody in a London police station. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant, File)

FILE - In this Jan, 11, 2000 file photo, British performer Gary Glitter, during a press conference in London. Police investigating the sex abuse scandal surrounding late BBC children's television host Jimmy Savile have arrested pop star Gary Glitter in connection with the case, British media said Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012. Metropolitan Police said they arrested a man in his 60s early Sunday morning at his London home, on suspicion of sexual offenses, and that he remains in custody in a London police station. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant, File)

FILE - In this March 3, 2006 file photo, former British rocker Gary Glitter smiles at journalists prior to his verdict and sentencing at Ba Ria-Vung, Vung Tau province People's Court in Vietnam. Police investigating a sex abuse scandal surrounding late BBC television host Jimmy Savile have arrested pop star Gary Glitter in connection to the case, British media said Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012. Metropolitan Police said they arrested a man in his 60s early Sunday morning at his London home, on suspicion of sexual offenses. The force did not identify the man, but British media including the BBC and Press Association reported he was Glitter, 68, a former rock musician and a convicted sex offender. Glitter's real name is Paul Gadd. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel, File)

Cameras are seen above a sign at the BBC Television Centre, in London Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2012. The BBC is facing questions over sexual abuse allegations against former television presenter Jimmy Savile. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

FILE - This is a March 25, 2008 file photo of Sir Jimmy Savile, who for decades was a fixture on British television. A year after he died, aged 84 and honored as Sir Jimmy, several women have come forward to claim he was also a sexual predator and serial abuser of underage girls. The child abuse scandal that has enveloped the BBC, one of Britain's most respected news organizations, is now hitting one of America's, as the incoming president of The New York Times is on the defensive about his final days as head of the BBC. Mark Thompson was in charge of the BBC in late 2011 when the broadcaster shelved what would have been a bombshell investigation alleging that the late Savile was a serial sex offender. (AP Photo/ Lewis Whyld/PA, File)

(AP) ? Police investigating child sex abuse allegations against the late BBC television host Jimmy Savile arrested former glam rock star and convicted sex offender Gary Glitter on Sunday, British media reported, raising further questions about whether Savile was at the center of a broader pedophile ring.

Police would not directly identify the suspect arrested Sunday, but media including the BBC and Press Association reported he was the 68-year-old Glitter.

The musician, whose real name is Paul Gadd, made it big with the crowd-pleasing hit "Rock & Roll (Part 2)," a mostly instrumental anthem that has been a staple at American sporting events, thanks to its catchy "hey" chorus. But he fell into disgrace after being convicted on child abuse charges in Vietnam.

Sunday's arrest was the first in a widening scandal over Savile's alleged sex crimes, which started garnering attention earlier this month when a television documentary showed several women claiming that Savile abused them when they were teenagers. Hundreds of potential victims have since come forward to report similar claims to police against Savile, a much-loved children's TV presenter and disc jockey who died at the age of 84 last year.

Most have alleged abuse by Savile, but some said they were abused by Savile and others. Most claimed they were assaulted in their early teens.

The scandal has raised questions about whether the BBC, the publicly funded and trusted broadcaster, had ignored crimes it suspected over several decades. Its executives have apologized and vowed to uncover the true scale of the alleged abuse.

"The BBC's reputation is on the line," Chris Patten, the chairman of the BBC Trust, wrote in The Mail on Sunday newspaper. "The BBC risks squandering public trust because one of its stars over three decades was apparently a sexual criminal ... and because others ? BBC employees and hangers-on ? may also have been involved."

On Sunday, the BBC and Sky News showed footage of Glitter, who wore a hat, a dark coat and sunglasses, being taken from his home by officers and driven away.

Police would not directly identify the suspect, but when asked about Glitter a spokesman said the force arrested a man in his 60s early Sunday morning in London on suspicion of sexual offenses in connection with the Savile probe. He was released later Sunday and was due to return to a London police station in December for further questioning, police said. British police do not generally identify suspects under arrest by name until they are charged.

Glitter, known for his shiny jumpsuits and bouffant wigs, was jailed in Britain in 1999 for possessing child pornography, and convicted in 2006 in Vietnam of committing "obscene acts with children" ? offenses involving girls aged 10 and 11. He was deported back to Britain in 2008.

In 2006, the NFL advised its football teams not to use the Glitter version of "Rock and Roll (Part 2)" at games.

One witness recently told a BBC-TV show that she once saw Glitter having sex with a schoolgirl in Savile's dressing room at the broadcaster's TV center in the 1970s. Glitter has denied the allegations.

Police have said that though the majority of cases it is investigating relate to Savile alone, some involve the entertainer and other unidentified suspects. In addition, some potential victims who reported abuse by Savile also told police about separate allegations against unidentified men that did not involve the BBC host.

The scandal has horrified Britain with revelations that Savile, the longtime host of the popular BBC shows "Top of the Pops" and "Jim will Fix It," allegedly cajoled and coerced vulnerable teens into having sex with him in his car, his camper van, and even in dingy dressing rooms on BBC premises. Police describe him as one of the worst sex offenders in recent history.

The BBC has set up an independent inquiry into the corporation's culture and practices in the years Savile worked there. It also launched a separate inquiry into why its managers shelved an investigation into the allegations.

But the scandal continues to put the broadcaster under pressure, and it seems likely that more people ? either outside or inside the corporation ? could be implicated.

"It could be the beginning of other high-profile arrests," Roy Greenslade, a journalism professor at London's City University, said in an interview with The Associated Press on Sunday.

Max Clifford, a prominent public relations guru, claimed that dozens of celebrities from the 1960s and 1970s have approached him to express fear that they could be drawn into to the scandal and criticized for their hedonistic behavior in the past.

Greenslade said that while Glitter's arrest must be a huge concern to the BBC, it is too early to say that the broadcaster's reputation is in crisis.

"If any BBC employee is shown to be involved, then there would be a nosedive in public trust," he said. "But nothing at the moment has been proven."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-10-29-Britain-Jimmy%20Savile/id-abc234e736b340ba82894ac57be0f8f5

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Things To Avoid When Looking For a Commercial Real Estate | Eric ...

If you are just starting out in commercial real estate investing, you will surely find this collections of tips helpful. Below is a compilation of suggestions that will help anyone interested in a successful commercial real estate venture achieve their goals.

You can send out a newsletter about commercial real estate, or regularly post new content on a social networking website. It is important to keep in touch with your contacts, for they can be beneficial to you in the future.

Real Estate

TIP! Aim to avoid default before you sign a real estate lease. That will cut down on the likelihood that the tenant defaults on a lease.

If you want to make sure that your real estate broker is right for you, inquire as to what they think is a success or failure. Inquire about the metrics they use to quantify results. It is important to understand their strategies and philosophies behind real estate. Don?t use a broker who has wildly different values than you. You should feel comfortable with their strategies, and with any beliefs they have regarding real estate, especially their beliefs about what will promote success.

Commercial real estate has many brokers to offer. Some brokers or agents only work with tenants, while others will serve both tenants and landlords. You may benefit from using a broker who works exclusively with tenants, due to the singular focus.

When you interview a representative of a prospective real estate brokerage, ask how the company attains most of its profits. The firm should answer your questions directly and let you know that what is best for them, might not be best for you. Understand that there is still a profitable business to be ran behind the curtains, but a good firm will find an agreeable median between their financial needs and your real estate demands.

TIP! When selecting a broker, find out the amount of experience they have with the commercial market. Make sure they are specializing in the desired area that you?re selling or buying in.

Dual Agency

Make sure you try to read any disclosures for your agent. Look for any disclosures regarding dual agency. In a dual agency the Realtor represents both parties of the transaction. Or, for short, the agent is looking out for both parties? interests. Whenever dual agency is part of a transaction, it must be disclosed to both parties of the transaction. Both sides must also agree to the dual agency.

A letter of intent should be kept simple by focusing on larger issues and leaving smaller issues to negotiate later. This will make the negotiations faster and less tense, and it will also cause the lesser issues to be completed easier.

TIP! Consider feng shui for your home office and your commercial real estate purchases. Although feng shui isn?t scientifically validated, a couple of its basic tenets, including removing excess clutter and keeping spaces open, have actual practical use that can attract more buyers.

Always ensure that the areas around your property are well taken care of. Environmental waste, from a previous owner, could become your responsibility to clean up. Is the property you?re looking into in an area that?s prone to floods? reconsider your options before making a final decision. You can speak to environmental assessment places to get information about that area you want to buy in.

Loan Products

Before working within the market, you should first locate and secure adequate financing. Loan products and commercial lenders are very different than a home loan. Commercial loan products actually offer some benefits that residential loans don?t. You will have to advance a more important down payment while avoiding personal liability. In some cases, you might be able to borrow money for your down payment.

TIP! For a commercial property you plan to rent out, make sure it is a solid construction with a simple design. These types of buildings attract tenants more quickly than other buildings, as prospective tenants know that the building is less likely to have maintenance issues.

You may have to make some repairs or improvements to your property before you can move in. It could be as simple as a coat of paint or replacing some carpet. Normally, however, it may be something a little more involved like walls being moved. Before buying the property, see if you can get the former owner to pay for some of these costs. If you?re renting, the landlord might chip in.

When you are selling a commercial property, always make sure to include all buyers; this includes local and non-local buyers. Many people target their advertising to local buyers only, thinking that those buyers are their market. Many private investors find it appealing to purchase properties that are affordably priced outside of their direct area.

Make sure you have everything together for your business when you are going to buy commercial real estate. Map out all the details of the type of office space you?re looking for before you begin. If you intend to have company growth, it might prove wise to purchase more square footage than you initially need, as doing so in a low market can yield savings later.

TIP! Make certain everyone is on the same page in regards to square footage. Commercial real estate properties can be measured by usable square feet, which is where the business would actually take place, or total square footage, which usually involves the walls and uninhabitable spaces.

Hopefully with the tips that you just learned you can now feel more confident when it comes down to selling or buying commercial real estate. Remember to apply these tips and work on improving your skills linked to property hunting and negotiating.

Source: http://www.maynaseric.com/things-to-avoid-when-looking-for-a-commercial-real-estate-4

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Sunday, October 28, 2012

Cheap Car Insurance Quotes ? Never Pay Too Much For Auto ...

Should you be purchasing a new car then car insurance concerns mentioned in this article will help you get your car included under a good insurance scheme.cheap car insuranceis a very common term people might alert to. But should we know why we need it? The requirement of insurance is must for every single individual especially to cover for personal injury and property damages caused by those who cause any sort of accident, either due to carelessness or lack of skill. Bad drivers as is also often called, cause more accidents and acquire charged with some fine and penalty. You can seek the advice of along with your mates, relatives; even ask opinions from strangers which you meet online. You can now share their expertise that will go an excellent distance in assisting you to decide.

Discovering a cheapest car insurance is a very easy activity for many who comply with the aforementioned tips. You may be asked to enter your marital status, whether or not you own your house, whether you have a garage or off-street parking and how many years youve lived at your current address. Each of these bits of information might help the insurance company determine how much of a risk you present to them. However, reality of the issue is that automobile insurance coverage is really a necessary evil. If youre nonetheless no longer convinced, take a look at looking out the internet for cheap car insurance coverage, and you would be surprises to discover the heaps of pages set up exclusives for them. So, you may need no longer get perplexed in regards to the various choices available. An intensive seek will undoubtedly permit you to to have car insurance quote that you should suit your requirement.

Source: http://www.reviewitnow.net/2012/10/27/cheap-car-insurance-quotes-never-pay-too-much-for-auto-insurance-premiums-again

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CIA: We didn?t tell anybody not to respond to the request for help during the Benghazi attack (Michellemalkin)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/258728468?client_source=feed&format=rss

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When, how, and why our society began to celebrate the - LSE Blogs

Heterosexuality is celebrated ? in film and television, in pop songs and opera, in literature and on greeting cards ? and at the same time it is taken for granted. It is the cultural and sexual norm by default. And yet, as?Louis-Georges Tin?shows in?The Invention of Heterosexual Culture, in pre-modern Europe heterosexuality was perceived as an alternative culture. The practice of heterosexuality may have been standard, but the symbolic primacy of the heterosexual couple was not.?Sarah Burton?commends the author for his strong and methodologically original addition to the field of sexuality studies.

The Invention of Heterosexual Culture. Louis-Georges Tin. MIT Press.?September 2012.

Find this book:?

Louis-George Tin begins his book by making the bold claim that to truly grasp the nature of heterosexuality requires ?nothing less than an epistemological revolution? (xi).?The Invention of Heterosexual Culture?thus explores ?when, how and why our society began to celebrate the heterosexual couple? (xi). Through a focus on various historical oppositions to heterosexuality ? chivalric, ecclesiastical and medical ? Tin provides a close reading of literature to explore the social and cultural shifts that altered the place of heterosexual culture in Western society, from initial concealment to growing supremacy. Setting out from a perspective which claims heterosexuality as a ?blind spot? which being ?assumed to be ever-present as a matter of course and has escaped analysis as if transparent to itself? (vii) and tracking cultural changes from the medieval period to the twentieth century, Tin seeks to negotiate why and how heterosexuality moved from a mere also-ran to the dominant mode of sexual behaviour.

Tin begins from a convincing theoretical position ? there is certainly far less scholarship exploring heterosexuality than the pantheon of queer sexuality that is taken to be the ?other? and, the historical perspective provides a much needed addition to the field.

Tin begins by exploring the chivalric opposition to heterosexuality ? that is the resistance and reluctance of feudal society to privilege female-male sexual love above male-male homosocial love as the ordering system of the culture. Asserting that the original feudal culture pre-twelfth century was ?removed from that of womankind? (p. 2) Tin explores the phenomenon of male-male love in early medieval poetry such as?Le Chanson de Roland?and reflects on the manner in which ? retrospectively ? poetry has been taught and consumed in such a way to over-emphasize opposite sex relationships (p. 6). Throughout the section Tin draws distinction between homosexuality (as constituting a physical act) and homosociality, which he claims ? via the intimate friendships formed by knights of the court ? dominated medieval society as the principal form and understanding of the concept of love. Acknowledging that in terms of marriage and sexual behaviour opposite sex relationships were still the norm at this time, Tin?s real argument seems to be about the conception of love in Western society and how that is experienced and presented, rather than the actual sexual relationships and behaviour taking place. Indeed, Tin makes some curious claims regarding the position of women in the culture of courtly love which superseded the homosocial feudal society, writing that it featured ?essentially asymmetric relationships where the female was the dominant figure? (p. 15) and frames the shift from the ascendancy of homosocial knight-lead love to heterosexual love as pivoting on the confrontation between a new female-controlled world and the original male dominated order. Of course, the courtly love tradition?did?place women in authority regarding love and sex, but Tin appears to forget that it was?men?writing the love poems of the age and disregards the deeply precarious nature of female power.

Section Two opens with Tin identifying a ?crisis of gender? ensuing from the emerging heterosexual culture as a result of the ?intrusion of femininity into feudal society? (p. 51). He focuses in this section on the changing relationship between the Church and heterosexual relations. Bringing to the fore the medieval Church?s position as based on a virgin birth and celibate child and disciples who were encouraged to leave their wives, Tin asserts that ?the notion of man-woman relationships was a priori incompatible with Christian experience? (p. 53). In doing so Tin again opens questions of what it actually is that feudalism, the church and the medical establishment were opposed to: opposite sex relationships and love or opposite sex sexual practices? Tin?s focus throughout is on the relationship/love angle and he pays curiously little attention to sex drives or desires. Recognizing that ?[p]rofane heterosexual love was?tolerated on the assumption that it was chaste (that is, conjugal)? (p. 71) seems to demonstrate that it was not in fact the opposite sex nature of love that the Church opposed but rather the lustful, carnal aspect. Given that, by this point, sodomy was also a capital offense (p. 27), it could be argued that ?counter to Tin?s presentation ? the opposition formed by Church, state and science was to sex, in all its forms, and not to heterosexual?culture.

The final section details the opposition from medicine to the ?cult of heterosexual love? (p. 113) with Tin basing his argument on contemporary evidence showing the medical profession?s position that ?undue preoccupation with love and passion were a sociopathological condition? (p. 113). Tin examines closely the physical conditions that were thought to result from falling in love (including one?s blood boiling) and follows this by scrutinizing the concepts of erotic melancholy and feminine hysteria. In doing so the book begins to repeat current scholarship but the connection Tin provides between medical arguments for treating hysteria with orgasm and the contemporary love poetry written delivers a novel twist to well-worn ground. Ending with the claim that heterosexuality is a performed identity that constrains those who fall under it as much as those who lie outside, Tin posits the notion that heterosexual culture may be under threat ?in and of itself as a hegemonic system? (p. 152). He links this to advances in reproductive technologies and prevalence of non-reproductive sex practices and concludes that as the gap widens between heterosexual sex and reproduction, the dominance of heterosexual culture may well decline.

Louis-George Tin has produced a comprehensive social history of the negotiation of gender relationships since the twelfth century. The analysis occasionally suffers from elision between social and sexual behaviour and could sometimes be more precise in its language. Equally the author focuses exclusively on the gentry class of Western society and very often on French literature in particular, prompting questions of how representative his analysis is of regular sexual behaviour. However the task at hand is huge and Tin is to be commended for his strong and methodologically original addition to the field of sexuality studies.

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Sarah Burton?is a postgraduate student in the School of Social & Political Sciences at the University of Glasgow. Her research centres around narrative of the grotesque body, especially in relation to power and sexual citizenship. Sarah is passionate about using social media in academia and?her blog?has been featured in the?Times Higher Education?and?Guardian Higher Education Network. She is also Co-Convenor of the British Sociological Association Postgraduate Forum.?Read more reviews by Sarah.

No related posts.

Source: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/2012/10/28/when-how-and-why-our-society-began-to-celebrate-the-heterosexual-couple/

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'Penis Worm' Shakes Evolutionary Tree

penis worm Priapulid worm Priapulus caudatus in a Petry dish. The specimen was found in the intertidal of the Russian coast of the Barents Sea. Image: Flickr/Dmitry Aristov

A study on the development of priapulids or ?penis? worms throws doubt on a feature that has been thought for more than 100 years to define the largest branch of the animal tree of life. Members of this branch ? the protostomes ? have historically been defined by the order in which they develop a mouth and an anus as embryos. But gene-expression data suggest that this definition is incorrect, researchers report this week in Current Biology.

Evolutionary biologists will need to rename the protostomes. To do that, ?we need to rethink how our earliest ancestors developed,? says Andreas Hejnol, an evolutionary developmental biologist at the University of Bergen in Norway and lead author on the report.

Deep roots
Tiny differences in how embryos develop have defined branches of the animal tree of life because they can lead to monumental changes in adults. For example, a major step in evolution occurred when an embryonic ball of cells formed two indentations as opposed to one, giving way to a separate mouth and an anus rather than the single opening that creatures such as jellyfish and sea anemones have. In 1908, animals with a mouth and anus were divided into two groups. In the protostomes (from the Greek for ?mouth first?), the mouth formed first, and the anus second. In the other, the deuterostomes (?mouth second?), the mouth formed after the anus.

Today, the protostomes include priapulids and most other invertebrates. The deuterostomes include vertebrates such as humans and a few spineless animal lineages. Embryologists have examined only a fraction of animals in each group, because tracing how each cell divides and what it gives rise to remains technically challenging. Nonetheless, other characteristics, such as DNA sequence data, have supported the general shape of this evolutionary tree, and the division between protostomes and deuterostomes has persisted.

Shaking the tree
Now, using molecular techniques to analyze gene expression, Hejnol and his team have revealed that a primitive protostome, the priapulid Priapus caudatus, develops like a deuterostome. These ?living fossils? look nearly identical to their priapulid ancestors, which littered the ocean floor during the Cambrian period, when protostomes originated (see ?Protostome outlier?). That their development does not follow the protostome pattern suggests that early protostomes might also have developed differently. The order of the origin of the mouth and anus is now uncertain.

"Here is an animal that is the poster child for early protostomes, and it develops just like a deuterostome," says Mark Martindale, a developmental biologist at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu. ?We?ve been using the name protostome for 100 years, and now it?s clear that it doesn?t mean anything.?

Priapulids are not simply placed on the wrong side of the tree. Other similarities, such as DNA sequences, indicate that they are closely related to their protostome kin. Further, this is not the first report of a maverick protostome. Embryologists who have watched invertebrates develop under a microscope have previously noted variations in how protostome mouths develop. Hejnol?s study corroborates the underlying diversity and takes the evidence further by backing it up with molecular techniques and assessing a primitive protostome, says Martindale.

The researchers observed where genes associated with mouth and anus formation turn on in three-day-old embryos. As the first cells caved in, genes typically expressed in animals? rears activated, indicating that the cells in this region form the anus. ?This is a big achievement because for years, people have wanted to do work like this in priapulids, but it?s technically very difficult,? says Detlev Arendt, an evolutionary developmental biologist at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=c62f5b301b024cfdc4675817af1f6282

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Rubio's daughter in fair condition after accident

LAKEWOOD CREST, Fla. (AP) ? The 12-year-old daughter of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio was in fair condition Saturday evening at Miami Children's Hospital after she was airlifted there following a golf-cart accident in a gated community, the senator's office said.

The Republican senator was notified of the accident while coming off stage after a rally with GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney Saturday afternoon.

The senator campaigned with Romney at two Florida rallies on Saturday and was scheduled to attend a third before being picked up by a state police cruiser along Romney's motorcade route.

Rubio spokesman Alex Conant wrote in an email late Saturday that Amanda, who is the senator's oldest daughter, was in "fair condition" after the afternoon accident.

"While visiting with classmates, she was a passenger on a golf cart involved in a collision in a private gated community," Conant wrote. "She was airlifted to Miami Children's Hospital with a head injury. She has been admitted to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit."

"Senator and Mrs. Rubio are grateful for all the outpouring of support and prayers," he added, including calls from President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden and a personal message from Romney.

According to The Miami Herald, a Romney spokeswoman said, "Governor Romney spoke with Senator Rubio and expressed his concern and hope for Amanda Rubio's quick recovery."

Miami-Dade County Commissioner Rebeca Sosa, a family friend, said outside the hospital that Amanda "had a concussion" but was doing better, according to a video posted on The Herald's website.

"He is with her," Sosa said. "The family's next to her and he's already in the hospital.

According to the newspaper, Rubio has four children. He kept his family in his hometown after being elected to the U.S. Senate, preferring to commute to Washington from his West Miami home.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rubios-daughter-fair-condition-accident-030105071--election.html

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Saturday, October 27, 2012

Gaming Happiness At Work

Dan Mezick introduces Gaming Happiness at Work, then discusses related goals, rules and scoring, the relationship between games and happiness, and how to bring it all together in work meetings.

G. Blake Meike discusses concurrency in Android, focusing on AsyncTask ? what can be done with it, what problems using it and how to circumvent them.

Michael Stonebraker compares how RDBMS, NoSQL and NewSQL support today?s big data transaction processing needs. He also introduces VoltDB, an in-memory NewSQL database.

Matthew Flatt explains the Racket ? a Lisp dialect ? way through examples: everything is a program, concepts are language constructs, the language is extensible, and everything composes.

Debasish Ghosh talks about the advantages of functional programming and how its abstractions help to reason about code, Monads, DSLs, NoSQL and MongoDB, and much more.

Richard Astbury demoes an Azure package management system useful for porting applications to Microsoft?s PaaS.

Nathan Marz outlines several sources of complexity introduced in data systems - Lack of human fault-tolerance, Con?ation of data and queries, Schemas done wrong - and what can be done to avoid them.

Mike Williams outlines some of the main characteristics that make developers and teams perform better than the average.

Source: http://www.infoq.com/presentations/Gaming-Happiness-Work

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Des Moines Register endorses Romney, ending long Democratic streak (Los Angeles Times)

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Friday, October 26, 2012

Ann Coulter's 'Retard' Tweet Perpetuates Ignorance, Unites Advocates

In her third year at NYU School of Law, Marissa List Cohen has helped provide civil legal services to individuals with special needs. As a Teach For America corps member, Cohen taught first grade special education. She has a Masters in teaching with a concentration in students with disabilities.

Mashable OP-ED: This post reflects the opinions of the author and not necessarily those of Mashable as a publication.

It only takes six characters to cause an online stir. When Ann Coulter clicked the blue tweet button on her computer screen during Monday night?s presidential debate, she instantly generated a waterfall of controversy.

She wrote, ?I highly approve of Romney?s decision to be kind and gentle to the retard,? in reference to President Obama, a sentiment she instantaneously communicated to her 269,024 Twitter followers and well beyond.

Social media quickly erupted with a backlash against Coulter?s debate-timed tweet. Activist group R-Word Campaign took to its Twitter account in response to Coulter: ?Sad to see @AnnCoulter continue her use of hateful language by using the #Rword in her discourse.?

Conservative pundit Michelle Malkin and actress Sophia Bush replied to Coulter?s pejorative remark with outrage. Malkin called Coulter?s quip ?stupid ? and ?shallow,? and Bush expressed her own ?disgust.?

John Franklin Stephens, a 30-year-old man with Down Syndrome, blogged to invite Coulter to watch the Special Olympics, of which he is a global messenger. ?See if you can walk away with your heart unchanged,? Stephens challenged her.

SEE ALSO: Special Olympics Athlete Responds to Ann Coulter?s Controversial Tweet

Imagine an equally hurtful yet contained situation: You use the word ?retard? when talking with a friend in a coffee shop. However, you quickly notice a visibly mentally handicapped person within earshot. My guess is you would feel ashamed. You would slink away, go back to your job, your home or your coffee, and continue on with your life. The person who overheard your conversation may be too stunned, disempowered or incapable of calling your attention to the sting you caused in that moment, to the damage you perpetuated with the pejorative use of the word ?retard.? He may slink back, reminded that he is different, pained that he is the butt of another stranger?s joke. The damage would be done, but the moment would pass.

Thanks to Twitter and other social media outlets, Ann Coulter?s moment will not pass so easily. Her voice was projected through the Twitter megaphone. Her words reached the mentally handicapped individuals who she verbally assaulted, as well as their friends, family members, teachers and advocates. Their eyes fell on Coulter?s hateful words when they checked their social media accounts that night.

?The same online platform that hosts Coulter?s hateful rhetoric also allows us ? those who fight for the special needs community ? to respond.?

But the same online platform that hosts Coulter?s hateful rhetoric also allows us ? those who fight for the special needs community ? to respond. We can educate about a word many are sophisticated enough to avoid, but not informed enough to fully understand.

Indeed, Ann Coulter?s tweet went beyond her usual shameless, disgraceful self-promotion (she happened to publish the tweet mere weeks after the release of her new book). It even stooped below the incendiary political antics that are standard for the author, who has been publicly repudiated by members of her own party. This time, at least, Coulter?s embarrassing tweet provides all of us (Democrats and Republicans alike) an opportunity to gauge the harmful consequences of the word ?retard,? especially in colloquial and derogatory contexts.

?Mentally retarded? is a clinical term used for educational, psychological and medical purposes to classify an individual with an IQ below 70. I suspect that even Coulter would not seriously believe President Obama?s IQ test would result in this score. I imagine that Coulter used the word ?retard? to communicate her belief that President Obama is brainless, useless and unworthy of our respect.

The problem is that the word ?retard? means none of these things. Mental retardation affects approximately 2-3% of people, many of whom live with mild forms of mental retardation as independent, literate, productive members of society. People with mild mental retardation work in our communities, learn in our schools and walk on our streets. They read newspaper headlines, vote in elections and maintain social media accounts ? where they can read Coulter?s ignorant comments. They are not brainless, useless or unworthy of our respect.

Those with moderate to severe mental retardation typically live with caretakers, who assist with daily living skills made more difficult by their cognitive deficits. You may not regularly encounter people with extreme forms of mental retardation because many live in supportive housing and are less integrated with the broader community. Yet every day, these individuals rise above challenges of their biological limitations to conquer tasks that come easily to those free of disabilities, such as getting dressed or expressing themselves through words. People with severe mental retardation feel love and compassion, frustration and disappointment. They are worthy of all of our admiration and support ? not our indifference, and certainly not our mockery.

Ann Coulter has no excuse for her hurtful words, whether through the macrocosm of Twitter or when whispered in a coffee shop, especially to promote cruelty and intolerance. And neither do you. Perhaps you have hid behind your computer, forgetting that, with one click, your choice of words on social media will literally reach the entire Internet world.

I hope that in light of this week?s Twitter scandal, we remind ourselves that, with the click of a button, our words are not just stored on a webpage but also felt in the lives of real people. That said, if you must join the online counterattack against Ann Coulter, I urge you to at least consult a thesaurus. ?Fool,? ?buffoon,? maybe ?dimwit? ? but please, not retard.

Image courtesy of Flickr, Gage Skidmore

Source: http://mashable.com/2012/10/25/ann-coulter-op-ed/

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