Engineers devise new way to produce clean hydrogen

May 21, 2013 ? Duke University engineers have developed a novel method for producing clean hydrogen, which could prove essential to weaning society off of fossil fuels and their environmental implications.

While hydrogen is ubiquitous in the environment, producing and collecting molecular hydrogen for transportation and industrial uses is expensive and complicated. Just as importantly, a byproduct of most current methods of producing hydrogen is carbon monoxide, which is toxic to humans and animals.

The Duke engineers, using a new catalytic approach, have shown in the laboratory that they can reduce carbon monoxide levels to nearly zero in the presence of hydrogen and the harmless byproducts of carbon dioxide and water. They also demonstrated that they could produce hydrogen by reforming fuel at much lower temperatures than conventional methods, which makes it a more practical option.

Catalysts are agents added to promote chemical reactions. In this case, the catalysts were nanoparticle combinations of gold and iron oxide (rust), but not in the traditional sense. Current methods depend on gold nanoparticles ability to drive the process as the sole catalyst, while the Duke researchers made both the iron oxide and the gold the focus of the catalytic process.

The study appears online in the May issue of the Journal of Catalysis.

"Our ultimate goal is to be able to produce hydrogen for use in fuel cells," said Titilayo "Titi" Shodiya, a graduate student working in the laboratory of senior researcher Nico Hotz, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and materials science at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering. "Everyone is interested in sustainable and non-polluting ways of producing useful energy without fossil fuels," said Shodiya, the paper's first author.

Fuel cells produce electricity through chemical reactions, most commonly involving hydrogen. Also, many industrial processes require hydrogen as a chemical reagent and vehicles are beginning to use hydrogen as a primary fuel source.

"We were able through our system to consistently produce hydrogen with less than 0.002 percent (20 parts per million) of carbon monoxide," Shodiya said.

The Duke researchers achieved these levels by switching the recipe for the nanoparticles used as catalysts for the reactions to oxidize carbon monoxide in hydrogen-rich gases. Traditional methods of cleaning hydrogen, which are not nearly as efficient as this new approach, also involve gold-iron oxide nanoparticles as the catalyst, the researchers said.

"It had been assumed that the iron oxide nanoparticles were only 'scaffolds' holding the gold nanoparticles together, and that the gold was responsible for the chemical reactions," Sodiya said. "However, we found that increasing the surface area of the iron oxide dramatically increased the catalytic activity of the gold."

One of the newest approaches to producing renewable energy is the use of biomass-derived alcohol-based sources, such as methanol. When methanol is treated with steam, or reformed, it creates a hydrogen-rich mixture that can be used in fuel cells.

"The main problem with this approach is that it also produces carbon monoxide, which is not only toxic to life, but also quickly damages the catalyst on fuel cell membranes that are crucial to the functioning of a fuel cell," Hotz said. "It doesn't take much carbon monoxide to ruin these membranes."

The researchers ran the reaction for more than 200 hours and found no reduction in the ability of the catalyst to reduce the amount of carbon monoxide in the hydrogen gas.

"The mechanism for this is not exactly understood yet. However, while current thinking is that the size of the gold particles is key, we believe the emphasis of further research should focus on iron oxide's role in the process," Shodiya said.

The Duke team's research was supported by the California Energy Commission and the Oak Ridge Associated Universities. Duke postdoctoral associates Oliver Schmidt and Wen Peng were also part of the research team.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/matter_energy/biochemistry/~3/pE0368Szr9U/130521153938.htm

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Auto Insurance: Get It Before It's Late | Health Medical Clinic and ...

When purchasing your first automobile, there are a great deal of things to think about aside from your monthly car payment. Obtaining the title and tags is likewise something that must be taken care of before you can hit the open road. Automobile insurance is the most important purchase aside from your new car that everyone must have. Driving without vehicle insurance is a misdemeanor in many states and can result in fines, fees, and even vehicle registration and tag suspension. It?s critical to obtain auto insurance immediately after buying a car. New drivers also need to be covered and are typically under their parent?s insurance as an ?occasional driver? if they are driving their parent?s vehicle.

For many first-time vehicle owners, auto insurance looks extremely expensive and may seem impossible to pay in addition to your monthly automobile payment. These charges and bills can quickly add up and it?s occasionally difficult to catch up on everything. Therefore, it?s vital to find affordable car insurance that covers you in the event of an accident. Add-ons increase the price of your insurance. Things such as collision, rental car insurance, and personal injury protection appear necessary but quickly wrack up your insurance bill. Speaking to a vehicle insurance representative can help you better evaluate the protection that you need and respond to any more concerns that you may have. When searching for car insurance, compare multiple affordable car insurance quotes to find which company and plan would work best for you while fitting with your budget.

Motorists that have a DUI and multiple moving infractions and speeding tickets on their driving record can have difficulty finding automobile insurance company that will cover them. This is because this driver is viewed as ?high risk,? implying this individual will rely on their insurance too much because of their hectic, unpredictable, and unsafe driving habits. These individuals have a higher possibility of driving under the influence again or speeding on an everyday basis. Many times a DUI and auto insurance do not mix. A current provider will frequently drop your coverage after driving under the influence, which leaves you to find another company that?ll hopefully cover you and your vehicle. Auto insurance with a DUI is not cheap either. Because of this, it?s crucial to drive safe and sober every time you?re behind the wheel.

There are some individuals that do not own their cars but still must have coverage on a rental vehicle. Take for example somebody who is regularly traveling for business. These people would not be traveling with their automobile so it?s important for them to buy non-owner car insurance. This protects them when driving a rental automobile. Non-owners car insurance does not cover crash, towing compensation, rental compensation, or comprehensive insurance. These policies can also cover a son or daughter that?s new to your insurance and drives your vehicle sometimes. This is a terrific idea for new drivers that do not own their automobile and is relatively affordable car insurance for you and your household.

Find out more insurance quotes sr22

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Source: http://www.dppd2009.de/auto-insurance-get-it-before-its-late/

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Seamless And GrubHub Confirm Merger, GrubHub Co-Founder Maloney To Helm New Company

Today is turning out to be quite a memorable Monday -- hot on the heels of Yahoo's Tumblr acquisition announcement, online food ordering services GrubHub and Seamless have officially confirmed that the two companies will merge into one as we previously reported.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/5uWlEXdvXYk/

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Unearthed Reviews: Renegade Peacock. Two stars | The RiotACT

Life is like an Unearthed Review.

Someone who really isn?t qualified to make judgments on you ends up being a jerk to you.

That unqualified jerk is me, and the poor undeserving punter whom I will be mean to is Renegade Peacock.

Here?s what they have to say about themselves:

?

They didn?t fill their BIO in, but seeing as the user reviews appear to be written by the band?s girlfriends (or possibly the band while wearing wigs) let?s just use some of the quotes from there as a bio.

raddest song ever

Awesome. AIC if they were a new band now

Awesome driving song! Harmonies in the chorus take this track to a whole other level. Looking forward to seeing you guys live again soon!

This song blows my mind. Amazing!

Best!! BEST!! Love this song, love this band, LOOOOVE The Peacock!

So good!

Really love the chorus and the explosive ending

These guys are fantastic! Every song makes me move!

Here?s what I have to say about Renegade Peacock:

Yawn.

This is grungy rock created out of a manual and it is exactly as raw and edgy as that sentence makes it sound. There is nothing wrong with it, but there is nothing right either. The singer can sing, the instrumentalists can play, and the music is fine. The songs make sense, the lyrics do their job, and the world keeps turning. They?ve ticked all the boxes. They are a band, they are playing rock, the mic is plugged in. If that?s all you need, congratulations! You can stop reading this review here, I?ve found you another band to listen to.

But it sounds like a million bands that can come before.

It sounds like something very safe pretending it?s dangerous.

They?ve put three tracks up and each sounds more generic than the one that comes after it, and the one that comes before it. I know that doesn?t make sense but somehow it?s still true.

It?s amazing. It doesn?t matter what order you actually play the songs in either. No matter how you listen to it, you?ll swear that the song you?re currently listening to is the safest most generic rock song you?ve ever heard, only to swear that again when the next track plays.

?This can?t be right!? You?ll say, ?One of these songs must be the most generic!? and you?ll dive back into your research.

Eventually you?ll realise the trick. All three of the available songs are in fact the single same song and you?ve wasted far too much of your afternoon listening to it.

Two stars.

Source: http://the-riotact.com/unearthed-reviews-renegade-peacock-two-stars/104656

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Breakup of physician, drug company relationship could improve health care, cut cost

May 20, 2013 ? A new report suggests that improved health care and significant reductions in drug costs might be attained by breaking up the age-old relationship between physicians and drug company representatives who promote the newest, more costly and often unnecessary prescription drugs.

This system, which has been in place for decades, at one time benefited doctors by keeping them up to date on new medications, and always provided generous amounts of "free" samples to get patients started on the newest drugs, as well as other supplies and gifts.

But it's actually a powerful marketing process into which the pharmaceutical industry pours tens of billions of dollars a year, with more than 90,000 drug representatives providing gifts and advice. There is one drug representative for every eight doctors in the United States. This doesn't necessarily serve the best interests of the patient in terms of economy, efficacy, safety or accuracy of information, experts say.

In one of the first reports of its type -- titled "Breaking Up is Hard to Do" -- researchers from Oregon State University, Oregon Health & Science University and the University of Washington outlined the deliberate process that one central Oregon medical clinic went through to remove drug company representatives from their practice. It explored the obstacles they faced and the ultimate, successful result. The findings were just published in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine.

The study found that avoiding conflicts of interest and becoming "pharma-free" is possible, but not easy.

"This is a culture change, one that's already happening but still has a ways to go, especially in smaller private practices," said Dr. David Evans, now with the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Washington, and previously a physician at the Madras, Ore., clinic featured in the article.

"The relationship between physicians and drug company representatives goes back generations, and it took a methodical, deliberate campaign to change it," Evans said. "We ultimately decided something had to be done when our medical clinic was visited by drug reps 199 times in six months. That number was just staggering."

Part of what allows the change, the researchers said, is that information on new medications is now available in many other forums. These may have less bias and be more evidence-based than the material traditionally provided by the pharmaceutical industry, which wanted to sell the latest product. In the Madras clinic, the physicians replaced information previously supplied by drug reps with monthly meetings to stay current on new medications, based on peer-reviewed, rather than promotional literature.

"In the past 5-10 years there's been more of a move toward what we call 'academic detailing,' in which universities and other impartial sources of information can provide accurate information without bias," said Daniel Hartung, assistant professor in the OSU College of Pharmacy. "This is being supported by some states and the federal government, and it's a move in the right direction."

Moves to separate the drug industry from the practice of medicine have been more aggressive in large medical teaching hospitals, Hartung said, but much less so in smaller private practice. Of the 800,000 physicians in the U.S., only 22 percent practice in academic settings, the study noted, and 84 percent of primary care physicians still have close relationships with the pharmaceutical industry.

The stakes can be high, the researchers said. In the study example, the "sample cabinet" of medications at the Madras clinic, provided for free by the pharmaceutical representatives, had an average price of $90 for a month's supply of the medications. Less expensive, generic medications were identified for 38 of the 46 sample drugs, which would have cost $22 a month.

The new analysis explored the necessary steps that a private clinic can take to help address this concern, including quantifying the clinic-industry relationship, anticipating clinician and staff concerns, finding new ways to provide up-to-date information, and educating patients and the public.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/qnl5Jy21UwU/130520133749.htm

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Conversation about breast cancer shifts to genes ? MSNBC

In a conversation on Sunday?s Melissa Harris-Perry, the panel talked about the complicated politics of cancer, health care, and the ways race and class create such a disparity when it comes to treatment and health outcomes. The culture surrounding cancer focuses so much on positive attitudes, ?fighting,? and the newest technology that it has created an entire set of toxic messages to women about the right way to have cancer.

Angelina Jolie?s op-ed in the New York Times, in which she talked about her double mastectomy, raised awareness about breast cancer and the gene, BRCA1, that puts women at high risk of developing the disease.

?We want to feel that we have this measure of control, where we think if we do everything perfectly, if we get the right screening test, if we get the right reconstruction, we will be whole as people and we will get to survive,? said Salon?s Irin Carmon. ?We don?t have the power to control all of those things. Some people will die, and it[?s not because they were weak or because they did something wrong in every case.?

Host Melissa Harris-Perry and her panel discussed the effect the privatization has had on health care and the politics of fighting cancer on Sunday?s show.

Breast cancer has become a multi-billion dollar industry for non-profits, drug companies, and the insurance industry, which has led to what some think is too much awareness.

The Susan G. Komen foundation came under fire last year over a battle with Planned Parenthood?which was seen as a departure from their mission?but as Carmon put it, the Komen foundation has always been ?a politicized group that has claimed a non-political mission.?

Rose-Ellen Lessy, a professor at the New School and New York University, described what it felt like to be bombarded by instructions to be concerned about breast cancer while her mother was dying from it. She also spoke about America?s ?pervasive testing anxiety? and how this anxiety will allow Myriad, the company that has patented the gene, to turn a profit on the fears of women.

Watch the discussion and watch the show every Saturday and Sunday at 10 AM ET on MSNBC.

Source: http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/05/19/conversation-about-breast-cancer-shifts-to-genes/

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Obama denies role in government (Powerlineblog)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/306880216?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Asia markets up after US delivers positive data

BANGKOK (AP) ? Evidence of a steady economic recovery in the U.S. helped push Asian stock markets higher Monday.

A gauge of future economic activity issued Friday rose more than expected, a sign that the world's biggest economy is improving. Consumer confidence also rose, offsetting several lackluster reports on slowing manufacturing and an increase in applications for unemployment benefits.

Japan's Nikkei 225 index jumped 1.4 percent to 15,353.28. Hong Kong's Hang Seng surged 1.7 percent to 23,478.62. South Korea's Kospi added 0.2 percent to 1,990.05. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 advanced 1.2 percent to 5,242.20.

Investors will have a slew of data to sift through this week, including a key Chinese manufacturing report and homes sales and durable goods orders from the U.S. Analysts are somewhat pessimistic about the strength of China's recovery but are expecting to see solid improvement in the U.S.

"Although US data was mixed last week the recovery theme will continue this week, with housing data and durable goods orders set to record gains," Mitul Kotecha of Credit Agricole CIB in Hong Kong said in a commentary.

Additionally, remarks by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to members of Congress on Wednesday will be closely examined for hints about the central bank's future direction regarding its monetary policy.

Benchmarks in mainland China, Indonesia and New Zealand also rose, while those in Taiwan and the Philippines fell.

Wall Street stocks again pushed higher Friday after the Conference Board said its index of leading economic indicators rose 0.6 percent last month after a revised decline of 0.2 percent in March. The index is intended to predict how the economy will be doing in three to six months. Separately, the University of Michigan's preliminary survey of consumer confidence climbed to 83.7. Economists had predicted that the gauge would climb to 76.8.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.8 percent to close at 15,354.40. The Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 1 percent, to 1,666.12. The Nasdaq composite index rose 1 percent to 3,498.97.

Benchmark oil for June delivery was down 10 cents at $95.92 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In currencies, the euro rose to $1.2835 from $1.2829 late Friday in New York. The dollar fell to 102.81 yen from 103.18 yen.

___

Follow Pamela Sampson on Twitter at http://twitter.com/pamelasampson

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-05-19-World%20Markets/id-355afe01fd0d45648aca6aaf176dd1b0

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AP CEO calls records seizure unconstitutional

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The president and chief executive officer of The Associated Press on Sunday called the government's secret seizure of two months of reporters' phone records "unconstitutional" and said the news cooperative had not ruled out legal action against the Justice Department.

Gary Pruitt, in his first television interviews since it was revealed the Justice Department subpoenaed phone records of AP reporters and editors, said the move already has had a chilling effect on journalism. Pruitt said the seizure has made sources less willing to talk to AP journalists and, in the long term, could limit Americans' information from all news outlets.

Pruitt told CBS' "Face the Nation" that the government has no business monitoring the AP's newsgathering activities.

"And if they restrict that apparatus ... the people of the United States will only know what the government wants them to know and that's not what the framers of the Constitution had in mind when they wrote the First Amendment," he said.

In a separate interview with the AP, Pruitt said the news cooperative had not decided its next move but had not ruled out legal action against the government. He said the Justice Department's investigation is out of control and President Barack Obama should rein it in.

"It's too early to know if we'll take legal action but I can tell you we are positively displeased and we do feel that our constitutional rights have been violated," Pruitt said.

"They've been secretive, they've been overbroad and abusive ? so much so that taken together, they are unconstitutional because they violate our First Amendment rights," he added.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said the government needs to stop leaks by whatever means necessary.

"This is an investigation that needs to happen because national security leaks, of course, can get our agents overseas killed," he said.

Republican Sen. John Cornyn, a member of the Judiciary Committee, said the government should focus on those who leak sensitive national security matters and not on journalists who report on them. The Texas Republican said his committee should hold hearings on how the Justice Department obtained phone records from AP reporters and editors.

"What confuses me is the focus on the press, who have a constitutional right here and we depend on the press to get to the bottom of so many issues that we, as individuals, cannot," Cornyn said.

Cornyn said the Justice Department's actions were part of a pattern for Obama's administration to quiet its critics.

"It's a culture of cover-ups and intimidation that is giving the administration so much trouble," Cornyn said.

He also renewed his call for Attorney General Eric Holder to resign, citing the contempt citation the House of Representatives voted against him last year for refusing to turn over documents in a failed government gun smuggling sting.

White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer said the president "has complete faith in Attorney General Holder." He also insisted the White House was not involved in the decision to seek AP phone records.

"A cardinal rule is we don't get involved in independent investigations. And this is one of those," Pfeiffer said.

Although the Justice Department has not explained why it sought phone records from the AP, Pruitt pointed to a May 7, 2012, story that disclosed details of a successful CIA operation in Yemen to stop an airliner bomb plot around the one-year anniversary of the May 2, 2011, killing of Osama bin Laden.

The AP delayed publication of that story at the request of government officials who said it would jeopardize national security.

"We respected that, we acted responsibly, we held the story," Pruitt said.

Pruitt said that only after officials from two government entities said the threat had passed did the AP publish the story. He said the administration still asked that the story be held until an official announcement the next day, a request the AP rejected.

The news service viewed the story as important because White House and Department of Homeland Security officials were saying publicly there was no credible evidence of a terrorist threat to the U.S. around the one-year anniversary of bin Laden's death.

"So that was misleading to the American public. We felt the American public needed to know this story," Pruitt said.

The AP has seen an effect on its newsgathering since the disclosure of the Justice Department's subpoena, he said.

"Officials that would normally talk to us and people we talk to in the normal course of newsgathering are already saying to us that they're a little reluctant to talk to us," Pruitt said. "They fear that they will be monitored by the government."

The Justice Department secretly obtained two months of personal and work telephone records for several reporters and editors, as well as general AP office numbers in New York, Washington and Hartford, Conn., and for the main number for the AP in the House of Representatives press gallery.

"It was sweeping and broad and beyond what they needed to do," Pruitt said.

He objected to the "Justice Department acting on its own being the judge, jury and executioner in secret," saying the AP would not back down.

"We're not going to be intimidated by the abusive tactics of the Justice Department," he said.

McConnell and Pfeiffer were interviewed on NBC's "Meet the Press." Cornyn appeared on "Face the Nation."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ap-ceo-calls-records-seizure-unconstitutional-162821460.html

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Oh, baby! Kimmel spoofs 'Bachelor' with toddlers

TV

Randee Dawn TODAY contributor

4 hours ago

While "Jimmy Kimmel Live" isn't necessarily known for its sweet approach to babies or children (Kimmel routinely exhorts parents to prank their kids and capture it on camera for yuks), on Thursday night he managed to blend a spoof of "The Bachelor/The Bachelorette" with a clutch of toddler actors that was, well, downright adorable.

In a spoof of the long-running ABC reality series "The Bachelor," Kimmel lent his voice to a "preview" of a "new" series, "The Baby Bachelor," in which Wesley, a very young man just looking for a play date has to choose between a collection of similarly youthful ladies. And they're just as much of a handful as their grown-up counterparts, as demonstrated by the lovely blonde who just can't stop crying. Wesley not only gives her a hug but a peck on the cheek, to no avail.

Women!

Then of course there's always one: 35-month-old Jesse is a "stay-at-home daughter" who is "looking for a sugar daddy."

Who will accept Wesley's offer of a dinosaur toy? Check out the video for all of the cute overload!

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/oh-baby-jimmy-kimmel-spoofs-bachelor-very-young-contestants-1C9965350

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Reading rock to understand how climate change unfolds

May 18, 2013 ? What happened the last time a vegetated Earth shifted from an extremely cold climate to desert-like conditions? And what does it tell us about climate change today?

John Isbell is on a quest to coax that information from the geology of the southernmost portions of the Earth. It won't be easy, because the last transition from "icehouse to greenhouse" occurred between 335 and 290 million years ago.

An expert in glaciation from the late Paleozoic Era, Isbell is challenging many assumptions about the way drastic climate change naturally unfolds. The research helps form the all-important baseline needed to predict what the added effects of human activity will bring.

Starting from 'deep freeze'

In the late Paleozoic, the modern continents were fused together into two huge land masses, with what is now the Southern Hemisphere, including Antarctica, called Gondwana. During the span of more than 60 million years, Gondwana shifted from a state of deep freeze into one so hot and dry it supported the appearance of reptiles. The change, however, didn't happen uniformly, Isbell says.

In fact, his research has shaken the common belief that Gondwana was covered by one massive sheet of ice which gradually and steadily melted away as conditions warmed. Isbell has found that at least 22 individual ice sheets were located in various places over the region. And the state of glaciation during the long warming period was marked by dramatic swings in temperature and atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) levels.

"There appears to be a direct association between low CO₂ levels and glaciation," he says. "A lot of the changes in greenhouse gases and in a shrinking ice volume then are similar to what we're seeing today."

When the ice finally started disappearing, he says, it did so in the polar regions first and lingered in other parts of Gondwana with higher elevations. He attributes that to different conditions across Gondwana, such as mountain-building events, which would have preserved glaciers longer.

All about the carbon

To get an accurate picture of the range of conditions in the late Paleozoic, Isbell has traveled to Antarctica 16 times and has joined colleagues from around the world as part of an interdisciplinary team funded by the National Science Foundation. They have regularly gone to places where no one has ever walked on the rocks before.

One of his colleagues is paleoecologist Erik Gulbranson, who studies plant communities from the tail end of the Paleozoic and how they evolved in concert with the climatic changes. The information contained in fossil soil and plants, he says, can reveal a lot about carbon cycling, which is so central for applying the work to climate change today.

Documenting the particulars of how the carbon cycle behaved so long ago will allow them to answer questions like, 'What was the main force behind glaciation during the late Paleozoic? Was it mountain-building or climate change?'

Another characteristic of the late Paleozoic shift is that once the climate warmed significantly and atmospheric CO₂ levels soared, the Earth's climate remained hot and dry for another 200 million years.

"These natural cycles are very long, and that's an important difference with what we're seeing with the contemporary global climate change," says Gulbranson. "Today, we're seeing change in greenhouse gas concentrations of CO₂ on the order of centuries and decades."

Ancient trees and soil

In order to explain today's accelerated warming, Gulbranson's research illustrates that glaciers alone don't tell the whole story.

Many environmental factors leave an imprint on the carbon contained in tree trunks from this period. One of the things Gulbranson hypothesizes from his research in Antarctica is that an increase in deciduous trees occurred in higher latitudes during the late Paleozoic, driven by higher temperatures.

What he doesn't yet know is what the net effect was on the carbon cycle.

While trees soak in CO₂ and give off oxygen, there are other environmental processes to consider, says Gulbranson. For example, CO₂ emissions also come from soil as microbes speed up their consumption of organic matter with rising temperatures.

"The high latitudes today contain the largest amount of carbon locked up as organic material and permafrost soils on Earth today," he says. "It actually exceeds the amount of carbon you can measure in the rain forests. So what happens to that stockpile of carbon when you warm it and grow a forest over it is completely unknown."

Another unknown is whether the Northern Hemisphere during this time was also glaciated and warming. The pair are about to find out. With UWM backing, they will do field work in northeastern Russia this summer to study glacial deposits from the late Paleozoic.

The two scientists' work is complementary. Dating the rock is essential to pinpointing the rate of change in the carbon cycle, which would be the warning signal we could use today to indicate that nature is becoming dangerously unbalanced.

"If we figure out what happened with the glaciers," says Isbell, "and add it to what we know about other conditions -- we will be able to unlock the answers to climate change."

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/lad7DFFJLRs/130518153259.htm

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Nanotechnology could help fight diabetes

Friday, May 17, 2013

Injectable nanoparticles developed at MIT may someday eliminate the need for patients with Type 1 diabetes to constantly monitor their blood-sugar levels and inject themselves with insulin.

The nanoparticles were designed to sense glucose levels in the body and respond by secreting the appropriate amount of insulin, thereby replacing the function of pancreatic islet cells, which are destroyed in patients with Type 1 diabetes. Ultimately, this type of system could ensure that blood-sugar levels remain balanced and improve patients' quality of life, according to the researchers.

"Insulin really works, but the problem is people don't always get the right amount of it. With this system of extended release, the amount of drug secreted is proportional to the needs of the body," says Daniel Anderson, an associate professor of chemical engineering and member of MIT's Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and Institute for Medical Engineering and Science.

Anderson is the senior author of a paper describing the new system in a recent issue of the journal ACS Nano. Lead author of the paper is Zhen Gu, a former postdoc in Anderson's lab. The research team also includes Robert Langer, the David H. Koch Institute Professor at MIT, and researchers from the Department of Anesthesiology at Boston Children's Hospital.

Mimicking the pancreas

Currently, people with Type 1 diabetes typically prick their fingers several times a day to draw blood for testing their blood-sugar levels. When levels are high, these patients inject themselves with insulin, which breaks down the excess sugar.

In recent years, many researchers have sought to develop insulin-delivery systems that could act as an "artificial pancreas," automatically detecting glucose levels and secreting insulin. One approach uses hydrogels to measure and react to glucose levels, but those gels are slow to respond or lack mechanical strength, allowing insulin to leak out.

The MIT team set out to create a sturdy, biocompatible system that would respond more quickly to changes in glucose levels and would be easy to administer.

Their system consists of an injectable gel-like structure with a texture similar to toothpaste, says Gu, who is now an assistant professor of biomedical engineering and molecular pharmaceutics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University. The gel contains a mixture of oppositely charged nanoparticles that attract each other, keeping the gel intact and preventing the particles from drifting away once inside the body.

Using a modified polysaccharide known as dextran, the researchers designed the gel to be sensitive to acidity. Each nanoparticle contains spheres of dextran loaded with an enzyme that converts glucose into gluconic acid. Glucose can diffuse freely through the gel, so when sugar levels are high, the enzyme produces large quantities of gluconic acid, making the local environment slightly more acidic.

That acidic environment causes the dextran spheres to disintegrate, releasing insulin. Insulin then performs its normal function, converting the glucose in the bloodstream into glycogen, which is absorbed into the liver for storage.

Long-term control

In tests with mice that have Type 1 diabetes, the researchers found that a single injection of the gel maintained normal blood-sugar levels for an average of 10 days. Because the particles are mostly composed of polysaccharides, they are biocompatible and eventually degrade in the body.

The researchers are now trying to modify the particles so they can respond to changes in glucose levels faster, at the speed of pancreas islet cells. "Islet cells are very smart. They can release insulin very quickly once they sense high sugar levels," Gu says.

Before testing the particles in humans, the researchers plan to further develop the system's delivery properties and to work on optimizing the dosage that would be needed for use in humans.

###

Massachusetts Institute of Technology: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice

Thanks to Massachusetts Institute of Technology for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 50 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/128296/Nanotechnology_could_help_fight_diabetes

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Google and NASA Invest In Quantum Computing, Machine Learning ...

Google, NASA, and the Universities Space Research Association have announced that they'll collaborate in purchasing the second $10 million dollar D-Wave Two quantum computing system on the market. The system will deploy to NASA's Ames Research Center, and should be online by the fall of this year, where it'll be put to work solving particular types of problems. Before we delve into that, let's talk a bit about what a quantum computer is -- and what it isn't.

Quantum Annealment

A quantum computer is a computer that uses quantum information to store data. In a classical computer, data is stored electrically, via a 0 (off) or a 1 (on). Quantum bits (called Qubits) can exist in a superposition of possible states simultaneously. They are, in other words, non-binary.

Dwave's older, 128-wire chip

D-Wave's systems are not this sort of quantum computer. D-Wave's computers use a type of computation known as quantum annealing, in which the interacting bits being used to solve an equation are dropped into their lowest energy state. This process -- if done extremely slowly -- creates a solution to the problem in question. One of the caveats of D-Wave's systems is that the chips work best when problems can be mapped directly on to the super-cooled circuitry.
D-Wave's chips, in other words, aren't general purpose computing devices. These aren't products that'll ever replace the Intel or AMD processor in your current box; they rely on cooling the CPU down to temperatures best measured in Kelvin, not Celsius. But when you hand them problems they can solve, they're extremely quick. The system NASA and Google are buying can eventually be upgraded to a 2048-bit chip (from the current 512-bit version) when it becomes available.

Researchers have been slow to hail D-Wave's computer as a genuine quantum computer, partly because the company has been tight-lipped about the capabilities and function of its processor, but several published papers have increased confidence. The general consensus is that D-Wave's systems are performing some quantum operations, even if they don't represent a full quantum computer as classically conceived. One of the differences between the D-Wave quantum system and a conventional CPU is that flaws in the D-Wave processor that limit the number of bits it can compute with at a given time don't fundamentally compromise the chip's function. Improving yields, however, remains a focus of the company's efforts.

In the right circumstances, D-Wave's solution can be up to 10,000 times faster than current conventional silicon. As we've said, that speed boost isn't a guarantee -- code has to map fairly precisely to the chip's capabilities to make that happen -- but it's a huge increase at a time when conventional silicon scaling has faltered. D-Wave's systems aren't likely to lead to a fundamentally new means of building consumer products, but driving huge increases through enterprise and scientific computing could help us find the replacement for silicon that the entire semiconductor industry is currently hunting for.

Source: http://hothardware.com/News/Google-and-NASA-Invest-In-Quantum-Computing-Machine-Learning-Technology/

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Nine-year-old Mars rover passes 40-year-old record

May 17, 2013 ? While Apollo 17 astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt visited Earth's moon for three days in December 1972, they drove their mission's Lunar Roving Vehicle 19.3 nautical miles (22.210 statute miles or 35.744 kilometers). That was the farthest total distance for any NASA vehicle driving on a world other than Earth until yesterday.

The team operating NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity received confirmation in a transmission from Mars today that the rover drove 263 feet (80 meters) on Thursday, bringing Opportunity's total odometry since landing on Mars in January 2004 to 22.220 statute miles (35.760 kilometers).

Cernan discussed this prospect a few days ago with Opportunity team member Jim Rice of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The Apollo 17 astronaut said, "The record we established with a roving vehicle was made to be broken, and I'm excited and proud to be able to pass the torch to Opportunity."

The international record for driving distance on another world is still held by the Soviet Union's remote-controlled Lunokhod 2 rover, which traveled 23 miles (37 kilometers) on the surface of Earth's moon in 1973.

Opportunity began a multi-week trek this week from an area where it has been working since mid-2011, the "Cape York" segment of the rim of Endeavour Crater, to an area about 1.4 miles (2.2 kilometers) away, "Solander Point."

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL also manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project and its rover, Curiosity, which landed on Mars in August 2012.

For more information about Opportunity, visit http://www.nasa.gov/rovers and http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov . You can follow the project on Twitter and on Facebook at: http://twitter.com/MarsRovers and http://www.facebook.com/mars.rovers .

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/wuHIEDRP8yQ/130517120939.htm

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XTZ Earphone-12 review

The majority of earphones today are just that – earphones. However, some audio companies have recently been creating music player apps that are tuned specifically for their particular earphone. When I first got a glimpse of the new EarPhone-12 from XTZ, I wondered if their digital sound processing (DSP), developed in conjunction with Dirac Research, [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2013/05/16/xtz-earphone-12-review/

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Google's Products Are Just By-Products Of Its Quest For Tomorrow ...

Google isn?t about search, apps or devices. Those are just vehicles, and there?s no destination. That?s because Larry Page?s Google is on an unending pursuit of the future, not just next quarter?s earnings.?The scattershot of projects Google revealed today at I/O had just one unifying factor: They further that pursuit, or empower the curiosity of others.

Google is lucky. It takes a lot of fuel to shoot for the moon. Fuel that most tech companies don?t have or are unwilling to burn. But Google has ads that pay for everything the company does. The armies of employees, the seas of servers, and the laboratories for experimenting in both the digital and physical worlds.

I talked to a Google Chrome engineer the other night. He described his job as almost academic. No one ever talks about money ? how much things cost or how much they would make. His job is simply to let people access information as quickly and efficiently as possible. That?s the future, and a browser is just the by-product.

Google didn?t launch its new on-demand subscription service Google Play Music All Access just because it wanted to get into music; Android is Google?s push to see the potential of our phones. Music is a fundamental companion to being on the go, so why not let people listen to any song they want? All Access was just something Google had to do to see our lifestyles merge with mobile computing.

Digital communication shouldn?t just be a degraded version of talking with someone in person. When we can share, emote and collaborate seamlessly no matter where we are or what device we?re on, brilliant things will happen.?So out springs a new cross-platform messaging version of Hangouts. Google isn?t trying to desperately win market share and engagement with today?s big revamp of Google Maps, it?s just another step towards the future of navigation.

Google also wants to accelerate other intrepid explorers chasing what?s next. Today it gave developers new cloud messaging capabilities, Android Studio for testing apps, extra location APIs, and an easy app translation service. It knows it can?t unlock the future by itself, so it lets others forge their own keys.

Compare all this to the other tech giants who seem myopically focused on today?s wars for display ad and mobile hardware dollars.?Apple and Samsung seem busy with another iteration of their latest smartphone, or linear innovation for watches and TVs. Even if Apple is secretly concocting wetware computers that go inside our bodies, it still seems to be in service of building ?beautiful? products and making money.?Facebook has its hands full with mobile with projects like Home, and Amazon is making TV shows.

They all seem vulnerable. One or two flops away from fading. A crummy iPhone, a hip new social app, and suddenly the tides could turn.?Meanwhile, Google has leapfrogged into the next decade with exponential innovation.

And that?s the plan. Google?s CEO?Larry Page said on stage ?we should be building things that don?t exist.? {Update: After the keynote I talked with co-founder Sergey Brin who explained ?It?s important to be willing to take risks, and we do take risks, I?m very excited about these [tapping the Google Glass he was currently wearing]. We?re willing to make bets. Some of them pan out, some of them don?t.?But I think there are a lot of companies that as they grow they become more conservative.?}

Google doesn?t have to be conservative. Search, maps, Android ? they aren?t going to disappear. And with that foundation, Google is free to try, tinker and even fail. But when it fails, it learns, and for Google, that?s the whole point.

September 7, 1998

NASDAQ:GOOG

Google provides search and advertising services, which together aim to organize and monetize the world?s information. In addition to its dominant search engine, it offers a plethora of online tools and platforms including: Gmail, Maps, YouTube, and Google+, the company?s extension into the social space. Most of its Web-based products are free, funded by Google?s highly integrated online advertising platforms AdWords and AdSense. Google promotes the idea that advertising should be highly targeted and relevant to users thus providing...

? Learn more

Larry Page was Google?s founding CEO and grew the company to more than 200 employees and profitability before moving into his role as president of products in April 2001. He continues to share responsibility for Google?s day-to-day operations with Eric Schmidt and Sergey Brin. The son of Michigan State University computer science professor Dr. Carl Victor Page, Larry?s love of computers began at age six. While following in his father?s footsteps in academics, he became an honors graduate from the...

? Learn more

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/15/google-and-the-quest-for-tomorrow/

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Google Has Already Removed 8.8M Lines Of WebKit Code From Blink

Google's decision to fork WebKit and launch its own Blink rendering engine came as a surprise when the company made the announcement just over a month ago. Yesterday, at the Google I/O developer conference, the Blink team provided an update about the state of the engine. As Alex Komoroske, a product manager on Chrome's Open Web Platform told the audience, the team has already removed 8.8 million lines of code from the original WebKit repository.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/rjxprW2NN-M/

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Finnish researchers to provide solutions for energy-efficient repairs in Moscow

Public release date: 15-May-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Satu Paiho
satu.paiho@vtt.fi
358-207-224-908
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland

There are many old and decrepit residential buildings in Moscow in need of refurbishment. VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has developed three repair concepts for improving the energy efficiency of both buildings and entire residential districts while also reducing their environmental impact. Calculations show that it would be possible to reduce heating demand in buildings by up to 70%. Even minor repairs can achieve significant energy savings.

Most of the residential buildings in Moscow were built after the Second World War. Many of them are in poor shape and waste a lot of energy. VTT conducted a pilot study in a typical Moscow residential district, with a population of about 14,000.

VTT developed three repair concepts for improving the energy efficiency of both buildings and the district as a whole while also reducing their environmental impact. These concepts address not only energy consumption and water consumption solutions but also the processing of waste generated in the district. The findings of the study may be leveraged in determining the goals for repairs. However, impact assessment for repairs will require in-depth financial analyses to be conducted.

The basic concept developed by VTT for residential apartment buildings in Moscow incorporates affordable and easily implemented minimum repairs. Even the simplest of repairs could reduce the heating energy consumption in these buildings by about 40%. The improved repair concept can result in even better energy efficiency or eco-efficiency. The advanced repair concept is the most progressive of the three concepts presented. Calculations show that it would be possible to reduce heating energy consumption in buildings by up to 70%, and of electricity by about 25%. In practice, this involves for example improving heat insulation, installing heat recovery equipment in ventilation systems and improving water systems.

Because improving energy efficiency in individual buildings would not necessarily reduce the energy consumption of the district as a whole, VTT also developed three concepts for improving eco-efficiency in residential districts. In these concepts, the focus is on analysing energy production options, improving energy, water and waste water networks, improving waste management and improving outdoor lighting. Significant energy savings may be achieved at the district level using the repair scenarios presented. These savings may amount to nearly 40% in electricity demand and more than 70% in heating demand. Emissions analyses show that replacing natural gas with biogas in energy production would reduce carbon dioxide emissions but would increase sulphur dioxide and particulate emissions. A better solution would be to produce energy using renewable energy technologies such as geothermal heat pumps, solar panels, solar collectors or wind turbines; all of these would reduce overall emissions.

Currently, water consumption in Moscow is 272 litres per resident per day. Implementing a variety of new solutions would theoretically allow this to be brought down as far as to 100 litres, although this is a tough goal to meet. At present, more than 60% of the community waste generated in residential districts ends up at a landfill, while just under a third is incinerated and about 10% recycled. Developing waste management processes would allow the reuse rate to be increased to more than 75%. This would require not only infrastructure development but active waste recycling procedures adopted by the residents.

Statistics published by Rosstat indicate that there are some 40,000 residential buildings in Moscow, with a total of nearly 4 million homes. Of this residential building stock, 52% was built between 1945 and 1975. The VTT study was funded by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland.

###

More information:

VTT
Satu Paiho, Senior Scientist
Tel. +358 20 722 4908
satu.paiho@vtt.fi

Further information on VTT:

Olli Ernvall
Senior Vice President, Communications
358 20 722 6747
olli.ernvall@vtt.fi
http://www.vtt.fi

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland is a leading multitechnological applied research organization in Northern Europe. VTT creates new technology and science-based innovations in co-operation with domestic and foreign partners. VTT's turnover is EUR 290 million and its personnel totals 3,100.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 15-May-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Satu Paiho
satu.paiho@vtt.fi
358-207-224-908
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland

There are many old and decrepit residential buildings in Moscow in need of refurbishment. VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has developed three repair concepts for improving the energy efficiency of both buildings and entire residential districts while also reducing their environmental impact. Calculations show that it would be possible to reduce heating demand in buildings by up to 70%. Even minor repairs can achieve significant energy savings.

Most of the residential buildings in Moscow were built after the Second World War. Many of them are in poor shape and waste a lot of energy. VTT conducted a pilot study in a typical Moscow residential district, with a population of about 14,000.

VTT developed three repair concepts for improving the energy efficiency of both buildings and the district as a whole while also reducing their environmental impact. These concepts address not only energy consumption and water consumption solutions but also the processing of waste generated in the district. The findings of the study may be leveraged in determining the goals for repairs. However, impact assessment for repairs will require in-depth financial analyses to be conducted.

The basic concept developed by VTT for residential apartment buildings in Moscow incorporates affordable and easily implemented minimum repairs. Even the simplest of repairs could reduce the heating energy consumption in these buildings by about 40%. The improved repair concept can result in even better energy efficiency or eco-efficiency. The advanced repair concept is the most progressive of the three concepts presented. Calculations show that it would be possible to reduce heating energy consumption in buildings by up to 70%, and of electricity by about 25%. In practice, this involves for example improving heat insulation, installing heat recovery equipment in ventilation systems and improving water systems.

Because improving energy efficiency in individual buildings would not necessarily reduce the energy consumption of the district as a whole, VTT also developed three concepts for improving eco-efficiency in residential districts. In these concepts, the focus is on analysing energy production options, improving energy, water and waste water networks, improving waste management and improving outdoor lighting. Significant energy savings may be achieved at the district level using the repair scenarios presented. These savings may amount to nearly 40% in electricity demand and more than 70% in heating demand. Emissions analyses show that replacing natural gas with biogas in energy production would reduce carbon dioxide emissions but would increase sulphur dioxide and particulate emissions. A better solution would be to produce energy using renewable energy technologies such as geothermal heat pumps, solar panels, solar collectors or wind turbines; all of these would reduce overall emissions.

Currently, water consumption in Moscow is 272 litres per resident per day. Implementing a variety of new solutions would theoretically allow this to be brought down as far as to 100 litres, although this is a tough goal to meet. At present, more than 60% of the community waste generated in residential districts ends up at a landfill, while just under a third is incinerated and about 10% recycled. Developing waste management processes would allow the reuse rate to be increased to more than 75%. This would require not only infrastructure development but active waste recycling procedures adopted by the residents.

Statistics published by Rosstat indicate that there are some 40,000 residential buildings in Moscow, with a total of nearly 4 million homes. Of this residential building stock, 52% was built between 1945 and 1975. The VTT study was funded by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland.

###

More information:

VTT
Satu Paiho, Senior Scientist
Tel. +358 20 722 4908
satu.paiho@vtt.fi

Further information on VTT:

Olli Ernvall
Senior Vice President, Communications
358 20 722 6747
olli.ernvall@vtt.fi
http://www.vtt.fi

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland is a leading multitechnological applied research organization in Northern Europe. VTT creates new technology and science-based innovations in co-operation with domestic and foreign partners. VTT's turnover is EUR 290 million and its personnel totals 3,100.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-05/vtrc-frt051513.php

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Brighter Side of Life: Life, Marriage, relationships, breakups

Welcome Visitor,

Welcome to my blog.

Take Chances, Be Bold, Take Risks, Be Yourself, Stay Motivated and Keep Rocking!!!

Have a Good Day. Any Feedback/Questions please drop a note to sivaram2k10(at)gmail(dot)com.

Good Day!!!

?You live only once, If you are right once is enough?"Always be a part of solution not part of problem"

"Yet, Taught by time, my heart has learned to glow for other's good, and melt at other's woe" - Homer

?I love the man who can smile in trouble that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection.? - Thomas Paine (1737?1809), American political theorist & writer

Source: http://brightlifeforall.blogspot.com/2013/05/life-marriage-relationships-breakups.html

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Most Popular Coffee Maker: French Press

One thing is certain, ask a dozen people the best way to brew the perfect cup of coffee and you'll get a dozen answers. Last week, we asked you which you thought was the best, and then we examined the five best coffee makers based on those nominations. We put them to a vote, and now we're back to highlight the winner.

The venerable French Press and all its brands and varieties (you nominated Bodum, Grosche, Espro, the IKEA Upphetta, and a few others) took the top spot after a fierce battle for first place with just over 30% of the overall vote. Those of you who voted for the French press praised its ease of use, simplicity, and most importantly, its delicious coffee.

In second place with another 30% of the vote, missing the number one spot by a mere 17 votes, was the Bialetti Moka Pot, which had taken the lead in early voting and looked to be the outright winner...until Monday rolled around. Still the Moka Pot has a huge following, and for good reason. In third place with over 23% of the total vote was the Aerobie AeroPress, the portable, single-cup hand-pressed coffee maker that everyone loves. In fourth place were the Pour-overs, including the Chemex, Hario V60, Melitta, and the Clever Coffee Dripper, with close to 13% of the vote. Finally, bringing up the rear was the Technivorm Moccamaster, an amazing (but pricey) automatic drip maker, with 4% of the votes cast.

Of course, we also mentioned a number of honorable mentions in the full roundup, so if your favorite didn't make the top five because it didn't get the nominations required, it might be included in the honorable mentions.

The Hive Five is based on reader nominations. As with most Hive Five posts, if your favorite was left out, it's not because we hate it?it's because it didn't get the nominations required in the call for contenders post to make the top five. We understand it's a bit of a popularity contest, but if you have a favorite, we want to hear about it. Have a suggestion for the Hive Five? Send us an email at tips+hivefive@lifehacker.com!

Photo by Multiart (Shutterstock).

AeroPress, French press, drip, pod, there are tons of ways to make great coffee. We've talked? Read?Whether you do drip, French press, AeroPress, pour-over, percolator, or use a pod brewer, there are ? Read?

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/mxYynTBJUY4/most-popular-coffee-maker-french-press-505541790

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The Role of Pay Per Click Companies in Today's Business ...

The internet has become an essential part of everyday life for most people, which is why businesses cannot afford to ignore the great marketing potential it holds. In fact, most if not all people who regularly pay for goods and services also own internet-enabled devices such as smartphones, laptops, tablets and mobile phones. Going online to search for a product or service you want to purchase has become a common practice that is growing by the day.

Millions of people now search for locally owned businesses by going to Google. More than likely you?ll be providing a service or selling products these potential customers may need. To get your share of the pie it doesn?t have to be difficult. There is plenty of software available now that even a 77-year old grandma can use to build a website with ease. The building of a website is the easy problem to have.

The hard part is getting people to your site. It doesn?t matter how nice your site is. It doesn?t matter how fancy it looks. If people don?t know about it they?ll never go to it. There are various methods to getting traffic to your website. However, they aren?t all created equal when it comes to quality traffic. The best source of traffic you can get is ppc or pay-per-click. This is where you pay for traffic to come to your site. Each time someone clicks on your ad, you have to pay for that click.

PPC management is the most powerful and quickest way to have an avalanche of visitors come to your site. The problem with ppc is that it?s no longer as easy as it used to be. Things have become extremely complicated and the clicks cost more and more. This is why it?s so important that you find a pay-per-click company that can help you reach your goals. By finding the right company to manage your ppc campaign you?ll be able to focus on your business and taking care of the orders while the ppc company focuses on bring you extra traffic.

You can say good bye to cold calling your future customers. No one enjoys cold calling whether you are the one calling or the one receiving the call. This process can take a lot of time, effort, and annoy future customers who may go to your competitors due to that annoying cold call they received from your company. Make your campaign more technology friendly, less annoying, and more user friendly by buying pay per click advertising. You will see more positive results.

Depending on your budget, you can set the limits for the amount you pay for each visitor to your site as well as the total daily amount spent. In addition, the performance of your PPC campaign can easily be tracked, allowing you to revise poorly performing ads based on the results obtained. Although the concept of PPC advertising is simple, the importance of working with skilled pay per click companies cannot be overemphasized. Successfully managing a PPC campaign is complex and can only be done by an expert.

Before you make any decisions, make sure you read Ryan Francis? excellent post about best pay per click company and local ppc management companies.

Source: http://hotarticledepot.com/the-role-of-pay-per-click-companies-in-todays-business-environment-2/

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Trump in the hot seat in Chicago trial

CHICAGO (AP) ? Donald Trump took the witness stand Tuesday at a civil trial where the developer-turned-TV personality is accused of wooing investors into buying condos at his namesake Chicago skyscraper by promising profit-sharing, then reneging on that promise after the sales.

The real estate magnate gained famed for scrutinizing contestants and firing ones he deemed incompetent on his "Apprentice" TV show. But Trump himself was the one on the hot seat as a plaintiff's attorney sought to demonstrate to jurors that he and his companies engaged in a bait-and-switch.

Plaintiff's attorney Shelly Kulwin sought to establish that Trump was a hands-on manager, while Trump said he was a big-picture executive.

"The primary thing is to build a great building," Trump told jurors, leaning into a microphone and speaking calmly and steadily. "You can't fool people."

"That's an interesting infomercial," Kulwin responded. The attorney later told the judge that Trump wasn't answering his questions, saying "he's giving a speech."

Both sides have said Trump's testimony is key to the trial's outcome and so he could remain on the stand for days talking about the development of his glitzy Trump International Hotel & Tower.

The trial stems from a lawsuit filed by Jacqueline Goldberg, 87, who in 2006 agreed to buy two condos for around $1 million apiece at the 92-story luxury building. It boasts more than 300 hotel rooms and nearly 500 condominiums in a prime location ? along the Chicago River and just two blocks from Michigan Avenue.

The lawsuit that alleges breach of contract and deceptive practices seeks the return of a $500,000 deposit Goldberg made for the properties and other unspecified damages.

Goldberg's lawyer portrayed the sale of the condos to his client as a bait-and-switch, where Trump and his executives sought to make the properties more attractive investments by telling would-be buyers they would reap a percentage of profits from banquet hall rentals, food sales, laundry, parking and other services.

Trump's stardom and real estate successes were also touted in condo sales pitches.

"'Who better to go into the hotel business with than Donald Trump?' she thought," Kulwin told jurors during opening statements Monday.

One reason Trump summarily canceled the profit-sharing plan, Kulwin said, was because he had failed to entice a corporate tenant to rent several floors of the building ? cutting into the tower's potential profit. The profit he had promised to make condos a more attractive investment he now needed for himself, Kulwin said.

By the time Goldberg went ahead with her purchase in 2006, Kulwin alleged, Trump and other executives already knew the profit-sharing offer would be withdrawn. It was only formally withdrawn in 2009, however, a few months before the tower's grand opening, he said.

"They made a deal and then they said, 'Surprise! No deal,'" he said.

But Trump attorney Stephen Novack said Goldberg was a sophisticated, longtime investor who signed documents explicitly giving Trump executives the power to revoke the profit-sharing offer if they saw fit.

In an apparent bid to deflect any blame from Trump himself, Novack in his opening statement also sought to counter the plaintiff's portrayal of Trump as a hands-on executive.

"Donald Trump delegates most decisions," Novack said, noting he had 2,500 employees. "It would be impossible for him to be in the details of each project."

He insisted the decision to change the profit-sharing provision was someone else's and it was one that Trump only agreed to later.

___

Follow Michael Tarm at http://www.twitter.com/mtarm .

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/donald-trump-stand-chicago-trial-211803141.html

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The Southern Hospitality of New York Designer Thomas Jayne ...

Today?s post is from StyleBlueprint Memphis Editor Christian Owen:

?

?

You won?t run into interior designer Thomas Jayne at the shiny, new hot spot in New York, but you may catch a glimpse of him in an 1840?s-style caf??close to his NYC home. Even in a metropolitan setting, he is drawn to the architecture and steadfast charm of historic buildings.?

When it comes to understanding sense of place, Thomas has the broad perspective of extensive travel, growing up in LA and building a design career in NYC. Following an impressive start at two influential design firms in America, Parish-Hadley & Associates and Kevin McNamara, Inc., Thomas launched?Jayne Design Studio in 1990. Since that time, he has assembled an impressive portfolio including celebrity homes and grand commercial venues, not to mention inclusion in Architectural Digest?s 100 Best American Decorators and Architects. But as we have learned in talking to him recently, Southern hospitality has contributed to what is now the Thomas Jayne aesthetic. So when this renowned West Coast/East Coast designer says that Southern traditions inspire his work, we should polish the silver, dust off our grandmother?s china and listen.

Recently, I had the chance to become acquainted with Thomas though his friend, Stephanie Jones. He visited down South in Memphis when Stephanie hosted a champagne celebration to toast his new book, American Decoration: A Sense of Place,?at Me & Mrs. Jones, Stephanie?s decorative painting studio. In Stephanie?s words:

What I most adore about Thomas (besides his old-fashioned scholarly?gentleman-ness, and his slightly wicked sense of humor) is that he truly?believes that anyone at any budget level can achieve a well-designed home.?Thomas?s work continues to stay fresh and relevant because of his careful?eye for editing, his love of history (and the way he incorporates his?clients? personal histories in their homes) and the perfect punches of?color that he uses so incredibly well.?

This introduction led me to a conversation with Thomas, where I learned more about his design philosophy, his ability to weave a client?s story into the d?cor narrative and the aspects of our Southern culture that captivate him.

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The New Orleans Home of Julia Reed

Another friend of Thomas?s, well-known writer Julia Reed, called on him to decorate her?Greek Revival home in the Garden District of?New Orleans. The ground floor of this mid-19th-century home reflects the aesthetic of Jayne Design Studio. Thomas knew that Julia had many decorator friends in her line of work, so he and designer Egan Seward led a ?Committee of Taste? that included Julia, Suzanne Rheinstein and Patrick Dunne to create what would be Julia?s first real home in one city after several years of moving back and forth between metropolitan apartments throughout her career. (As an aside, New Orleans and this historic home charmed Julia and her husband, John Pearce. Read more about this transitional move in Julia Reed?s book, The House on First Street: My New Orleans Story.) Images included today, taken by photographer Pieter Estersohn,?illustrate the work of Thomas and Julia?s Committee of Taste in this story-filled setting.?

The entry hall?s subtle neutrals are a foil to the colorful rooms nearby. The chandelier is from the antique dealer Peter Patout. Maps of the region hang on the wall.

Southern Hospitality

Thomas is inspired by the South, first of all, because Southerners entertain graciously?at home, and their events are?often inclusive of the outdoors. Thomas brings this in-and-out aesthetic to his work. Being able to entertain at home and bringing the outdoors in rarely influence New Yorkers when interior design choices are being made. However, Thomas believes that you should be able to entertain comfortably and easily in your home, and that outdoor living spaces should influence the flow, color and texture of a home for a more cohesive result.

This is the front parlor. The pair of antique settees came from Ann Koerner Antiques. The bold color scheme was inspired by Julia?s grandmother?s house in Nashville.

Family Heirlooms

In the South, people are more likely to use family things: your great-grandmother?s flatware; a mother-in-law?s china pattern; the weathered, antique chest that belonged to your grandfather. The key to making this a positive influence for modern settings is to mix it up, says Thomas. Use grandmom?s china with colorful, updated placemats, for example. ?Mix it up, and use it.?

The pair of commodes in this photo were purchased at the Antiques and Garden Show of Nashville. The pillows made of a vintage chintz pattern from George Le Manach complement the scheme. The painting seen through the doorway is by William Dunlap.

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The view though the double parlor highlights the Egyptian Revival door surround. The rooms? historic architecture including the mantels are original.

??Go everywhere and look at everything.?

This is a favorite quote by Albert Hadley about finding inspiration that Thomas has lived by ever since working at the prominent design firm,?Parish-Hadley & Associates. Like his mentor, Thomas says that he goes to ?small galleries, minor openings ? always looking at new things, from contemporary decorative arts to interiors of all kinds.?

The club chairs in the back parlor are also covered in the Le Manach chintz. The room is loosely furnished to allow for live music performance. The American jazz trumpeter and bandleader Irvin Mayfield and some of his students have performed here. The catfish on the piano was once displayed on a Mardi Gras float.

Positive Inflections of Color

Adding color does require risk taking, but if an interior personalized with color is the goal, it is important to seek the help of a capable designer. If you jump into a project with the idea that innumerable choices and free advice on the Internet put you in the designer?s seat, ?you will probably end up with a beige house,? Thomas says. Find a discerning advisor who can rise above the neutral safety net to create your tasteful yet distinctive living space.?

?Don?t be afraid to repaint a room.?

This is another guiding quote he recalls from Albert Hadley. Thomas uses paint to instantly make a room fresh and new; he goes to an eggshell surface for rooms such as the kitchen where washing the wall on occasion will be necessary. He uses a matte finish for rooms that may require fixing and patching over time, such as a child?s room. He is also a fan of?decorative paint for adding color along with texture to walls and furnishings, but he points out that decorative painting should be approached like the dessert course. Just as you should not go overboard on dessert, do not overuse this technique in a room.

The sofa in the dining room was inherited from Julia?s grandmother?s house. The Rococo Revival chandelier, c. 1870, dates from the same period as the house. The flower arrangements are by Rick Ellis. Many of the recipes from Julia?s new book (But Mama always put Vodka in the Sangria) were employed during some of the entertainments that have taken place at this table.

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The painting over the mantel showing a vulture and egret feasting on oysters is by John Alexander.

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The library is a later addition to the house. The paneling by Anne McGee is painted to resemble pine. The African art was collected by Julia and the art comes from John Pearce?s family.

In with the old (but never without the new!)

Thomas believes that even in this modern age, there is great value in decorating with antiques. He maintains that they add visual depth, texture and personality to every type of room. ?There are other benefits: they are usually less expensive than comparable new furniture, and often,?unlike their recent counterparts, they retain value.??(?Why Have Antiques?? by Thomas Jayne, from?The 2012 Philadelphia Antiques Show.)

In a nutshell, the key components of Thomas?s creative process are sense of place and sense of personality. He always designs ?in context,? creating a sense of the place and function of that space. A room should look like what it is used for: a house in the South, for example, should have elements of Southern charm. And sense of place is always balanced with a sense of the owner?s personality.

Two notable and recent projects at the Jayne Design Studio include the president?s home at Yale and an installation at the Rhode Island School of Design where he is consulting for a special exhibit of American art and Decorative art from the 18th and 19th?centuries.?Thomas is especially known for his ability to create tradition within a modern setting: ?But, you must have ?new? with the ?old,? even in the most traditional room,? he explains. He achieves this by adding an element of the unexpected to make that room special. This element may be a surprising use of paint, color, a fabric or an object, but, as we have enjoyed visualizing through this tour of Julia Reed?s home, the final design will always be reflective of the client.

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Photography by?Pieter Estersohn.?

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Source: http://www.styleblueprint.com/home-and-garden/southern-hospitality-york-designer-thomas-jayne/

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