Friday, August 31, 2012

California's San Bernardino seeks job, service cuts while in bankruptcy

(Reuters) - Officials in the California city of San Bernardino, which filed for bankruptcy this month, presented a plan on Wednesday to slash its budget by 30 percent and eliminate more than 100 jobs and cut services.

The 71-page plan, presented to the city mayor and council in a special closed session - and unexpectedly released publicly on Wednesday evening - asks for the elimination of over 100 full-time city jobs, from the mayor's office, through city departments and in the fire and police services.

Many other vacant jobs will not be filled and some part-time jobs will be eliminated. The plan also looks at cutting funding for the public library, and evaluations of whether to close the city cemetery and various community and senior centers.

San Bernardino is the third Californian city to file for bankruptcy protection since June, following Stockton and Mammoth Lakes. Analysts believe more cities will likely follow given the severity of California's budget crisis.

When San Bernardino, a city of about 210,000 people 65 miles east of Los Angeles, filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection on August 1, it cited a $45.8 million budget deficit and a general fund - used to pay its employees and fund other essential services - essentially depleted.

The city has been without an official operating budget for this fiscal year. It approved a short-term emergency plan last month that expires in four weeks.

The budget presented on Wednesday by the city manager's office will serve the basis for a "pendency" plan that will serve as San Bernardino's operating budget through the bankruptcy proceedings, which could take many months.

Although the plan's authors acknowledged the severity of the proposed cuts, they also conceded they will still not solve the city's fiscal crisis.

They said the job cuts, together with other savings like the consolidations of departments, will lead to savings of over $22 million, but "do not close the $45.8 million gap for this fiscal year."

Further, they wrote, the cuts do nothing to address last year's $18 million cash deficit or begin to fund the more than $300 million in unfunded liabilities.

By far the biggest unfunded liability facing the city is its pension obligations for its public employees, especially its police and firefighters. Successive councils since the 1990s have awarded those workers ever more generous retirement benefits.

According to the city's bankruptcy filing, its unfunded pension costs to California's public retirement system are $143.3 million.

The three California bankruptcies are being closely watched by markets as they will be test cases for how far cities can reduce or eliminate their obligations to bondholders and pension funds.

The plan will likely face opposition from employee unions, particularly those representing the police and firefighters. (Reporting by Tim Reid in Los Angeles; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/californias-san-bernardino-seeks-job-cuts-while-bankruptcy-020130484.html

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Transcript of Mitt Romney's remarks

A transcript of former Gov. Mitt Romney's remarks Thursday night at the Republican National Convention, as provided by the Republican Party:

___

Mr. Chairman, delegates. I accept your nomination for president of the United States of America.

I do so with humility, deeply moved by the trust you have placed in me. It is a great honor. It is an even greater responsibility.

Tonight I am asking you to join me to walk together to a better future. By my side, I have chosen a man with a big heart from a small town. He represents the best of America, a man who will always make us proud? my friend and America's next vice president, Paul Ryan.

In the days ahead, you will get to know Paul and Janna better. But last night America got to see what I saw in Paul Ryan? a strong and caring leader who is down to earth and confident in the challenge this moment demands.

I love the way he lights up around his kids and how he's not embarrassed to show the world how much he loves his mom.

But Paul, I still like the playlist on my iPod better than yours.

Four years ago, I know that many Americans felt a fresh excitement about the possibilities of a new president. That president was not the choice of our party but Americans always come together after elections. We are a good and generous people who are united by so much more than what divides us.

When that hard fought election was over, when the yard signs came down and the television commercials finally came off the air, Americans were eager to go back to work, to live our lives the way Americans always have? optimistic and positive and confident in the future.

That very optimism is uniquely American.

It is what brought us to America. We are a nation of immigrants. We are the children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the ones who wanted a better life, the driven ones, the ones who woke up at night hearing that voice telling them that life in that place called America could be better.

They came not just in pursuit of the riches of this world but for the richness of this life.

Freedom.

Freedom of religion.

Freedom to speak their mind.

Freedom to build a life.

And yes, freedom to build a business. With their own hands.

This is the essence of the American experience.

We Americans have always felt a special kinship with the future.

When every new wave of immigrants looked up and saw the Statue of Liberty, or knelt down and kissed the shores of freedom just ninety miles from Castro's tyranny, these new Americans surely had many questions. But none doubted that here in America they could build a better life, that in America their children would be more blessed than they.

But today, four years from the excitement of the last election, for the first time, the majority of Americans now doubt that our children will have a better future.

It is not what we were promised.

Every family in America wanted this to be a time when they could get ahead a little more, put aside a little more for college, do more for their elderly mom who's living alone now or give a little more to their church or charity.

Every small business wanted these to be their best years ever, when they could hire more, do more for those who had stuck with them through the hard times, open a new store or sponsor that Little League team.

Every new college graduate thought they'd have a good job by now, a place of their own, and that they could start paying back some of their loans and build for the future.

This is when our nation was supposed to start paying down the national debt and rolling back those massive deficits.

This was the hope and change America voted for.

It's not just what we wanted. It's not just what we expected.

It's what Americans deserved.

You deserved it because during these years, you worked harder than ever before. You deserved it because when it cost more to fill up your car, you cut out movie nights and put in longer hours. Or when you lost that job that paid $22.50 an hour with benefits, you took two jobs at nine bucks an hour and fewer benefits. You did it because your family depended on you. You did it because you're an American and you don't quit. You did it because it was what you had to do.

But driving home late from that second job, or standing there watching the gas pump hit $50 and still going, when the realtor told you that to sell your house you'd have to take a big loss, in those moments you knew that this just wasn't right.

But what could you do? Except work harder, do with less, try to stay optimistic. Hug your kids a little longer; maybe spend a little more time praying that tomorrow would be a better day.

I wish President Obama had succeeded because I want America to succeed. But his promises gave way to disappointment and division. This isn't something we have to accept. Now is the moment when we can do something. With your help we will do something.

Now is the moment when we can stand up and say, "I'm an American. I make my destiny. And we deserve better! My children deserve better! My family deserves better. My country deserves better!"

So here we stand. Americans have a choice. A decision.

To make that choice, you need to know more about me and about where I will lead our country.

I was born in the middle of the century in the middle of the country, a classic baby boomer. It was a time when Americans were returning from war and eager to work. To be an American was to assume that all things were possible. When President Kennedy challenged Americans to go to the moon, the question wasn't whether we'd get there, it was only when we'd get there.

The soles of Neil Armstrong's boots on the moon made permanent impressions on OUR souls and in our national psyche. Ann and I watched those steps together on her parent's sofa. Like all Americans we went to bed that night knowing we lived in the greatest country in the history of the world.

God bless Neil Armstrong.

Tonight that American flag is still there on the moon. And I don't doubt for a second that Neil Armstrong's spirit is still with us: that unique blend of optimism, humility and the utter confidence that when the world needs someone to do the really big stuff, you need an American.

That's how I was brought up.

My dad had been born in Mexico and his family had to leave during the Mexican revolution. I grew up with stories of his family being fed by the U.S. government as war refugees. My dad never made it through college and apprenticed as a lath and plaster carpenter. And he had big dreams. He convinced my mom, a beautiful young actress, to give up Hollywood to marry him. He moved to Detroit, led a great automobile company and became Governor of the Great State of Michigan.

We were Mormons and growing up in Michigan; that might have seemed unusual or out of place but I really don't remember it that way. My friends cared more about what sports teams we followed than what church we went to.

My mom and dad gave their kids the greatest gift of all? the gift of unconditional love. They cared deeply about who we would BE, and much less about what we would DO.

Unconditional love is a gift that Ann and I have tried to pass on to our sons and now to our grandchildren. All the laws and legislation in the world will never heal this world like the loving hearts and arms of mothers and fathers. If every child could drift to sleep feeling wrapped in the love of their family? and God's love? this world would be a far more gentle and better place.

Mom and dad were married 64 years. And if you wondered what their secret was, you could have asked the local florist? because every day Dad gave Mom a rose, which he put on her bedside table. That's how she found out what happened on the day my father died? she went looking for him because that morning, there was no rose.

My mom and dad were true partners, a life lesson that shaped me by everyday example. When my mom ran for the Senate, my dad was there for her every step of the way. I can still hear her saying in her beautiful voice, "Why should women have any less say than men, about the great decisions facing our nation?"

I wish she could have been here at the convention and heard leaders like Gov. Mary Fallin, Gov. Nikki Haley, Gov. Susana Martinez, Sen. Kelly Ayotte and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

As Governor of Massachusetts, I chose a woman Lt. Governor, a woman chief of staff, half of my cabinet and senior officials were women, and in business, I mentored and supported great women leaders who went on to run great companies.

I grew up in Detroit in love with cars and wanted to be a car guy, like my dad. But by the time I was out of school, I realized that I had to go out on my own, that if I stayed around Michigan in the same business, I'd never really know if I was getting a break because of my dad. I wanted to go someplace new and prove myself.

Those weren't the easiest of days? too many long hours and weekends working, five young sons who seemed to have this need to re-enact a different world war every night. But if you ask Ann and I what we'd give, to break up just one more fight between the boys, or wake up in the morning and discover a pile of kids asleep in our room. Well, every mom and dad knows the answer to that.

Those days were toughest on Ann, of course. She was heroic. Five boys, with our families a long way away. I had to travel a lot for my job then and I'd call and try to offer support. But every mom knows that doesn't help get the homework done or the kids out the door to school.

I knew that her job as a mom was harder than mine. And I knew without question, that her job as a mom was a lot more important than mine. And as America saw Tuesday night, Ann would have succeeded at anything she wanted to.

Like a lot of families in a new place with no family, we found kinship with a wide circle of friends through our church. When we were new to the community it was welcoming and as the years went by, it was a joy to help others who had just moved to town or just joined our church. We had remarkably vibrant and diverse congregants from all walks of life and many who were new to America. We prayed together, our kids played together and we always stood ready to help each other out in different ways.

And that's how it is in America. We look to our communities, our faiths, our families for our joy, our support, in good times and bad. It is both how we live our lives and why we live our lives. The strength and power and goodness of America has always been based on the strength and power and goodness of our communities, our families, our faiths.

That is the bedrock of what makes America, America. In our best days, we can feel the vibrancy of America's communities, large and small.

It's when we see that new business opening up downtown. It's when we go to work in the morning and see everybody else on our block doing the same.

It's when our son or daughter calls from college to talk about which job offer they should take..and you try not to choke up when you hear that the one they like is not far from home.

It's that good feeling when you have more time to volunteer to coach your kid's soccer team, or help out on school trips.

But for too many Americans, these good days are harder to come by. How many days have you woken up feeling that something really special was happening in America?

Many of you felt that way on Election Day four years ago. Hope and change had a powerful appeal. But tonight I'd ask a simple question: If you felt that excitement when you voted for Barack Obama, shouldn't you feel that way now that he's President Obama? You know there's something wrong with the kind of job he's done as president when the best feeling you had was the day you voted for him.

The president hasn't disappointed you because he wanted to. The president has disappointed America because he hasn't led America in the right direction. He took office without the basic qualification that most Americans have and one that was essential to his task. He had almost no experience working in a business. Jobs to him are about government.

I learned the real lessons about how America works from experience.

When I was 37, I helped start a small company. My partners and I had been working for a company that was in the business of helping other businesses.

So some of us had this idea that if we really believed our advice was helping companies, we should invest in companies. We should bet on ourselves and on our advice.

So we started a new business called Bain Capital. The only problem was, while we believed in ourselves, nobody else did. We were young and had never done this before and we almost didn't get off the ground. In those days, sometimes I wondered if I had made a really big mistake. I had thought about asking my church's pension fund to invest, but I didn't. I figured it was bad enough that I might lose my investors' money, but I didn't want to go to hell too. Shows what I know. Another of my partners got the Episcopal Church pension fund to invest. Today there are a lot of happy retired priests who should thank him.

That business we started with 10 people has now grown into a great American success story. Some of the companies we helped start are names you know. An office supply company called Staples - where I'm pleased to see the Obama campaign has been shopping; The Sports Authority, which became a favorite of my sons. We started an early childhood learning center called Bright Horizons that First Lady Michelle Obama rightly praised. At a time when nobody thought we'd ever see a new steel mill built in America, we took a chance and built one in a corn field in Indiana. Today Steel Dynamics is one of the largest steel producers in the United States.

These are American success stories. And yet the centerpiece of the President's entire re-election campaign is attacking success. Is it any wonder that someone who attacks success has led the worst economic recovery since the Great Depression? In America, we celebrate success, we don't apologize for it.

We weren't always successful at Bain. But no one ever is in the real world of business.

That's what this President doesn't seem to understand. Business and growing jobs is about taking risk, sometimes failing, sometimes succeeding, but always striving. It is about dreams. Usually, it doesn't work out exactly as you might have imagined. Steve Jobs was fired at Apple. He came back and changed the world.

It's the genius of the American free enterprise system? to harness the extraordinary creativity and talent and industry of the American people with a system that is dedicated to creating tomorrow's prosperity rather than trying to redistribute today's.

That is why every president since the Great Depression who came before the American people asking for a second term could look back at the last four years and say with satisfaction: "you are better off today than you were four years ago."

Except Jimmy Carter. And except this president.

This president can ask us to be patient.

This president can tell us it was someone else's fault.

This president can tell us that the next four years he'll get it right.

But this president cannot tell us that you are better off today than when he took office.

America has been patient. Americans have supported this president in good faith.

But today, the time has come to turn the page.

Today the time has come for us to put the disappointments of the last four years behind us.

To put aside the divisiveness and the recriminations.

To forget about what might have been and to look ahead to what can be.

Now is the time to restore the promise of America. Many Americans have given up on this president but they haven't ever thought about giving up. Not on themselves. Not on each other. And not on America.

What is needed in our country today is not complicated or profound. It doesn't take a special government commission to tell us what America needs.

What America needs is jobs.

Lots of jobs.

In the richest country in the history of the world, this Obama economy has crushed the middle class. Family income has fallen by $4,000, but health insurance premiums are higher, food prices are higher, utility bills are higher, and gasoline prices have doubled. Today more Americans wake up in poverty than ever before. Nearly one out of six Americans is living in poverty. Look around you. These are not strangers. These are our brothers and sisters, our fellow Americans.

His policies have not helped create jobs, they have depressed them. And this I can tell you about where President Obama would take America:

His plan to raise taxes on small business won't add jobs, it will eliminate them;

His assault on coal and gas and oil will send energy and manufacturing jobs to China;

His trillion dollar cuts to our military will eliminate hundreds of thousands of jobs, and also put our security at greater risk;

His $716 billion cut to Medicare to finance Obamacare will both hurt today's seniors, and depress innovation? and jobs? in medicine.

And his trillion-dollar deficits will slow our economy, restrain employment, and cause wages to stall.

To the majority of Americans who now believe that the future will not be better than the past, I can guarantee you this: if Barack Obama is re-elected, you will be right.

I am running for president to help create a better future. A future where everyone who wants a job can find one. Where no senior fears for the security of their retirement. An America where every parent knows that their child will get an education that leads them to a good job and a bright horizon.

And unlike the President, I have a plan to create 12 million new jobs. It has five steps.

First, by 2020, North America will be energy independent by taking full advantage of our oil and coal and gas and nuclear and renewables.

Second, we will give our fellow citizens the skills they need for the jobs of today and the careers of tomorrow. When it comes to the school your child will attend, every parent should have a choice, and every child should have a chance.

Third, we will make trade work for America by forging new trade agreements. And when nations cheat in trade, there will be unmistakable consequences.

Fourth, to assure every entrepreneur and every job creator that their investments in America will not vanish as have those in Greece, we will cut the deficit and put America on track to a balanced budget.

And fifth, we will champion small businesses, America's engine of job growth. That means reducing taxes on business, not raising them. It means simplifying and modernizing the regulations that hurt small business the most. And it means that we must rein in the skyrocketing cost of healthcare by repealing and replacing Obamacare.

Today, women are more likely than men to start a business. They need a president who respects and understands what they do.

And let me make this very clear? unlike President Obama, I will not raise taxes on the middle class.

As president, I will protect the sanctity of life. I will honor the institution of marriage. And I will guarantee America's first liberty: the freedom of religion.

President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans and heal the planet. My promise...is to help you and your family.

I will begin my presidency with a jobs tour. President Obama began with an apology tour. America, he said, had dictated to other nations. No Mr. President, America has freed other nations from dictators.

Every American was relieved the day President Obama gave the order, and Seal Team Six took out Osama bin Laden. But on another front, every American is less secure today because he has failed to slow Iran's nuclear threat.

In his first TV interview as president, he said we should talk to Iran. We're still talking, and Iran's centrifuges are still spinning.

President Obama has thrown allies like Israel under the bus, even as he has relaxed sanctions on Castro's Cuba. He abandoned our friends in Poland by walking away from our missile defense commitments, but is eager to give Russia's President Putin the flexibility he desires, after the election. Under my administration, our friends will see more loyalty, and Mr. Putin will see a little less flexibility and more backbone.

We will honor America's democratic ideals because a free world is a more peaceful world. This is the bipartisan foreign policy legacy of Truman and Reagan. And under my presidency we will return to it once again.

You might have asked yourself if these last years are really the America we want, the America won for us by the greatest generation.

Does the America we want borrow a trillion dollars from China? No.

Does it fail to find the jobs that are needed for 23 million people and for half the kids graduating from college? No.

Are its schools lagging behind the rest of the developed world? No.

And does the America we want succumb to resentment and division? We know the answer.

The America we all know has been a story of the many becoming one, uniting to preserve liberty, uniting to build the greatest economy in the world, uniting to save the world from unspeakable darkness.

Everywhere I go in America, there are monuments that list those who have given their lives for America. There is no mention of their race, their party affiliation, or what they did for a living. They lived and died under a single flag, fighting for a single purpose. They pledged allegiance to the United States of America.

That America, that united America, can unleash an economy that will put Americans back to work, that will once again lead the world with innovation and productivity, and that will restore every father and mother's confidence that their children's future is brighter even than the past.

That America, that united America, will preserve a military that is so strong, no nation would ever dare to test it.

That America, that united America, will uphold the constellation of rights that were endowed by our creator, and codified in our Constitution.

That united America will care for the poor and the sick, will honor and respect the elderly, and will give a helping hand to those in need.

That America is the best within each of us. That America we want for our children.

If I am elected President of these United States, I will work with all my energy and soul to restore that America, to lift our eyes to a better future. That future is our destiny. That future is out there. It is waiting for us. Our children deserve it, our nation depends upon it, the peace and freedom of the world require it. And with your help we will deliver it. Let us begin that future together tonight.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/transcript-mitt-romneys-remarks-032156859--election.html

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The challenge With Online Coupons ? Why Using Coupons on the ...

Traditionally, advertising with coupons continues to be a great way to capture customers and retain existing customers. Online, promoting your small business with coupons has become quicker, cheaper and much easier than previously. Unfortunately, Internet coupons for ?Brick and Mortar? businesses often have become ineffective and perhaps possess a negative relation to your company if they are not used properly. The reasons just for this are listed below:

1. Printing coupons from the web is much like printing money, it devalues the coupons to the customer as well as the merchant.

Coupons are really a kind of currency. There?re an understanding regarding the customer and the merchant. The merchant uses the coupon to say, ?I will provide you with a deduction or simply a special deal, and in return you?ll patronize my business.? This can be the basic give to get relationship how the coupon establishes and very effective, but only if you experience an individual coupon at the same time.

The challenge generally Internet coupons is because are infinitely redeemable. Most likely, patrons can print Internet coupons as often because they want in order to effectively be given the same discount when they visit that merchant. Whenever we counseled me competent to print money from my computers likewise, then our currency would instantaneously lose all its value. By using printable coupons like this, the consumer cuts down on value in her or her mind with the products which the coupon is true of so the coupons themselves. The merchant alternatively must devalue the coupon similarly because it?s will no longer effective in building a ?give and take? relationship but rather just permanently discounts their products or services.

2. Having coupons always available further devalues them. When always there to take, then there?s no urgency to look purchase them.

Just like the point above, which has a coupon always offered to print off or redeem offers the same effect as printing off many hundreds of copies. Traditional print coupons will always be distributed periodically within a newspaper, magazine, postal mail, etc. This meant which you were only going to receive single a type of coupons until the next periodical was distributed. Therefore, should you have any sort of desire for possibly by using their coupon at some point, then you would cut down the coupon at that moment and be available it. With Internet coupons, knowing that you are able to revisit your website and print off a coupon whenever your requirement arises offers the effect of also making the coupon worthless. The reason is ,, (a) most will forget which they ever saw the coupon and may therefore never resume print them back and (b) above all, the coupon loses its promotional valuation on looking for ways to somebody to to become self-sufficient now.

3. Most coupons over the internet take presctiption a ?pull? model rather than ?push? model.

When customers will need to go out and get coupons, as opposed to the coupons being ?pushed? out over the client, certainly they only get as used by the true coupon frugal fanatics and not first by time customers or customers who have got ignored you. Again, traditional coupons have been sent ?pushed? off to prospective customers and so acted as the fantastic way to proactively promote businesses.

Also, Internet coupons at a ?pull? model, where customers must check out a coupon website and pay attention to what coupons can be found, do not have market testing value. One of the better aspects of marketing with coupons since they were first studied by Claude Hopkins was developed 20th century, ended up have the ability to scientifically test marketing messages by ?pushing? the coupons after which tracking those who go back to you. Even though this could still theoretically be done in a ?pull? type scenario, the main benefit of the ?push? test technique are you can distribute your message with a specific wide variety of recipients within a specific interval and receive back a certain statistical sample to draw conclusions from.

Using Use Internet Printable Coupons

The solution ?The Disadvantage to Online Coupons? is using the online world to distribute your coupons while eliminating the down sides previously stated.

First, work with an e mail marketing solution. Sending coupons in email solves the ?push vs. pull? problem by delivering coupons to precise group of people who have got opted-in to receiving updates and specials in the business. Sending coupons via email also solves the trouble of getting coupons always available. Email allows businesses to imitate and in many cases surpass some great benefits of traditional print periodicals. Businesses can test to find the ideal sending frequency that keeps their business while in the forefront of the customer?s minds while also maintaining sense of urgency and timeliness. Also, make sure to use expiration dates and/or ?print by? dates to help expand improve the overall experience of urgency.

Next, have a secure ?one-time? printing system for coupon distribution. This tends to allow each email person receiving your coupons as a way to print them once and simply once for every coupon sent. This can seem somewhat trivial or even even petty, even so the understanding that coupons that may only be used once allows the merchant to remain confident with promoting bigger discounts and better deals while at the same time giving the buyer higher perceived and actual worth of the coupon.

With your best blog allows you to not only dramatically cut advertising costs compared to traditional print coupon advertising and also let you use coupon advertising from the easiest ways possible. Actively advertise your my blog to new and existing customers while using the scientific testing to uncover the absolute best marketing messages for your personal business? success. Generate a real industry for your coupons as well as their value increases to everyone who uses them.

Source: http://blog.1stfind.com/?p=514039&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-challenge-with-online-coupons-why-using-coupons-on-the-internet-may-be-hurting-your-small-business

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Thursday, August 30, 2012

Philippine economy grows 5.9% in second quarter

The Philippines said Thursday the economy grew a better-than-forecast 5.9 percent in the three months to June, largely due to a strong services sector.

And the government said the second-quarter figures -- which also saw growth in the first half at 6.1 percent after a strong 6.3 percent expansion in January-March -- would continue for the rest of 2012.

"The resilient services sector remained the main driver of growth," said Lina Castro, secretary general of the National Statistics Coordination Board.

Independent analysts had widely predicted 5.4 to 5.8 percent growth in the second quarter.

Castro said the services sector had accounted for 4.3 percentage points of the growth figure for the three-month period, while industry accounted for 1.5 percentage points and agriculture 0.1 points.

The figures led Socio-economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan to predict "we will be close to the upper end of the (5.0-6.0 percent) range", for the whole of 2012.

The momentum of growth "will not dissipate in the succeeding quarters", he told reporters.

He cited "accelerated government spending on infrastructure" for helping growth, as well as low inflation, improved exports, rising tourist arrivals and the continued remittances of about 10 million Filipino overseas workers.

A rash of storms and heavy rains that caused massive flooding in Manila and surrounding areas in recent months were unlikely to have a huge effect on the growth rate in 2012, Balisacan added.

"Their impact on agriculture was quite modest and their likely impact (on the whole economy) was also quite modest," he said.

But he warned that the economy faced challenges for the rest of the year stemming from the global economic slowdown and the expected return of the "El Nino" weather phenomenon.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/philippine-economy-grows-5-9-second-quarter-034647822.html

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Chemical exposure in the womb from household items may contribute to obesity

ScienceDaily (Aug. 30, 2012) ? Pregnant women who are highly exposed to common environmental chemicals -- polyfluoroalkyl compounds (PFCs) -- have babies that are smaller at birth and larger at 20 months of age, according to a study from Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health published online in the August 30 edition of Environmental Health Perspectives.

PFCs are used in the production of fluoropolymers and are found widely in protective coatings of packaging products, clothes, furniture and non-stick cookware. They are persistent compounds found abundantly in the environment and human exposure is common. PFCs have been detected in human sera, breast milk and cord blood.

The study, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, included 447 British girls and their mothers in the United Kingdom participating in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, a large-scale health research project that has provided a vast amount of genetic and environmental information since it began in the early 1990s.

The researchers found that even though girls with higher exposure were smaller than average (43rd percentile) at birth, they were heavier than average (58th percentile) by 20 months of age. The authors say this path may lead to obesity at older ages.

"Previous animal and human research suggests prenatal exposures to PFCs may have harmful effects on fetal and postnatal growth," says lead researcher Michele Marcus, MPH, PhD, a professor of epidemiology in Emory's Rollins School of Public Health and the assistant program director at Kaiser Permanente's Center for Health Research.

"Our findings are consistent with these studies and emerging evidence that chemicals in our environment are contributing to obesity and diabetes and demonstrate that this trajectory is set very early in life for those exposed."

According to Marcus, a recent study in Denmark found that women exposed to PFCs in the womb were more likely to be overweight at age 20. And experimental studies with mice have shown that exposure in the womb led to higher levels of insulin and heavier body weight in adulthood.

Marcus and her colleagues focused on the three most studied PFCs: perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFS), perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) and perfluorohexane sulfonate (PFHxS).

The researchers measured maternal serum concentrations of PFOS, PFOA and PFHxS during pregnancy and obtained data on the weight and length of the girls at birth, 2, 9 and 20 months. They explored associations between prenatal PFC concentrations and weight at birth as well as changes in weight-for-age scores between birth and 20 months.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Emory University.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. Mildred Maisonet, Metrecia Ledia Terrell, Michael A. McGeehin, Krista Yorita Christensen, Adrianne Holmes, Antonia M. Calafat, Michele Marcus. Maternal Concentrations of Polyfluoroalkyl Compounds during Pregnancy and Fetal and Postnatal Growth in British Girls. Environmental Health Perspectives, 2012; DOI: 10.1289/ehp.1003096

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/qm3QqYp1XtI/120830135327.htm

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Motorola And Intel May (Officially) Reveal Medfield-Powered Smartphone On 9/18

totheedgeMotorola and Intel have been in cahoots since this past January, but so far their relationship hasn?t yielded any new gadgets to lust after. That should all change very shortly though, as the two companies have been busy sending out invitations to a big September 18 press event in London this morning. As for what the two companies plan to share, well, that?s still tough to discern. The (frustratingly vague) invitation urges us members of the tech press to let them take us ?to the edge? ? should one succumb to the urge to read too much into things, it?s possible that the line is a not-so-sly reference to a smartphone or tablet design with an edge-to-edge display.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/0tpY63T9Zg4/

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Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Bonanza of black holes, hot DOGs: NASA's WISE survey uncovers millions of black holes

ScienceDaily (Aug. 29, 2012) ? NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission has led to a bonanza of newfound supermassive black holes and extreme galaxies called hot DOGs, or dust-obscured galaxies.

Images from the telescope have revealed millions of dusty black hole candidates across the universe and about 1,000 even dustier objects thought to be among the brightest galaxies ever found. These powerful galaxies, which burn brightly with infrared light, are nicknamed hot DOGs.

"WISE has exposed a menagerie of hidden objects," said Hashima Hasan, WISE program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "We've found an asteroid dancing ahead of Earth in its orbit, the coldest star-like orbs known and now, supermassive black holes and galaxies hiding behind cloaks of dust."

WISE scanned the whole sky twice in infrared light, completing its survey in early 2011. Like night-vision goggles probing the dark, the telescope captured millions of images of the sky. All the data from the mission have been released publicly, allowing astronomers to dig in and make new discoveries.

The latest findings are helping astronomers better understand how galaxies and the behemoth black holes at their centers grow and evolve together. For example, the giant black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy, called Sagittarius A*, has 4 million times the mass of our sun and has gone through periodic feeding frenzies where material falls towards the black hole, heats up and irradiates its surroundings. Bigger central black holes, up to a billion times the mass of our sun, may even shut down star formation in galaxies.

In one study, astronomers used WISE to identify about 2.5 million actively feeding supermassive black holes across the full sky, stretching back to distances more than 10 billion light-years away. About two-thirds of these objects never had been detected before because dust blocks their visible light. WISE easily sees these monsters because their powerful, accreting black holes warm the dust, causing it to glow in infrared light.

"We've got the black holes cornered," said Daniel Stern of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., lead author of the WISE black hole study and project scientist for another NASA black-hole mission, the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR). "WISE is finding them across the full sky, while NuSTAR is giving us an entirely new look at their high-energy X-ray light and learning what makes them tick."

In two other WISE papers, researchers report finding what are among the brightest galaxies known, one of the main goals of the mission. So far, they have identified about 1,000 candidates.

These extreme objects can pour out more than 100 trillion times as much light as our sun. They are so dusty, however, that they appear only in the longest wavelengths of infrared light captured by WISE. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope followed up on the discoveries in more detail and helped show that, in addition to hosting supermassive black holes feverishly snacking on gas and dust, these DOGs are busy churning out new stars.

"These dusty, cataclysmically forming galaxies are so rare WISE had to scan the entire sky to find them," said Peter Eisenhardt, lead author of the paper on the first of these bright, dusty galaxies, and project scientist for WISE at JPL. "We are also seeing evidence that these record setters may have formed their black holes before the bulk of their stars. The 'eggs' may have come before the 'chickens.'"

More than 100 of these objects, located about 10 billion light-years away, have been confirmed using the W.M. Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, as well as the Gemini Observatory in Chile, Palomar's 200-inch Hale telescope near San Diego, and the Multiple Mirror Telescope Observatory near Tucson, Ariz.

The WISE observations, combined with data at even longer infrared wavelengths from Caltech's Submillimeter Observatory atop Mauna Kea, revealed that these extreme galaxies are more than twice as hot as other infrared-bright galaxies. One theory is their dust is being heated by an extremely powerful burst of activity from the supermassive black hole.

"We may be seeing a new, rare phase in the evolution of galaxies," said Jingwen Wu of JPL, lead author of the study on the submillimeter observations. All three papers are being published in the Astrophysical Journal.

The three technical journal articles, including PDFs, can be found at http://arxiv.org/abs/1205.0811, http://arxiv.org/abs/1208.5517 and http://arxiv.org/abs/1208.5518 .

JPL manages and operates WISE for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The principal investigator, Edward Wright, is at UCLA. The mission was competitively selected under NASA's Explorers Program managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The science instrument was built by the Space Dynamics Laboratory, Logan, Utah, and the spacecraft was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. Science operations and data processing and archiving take place at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

More information is online at http://www.nasa.gov/wise, http://wise.astro.ucla.edu and http://jpl.nasa.gov/wise .

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/space_time/astronomy/~3/nnmQhAbFruE/120829144518.htm

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Money And Divorce: What Recent Divorce Research Has To Say About Poverty's Effect On Marriage

Money And Divorce: What Recent Divorce Research Has To Say About Poverty's Effect On Marriage ' }); }); }(jQuery)); Posted: Updated: 08/29/2012 1:19 am

Divorce isn't easy for anyone. But for the poorest couples in our nation, money-related issues all too often contribute to divorce -- or prove to be a barrier to obtaining one once they decide to call it quits.

Click through the slideshow below to read about recent research on the intersection of divorce and poverty, then weigh in: which study surprised you most?

  • Divorce Is Too Expensive For The Poorest Americans

    More couples are opting for long-term marital separations because they <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/20/divorce-expensive-americans_n_1811821.html" target="_hplink">cannot afford to divorce</a>, according to a study conducted by <a href="http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-08/asa-msa081412.php" target="_hplink">Ohio State University</a> that was published in August 2012. Researchers surveyed 7,272 people between 1979 and 2008. Most people in the study who separated from a spouse reported getting a divorce within three years of separating. But <a href="http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-08/asa-msa081412.php" target="_hplink">15 percent of people who separated did not get a divorce within the first 10 years</a> because it was too costly, especially when children were involved.

  • Unemployed Men Are More Likely To Split

    In July 2011, researchers at Ohio State University found that <a href="http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-06/uocp-hes062011.php" target="_hplink">unemployed men face a greater likelihood that their wives will initiate divorce</a>. They also found that men are more likely to leave their marriages when out of work. A woman's employment status had no effect on whether or not her husband stays or leaves. "There's something still about men's non-employment that flies in the face of what couples think a marriage should be," the study's <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/01/unemployment-divorce-stud_n_888357.html" target="_hplink">lead researcher Liana Sayer told the Huffington Post.</a>

  • Children Of Divorce Are More Likely To Live In Poverty

    Children of divorce are more likely to live in poverty and to live with their mothers, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/25/divorce-poverty-children-census_n_936896.html" target="_hplink">according to a Census report</a> on marriage released in August 2011. According to the report, three-quarters of children in divorced families lived with their mother in 2009.<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/25/divorce-poverty-children-census_n_936896.html" target="_hplink"> Twenty-eight percent of children within that group lived below the poverty rate,</a> compared to a 19% poverty rate among other children.

  • Couples Who Receive Government Assistance Are More Prone To Divorce

    According to <a href="http://phys.org/news/2011-09-couples-marital-satisfaction-commitment.html" target="_hplink">a study released by the University of Missouri</a> in September 2011, married couples that receive government assistance, such as Medicaid or food stamps, are more prone to divorce. Of the 295 couples surveyed, those earning $20,000 or less and receiving government assistance reported significantly lower rates of marital satisfaction than couples with the same income that received no state support. In <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/14/government-assistance-and_n_959237.html" target="_hplink">an interview with the Huffington Post</a>, researcher Dr. David Schramm sized up the implications of the study. "We have to take a closer look at what the effect of government assistance is, and how it may affect people's attitudes and make them feel inferior," he said. "There may be a stigma associated with receiving welfare assistance, so I think we need to do a better job of looking at what government assistance does to individuals' sense of self and well-being."

  • Lower Income Couples Hold Similar Marriage Values As Higher-Earning Couples

    In a <a href="http://www.ncfr.org/sites/default/files/downloads/news/jmf_july_2012_0.pdf" target="_hplink">June 2012 study</a>, researchers at UCLA found that people with lower incomes value marriage just as much as those with higher incomes, though they're more likely to grapple with economic and social issues such as money problems, drinking and drug use. "We found that people with low incomes value marriage as an institution, have similar standards for choosing a marriage partner and experience similar problems with managing their relationships," <a href="http://www.yourtango.com/2012156563/why-do-low-income-marriages-have-lower-success-rates" target="_hplink">researcher Thomas Trail said of the study</a>. "We suggest that initiatives to strengthen marriage among the poor should also take social issues into account, as they can place a tremendous amount of stress on a marriage."

  • Retired Women Are More Likely To Live In Poverty Than Retired Men, Partly Because Of Divorce

    According to a July 2012 Government Accountability Office study, women aged 65 and older <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-25/women-seen-living-retirement-in-poverty-at-higher-rates-than-men.html" target="_hplink">live in poverty at higher rates than men</a>, despite their involvement in employer-sponsored retirement plans. The study showed that divorce and widowhood had "detrimental effects" for retired women or those reaching the point of retirement, and took more of a toll on women's finances than men's.

  • The States With The Highest Divorce Rates Are Also The Poorest

    An <a href="http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/marital_status_living_arrangements/cb11-144.html" target="_hplink">August 2011 Census report</a> on marriage showed that men and women in the South had higher rates of divorce in 2009 than in other regions of the country -- 10.2 divorces per 1,000 men and 11.1 per 1,000 women. Comparatively, the national divorce rate was 9.2 for men and 9.7 for women. The high divorce rates can be partly attributed to <a href="http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/marital_status_living_arrangements/cb11-144.html" target="_hplink">higher marriage rates in the South</a>, Diana Elliott, a family demographer at the Census Bureau said. <a href="http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/44308315/ns/today-money/t/oklahoma-tops-list-highest-divorce-rates/#.UDaqXRrLyRl" target="_hplink">But according to 24/7 Wall St</a>, its the tough economic climate that drives the divorce rate up. The site reported that states with particularly high divorce rates had below median household income and a high percentage of the population living below the poverty line.

HuffPost Live will be taking a comprehensive look at the persistence of poverty in America Aug. 29 and Sept. 5 from 12-4 p.m. EDT and 6-10 p.m. EDT. Click here to check it out -- and join the conversation.

Related on HuffPost:

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Divorce isn't easy for anyone. But for the poorest couples in our nation, money-related issues all too often contribute to divorce -- or prove to be a barrier to obtaining one once they decide to call...

Divorce isn't easy for anyone. But for the poorest couples in our nation, money-related issues all too often contribute to divorce -- or prove to be a barrier to obtaining one once they decide to call...

?

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/29/poverty-and-divorce_n_1826433.html

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Complete Guidelines to Health and Fitness: What Are Healthy Fats?

Those who say all fats are bad for you are, of course, dangerously incorrect. As it turns out, plant-based fats are powerful cancer fighters, and even saturated fats from plant sources are now being shown to offer extraordinary health benefits.

If you want to prevent cancer, or you're currently battling colon cancer, prostate cancer or breast cancer, it is essential to get plant-based fats into your diet on a daily basis. What kind of plant-based fats are we talking about? What are the healthy fats?

Canola oil is what I consider a neutral fat, meaning it's not necessarily a bad fat, but neither is it considered one of the healthier fats. The healthy fats include extra-virgin olive oil, flax seed oil, and fats from plant sources such as nuts, seeds, avocados, and coconuts.

These healthy fats should be consumed with every meal. Failure to include these fats in a meal will result in many of the nutrients consumed during the meal not being absorbed by the body. That's because many nutrients are fat-soluble nutrients. Beta carotene, Vitamin D, and Vitamin E are three such nutrients that require fat in order to be absorbed and used by the human body, but there are many other nutrients that also need fats for human metabolism.

Incidentally, these oils do much more than just fight cancer, they also improve your cardiovascular health and fight weight gain and obesity. The benefits list is a long one.

A fascinating new study published, shows that dietary fat is necessary for the absorption of nutrients from fruits and vegetables. In the study, people who consumed salads with fat-free salad dressing absorbed far less of the helpful phytonutrients and vitamins from spinach, lettuce, tomatoes and carrots than those who consumed their salads with a salad dressing containing fat.

This is interesting research, but not necessarily all that surprising. We've known for a long time that healthy fats are a critical part of a healthy diet, and that avoiding fats actually causes chronic disease. The key is in choosing the right kind of fats for your diet and making sure you don't overdo the fats, because fats have a very high caloric density and can add far more calories to your meal than you might expect.

The fact is we all need fats. Fats helps nutrient absorption, nerve transmission, maintaining cell membrane integrity etc. However, when consumed in excess amount, fats contribute to weight gain, heart disease and certain types of cancer. Fats are not created equal. Some fats promote our health positively while other increases our risks of heart disease. The key is to replace bad fats with good fats in our diet.

In other words, if you take super food supplements without fat, you're not getting the same benefit as taking the same supplements with a little bit of fat

The total amount of fat you eat, whether high or low isn't really linked with disease. What really matters is the type of fat you eat.

Source: http://guidelines-to-health-fitness.blogspot.com/2012/08/what-are-healthy-fats.html

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Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Tips in Finding the Right Locksmiths | Computers and Technology

So you have figured out that your home is not safe enough for you to be string your priced possessions in. The fact that you can?t often be around does not help either. Hence, you are left with no other choice, but to have your locks, your doors, and your windows properly reinforced. To get this job done, you will need the expert help from Houston, TX locksmiths.

In the local scene alone, there are numerous providers who are capable of extending their professional help to you in the service. However, people should know that they can never really expect all these providers to extend to them the kind of help that they need. After all, they have to ensure that at the end of the day, the people whom they will be getting help from are really competent.

Hence, it is only right that one should take note of the various considerations which they should learn to lay on the table before even making a choice. They have to remind themselves that as much as there are reliable providers there are, so do people who cannot do a decent job when assisting them. Hence, they need to pick well.

A good start in checking out the best providers around would be to check with the Better Business Bureau. You would want to know if there were unresolved complaints against these providers before. Besides, a complaint or two against these professionals is natural. However, if there are an abnormally considerable amount of them, you might as well move on to your next choice.

Remember that these Houston TX locksmiths will be given access to your home. Hence, before you would even think about letting them in and letting them come inside your abode, you would prefer if you take the time to determine who the most reliable providers are. Also, ensure that at the end of the day, you get to opt for the people whom you know you can significantly trust.

In this light, it is only necessary that you should consider checking whether this professional is a legitimate provider or not. In most states today, these providers are required by the authorities to get their license and get themselves certified as well. Hence, take a look at these particular credentials. Through them, you can determine whether the person you have opted for is going to be good enough when extending his assistance to you.

Don?t just be satisfied by seeing his license. You would want to take note of the numbers and run a search to determine if it is indeed a valid one and is properly updated. Check if he has insurance coverage too. He will be working within your premises and liabilities for accidents may be yours if you hired somebody who was not insured.

Consider the costs which the Houston, TX locksmiths will charge you with. You would prefer if you are dealing with providers who are not just reliable, but are also charging their services at the best rates possible. Take the time to shop around and to watch out for current service fees so you may make the right choices.

Source: http://www.meetcoco.com/tips-in-finding-the-right-locksmiths/

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The state of the race (Powerlineblog)

Share With Friends: Share on FacebookTweet ThisPost to Google-BuzzSend on GmailPost to Linked-InSubscribe to This Feed | Rss To Twitter | Politics - Top Stories News, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/243799636?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Romney's storm-delayed convention limps into motion

TAMPA, Florida (Reuters) - Forget the loud music, cheering crowds and funny hats. Instead of opening with a bang as originally planned, Mitt Romney's Republican convention started with a whimper on Monday as party leaders staged a low-key session while Tropical Storm Isaac churned through the Gulf of Mexico.

The tone was deliberately subdued after Isaac led Republicans to scrap most of their first day's schedule in Tampa, complicating plans to showcase Romney to voters as the presidential candidate heads into a 10-week sprint to his November 6 election battle against Democratic President Barack Obama.

Sunshine broke through the clouds in Tampa as the host city, on Florida's Gulf Coast, avoided the brunt of Isaac. But a destructive landfall farther north later in the week - possibly at hurricane strength and hitting the Louisiana coast - threatened to create a split screen of TV coverage between the storm and the convention.

With many of the 50,000 delegates still struggling to get to Tampa on storm-delayed flights, organizers mounted a scaled-back agenda on Monday and reshuffled their lineup of speakers into a three-day plan, capped by Romney's speech Thursday night.

Romney, who has spent the past few days in New Hampshire practicing for his address, planned to make an early appearance at the convention on Tuesday to hear his wife, Ann, deliver a prime-time address, a campaign official said.

Republicans gathering for the typically festive and partisan event were under pressure to avoid the appearance of unseemly celebration while the Gulf Coast was under threat.

"What would help is if we cut some of the fluff," said Texas delegate Brad McCally, 32. "I don't feel like we should have a party. We need to have a little respect for the heartache that Louisiana is going to suffer as the hurricane hits land."

Isaac swirled across the Gulf of Mexico, disrupting offshore energy production and threatening to hit Louisiana on Tuesday night or Wednesday, the seventh anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

Reince Priebus, the Republican National Committee chairman, gaveled the convention into session - at least technically - inside a nearly empty sports arena and almost immediately recessed the gathering until Tuesday, when New Jersey Governor Chris Christie will deliver the keynote speech.

Partisan politics were kept to a minimum during the 10-minute session. But Priebus took the opportunity to unveil a "debt clock" that will tally the nation's red ink during the Republican gathering. The clock, he said, was meant to highlight the "unprecedented fiscal recklessness" of the Obama administration.

Even Obama campaign operatives who came to Tampa to try to counter the Romney team's message-making were keeping a low profile.

The storm threat also put a damper on early demonstrations, with only about 1,000 protesters - one fifth the number predicted - turning out for a peaceful rally and march on the Tampa Bay Times Forum convention venue.

DEFINING ROMNEY

Republicans seeking to salvage the convention face a stiff challenge: help Romney make an aggressive, memorable argument to be president, while being careful to show sensitivity to those at risk from the storm.

For Romney, the importance of the event cannot be overstated. Running even with Obama or slightly behind him in most opinion polls, Romney needs a bounce in popularity from the gathering, particularly in the 10 or so politically divided "swing states," including Florida itself, likely to decide the election.

A Reuters/Ipsos online poll released on Monday showed Obama and Vice President Joe Biden leading Romney and running mate Paul Ryan by 46 percent to 42 percent. Obama led Romney 54 percent to 26 percent in likability.

Romney enters convention week after having made a self-inflicted error by telling a crowd in Michigan that "No one's ever asked to see my birth certificate," a joke that rekindled a storyline pushed by far-right conservatives over whether Obama was actually born in the United States.

Romney wants to get the focus on what he considers the paramount issue in the campaign, the weak U.S. economy, telling Fox News he and Ryan would offer "big and bold answers."

A new Washington Post-ABC News poll showed Romney at 47 percent among registered voters and Obama at 46 percent, showing that Romney's recent selection of Ryan as his running mate did little to alter the close race.

The risk for Romney is that he could be robbed of some media attention - or worse, have images of convention festivities juxtaposed with television shots of the storm's onslaught - if Isaac dominates the news this week.

Romney remained in New Hampshire rehearsing his acceptance speech.

"We've got a great convention ahead," he said when asked whether he would consider cancelling the gathering in Tampa because of Isaac. "Our thoughts are with the people who are in the storm's path and hope they're spared any major destruction."

In Tampa, part of Republican officials' aim is to present Romney's biography - his years as a private equity executive, Massachusetts governor and leader of the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics - in a flattering way that contrasts with the waves of attacks on Romney by the president and his allies.

The Republicans' convention was also disrupted in 2008 when they chose to delay its start in St. Paul, Minnesota, as Hurricane Gustav hit the Louisiana coast.

Republicans then were still reeling from criticism of President George W. Bush's handling of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005. New Orleans is now threatened by Isaac's projected path.

Top Republicans sought to play down the weather's impact on the convention as they remained wary of the potential for bad "optics" if Isaac hits the Gulf Coast at the height of their gathering. Organizers have left open the possibility of more scheduling changes or even extending the gathering into Friday.

"Obviously, there is an overlay of concern for the people who are being hit," U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas told Reuters. "But this is the time that has been allocated for the convention, and we are going to just make the best of it like Americans do."

(Additional reporting by Steve Holland, Sam Youngman and Samuel P. Jacobs; Editing by Jim Loney and Philip Barbara)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/romneys-storm-delayed-convention-limps-motion-002110379.html

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Monday, August 27, 2012

Frankenstein programmers test a cybersecurity monster

ScienceDaily (Aug. 27, 2012) ? In order to catch a thief, you have to think like one.

UT Dallas computer scientists are trying to stay one step ahead of cyber attackers by creating their own monster. Their monster can cloak itself as it steals and reconfigures information in a computer program.

In part because of the potentially destructive nature of their technology, creators have named this software system Frankenstein, after the monster-creating scientist in author Mary Shelley's novel, Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus.

"Shelley's story is an example of a horror that can result from science, and similarly, we intend our creation as a warning that we need better detections for these types of intrusions," said Dr. Kevin Hamlen, associate professor of computer science at UT Dallas who created the software, along with his doctoral student Vishwath Mohan. "Criminals may already know how to create this kind of software, so we examined the science behind the danger this represents, in hopes of creating counter measures."

Frankenstein is not a computer virus, which is a program that can multiply and take over other machines. But, it could be used in cyber warfare to provide cover for a virus or another type of malware, or malicious software.

In order to avoid antivirus software, malware typically mutates every time it copies itself onto another machine. Antivirus software figures out the pattern of change and continues to scan for sequences of code that are known to be suspicious.

Frankenstein evades this scanning mechanism. It takes code from programs already on a computer and repurposes it, stringing it together to accomplish the malware's malicious task with new instructions.

"We wanted to build something that learns as it propagates," Hamlen said. "Frankenstein takes from what is already there and reinvents itself."

"Just as Shelley's monster was stitched from body parts, our Frankenstein also stitches software from original program parts, so no red flags are raised," he said. "It looks completely different, but its code is consistent with something normal."

Hamlen said Frankenstein could be used to aid government counter terrorism efforts by providing cover for infiltration of terrorist computer networks. Hamlen is part of the Cyber Security Research and Education Center in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science.

The UT Dallas research is the first published example describing this type of stealth technology, Hamlen said.

"As a proof-of-concept, we tested Frankenstein on some simple algorithms that are completely benign," Hamlen said. "We did not create damage to anyone's systems."

The next step, Hamlen said, is to create more complex versions of the software.

Frankenstein was described in a paper published online (https://www.usenix.org/conference/woot12/frankenstein-stitching-malware-benign-binaries) in conjunction with a presentation at a recent USENIX Workshop on Offensive Technologies.

The research was supported by the National Science Foundation and Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/swLVcjDfX8A/120827175931.htm

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Sustainable living exhibition: Durban | The Green Business Guide

Started in 2007, Imagine Durban Project is an initiative of the eThekwini Municipality. The project was started in partnership with Sustainable Cities International (SCI) and Sustainable International Network (SIN).

Imagine Durban Project, in partnership with SCI and SIN, is hosting the Sustainable Living Exhibition from 30 August to 1 September 2012 in Durban.

This event is undertaken as part of the second phase of Imagine Durban Project which focuses on facilitating actions that advance the strategic goals of eThekwini Long-Term Development Plan.

Purpose

Hosting of Sustainable Living Exhibition is premised on the fact that there are many initiatives being implemented by various organisations and individuals which contribute towards sustainable development and livelihoods within the Municipality; however they are not well profiled so as to inspire action by masses within the Municipality. Sustainable Living Exhibition aimed at showcasing such sustainability efforts, provide an opportune learning, sharing and networking experience to the broad section of public and inspire action at individual or community level.

Participants

The exhibition targets ordinary members of public with a special bias to school since they nurture future leaders. All sectors of the society including individuals, non-profit organisations, schools, government, state owned enterprises and businesses who are implementing initiatives that advance sustainable development are welcome to show case their work in the Exhibition.

All members of the society are welcome to visit the Exhibition and participate in all activities which are planned as part of the Exhibition.

Focus areas

Although the Exhibition seeks to provide a suitable space to share initiatives that advance the strategic goals of eThekwini Long Term Development Plan, there is emphasise on environmental sustainability and the exhibitors can showcase any of their initiatives on the following areas:

  • Energy efficiency and Renewal energy;
  • Waste minimisation and recycling;
  • Water harvesting and conservation;
  • Food gardening;
  • Climate change adaption and mitigation;
  • Biodiversity protection;
  • Green home improvement;
  • Creative arts.

Registration

Pre-registration is now open until 30 May 2012 and the confirmation of registration will be closed on 30 June 2012. To download the registration form , click?here.

Exhibitors

Your initiative has a potential to inspire all sectors of the society, therefore share it with others as an exhibitor and make a contribution.

Programme

An exciting programme detailing interesting and inspiring events which will happen during the exhibition will be made available once it is ready.

For more about the Sustainable Living Exhibition, refer to?www.imaginedurban.org/Pages/SustainableExhibition.aspx.

For more about the eThekwini Municipality, refer to?www.imaginedurban.org.?

Event venue:

Durban Exhibition Centre, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal

Event start date:

30/08/2012

Event end date:

01/09/2012

Source: http://www.greenbusinessguide.co.za/sustainable-living-exhibition-durban/

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