Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Cern to re-create first web page

A team at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (Cern) has launched a project to re-create the first web page.

The aim is to preserve the original hardware and software associated with the birth of the web.

The world wide web was developed by Prof Sir Tim Berners-Lee while working at Cern.

The initiative coincides with the 20th anniversary of the research centre giving the web to the world.

Continue reading the main story

?Start Quote

I want my children to be able to understand the significance of this point in time: the web is already so ubiquitous - so, well, normal - that one risks failing to see how fundamentally it has changed?

End Quote Dan Noyes Cern web manager

According to Dan Noyes, the web manager for Cern's communication group, re-creation of the world's first website will enable future generations to explore, examine and think about how the web is changing modern life.

"I want my children to be able to understand the significance of this point in time: the web is already so ubiquitous - so, well, normal - that one risks failing to see how fundamentally it has changed," he told BBC News

"We are in a unique moment where we can still switch on the first web server and experience it. We want to document and preserve that".

The hope is that the restoration of the first web page and web site will serve as a reminder and inspiration of the web's fundamental values.

At the heart of the original web is technology to decentralise control and make access to information freely available to all. It is this architecture that seems to imbue those that work with the web with a culture of free expression, a belief in universal access and a tendency toward decentralising information.

Subversive

It is the early technology's innate ability to subvert that makes re-creation of the first website especially interesting.

While I was at Cern it was clear in speaking to those involved with the project that it means much more than refurbishing old computers and installing them with early software: it is about enshrining a powerful idea that they believe is gradually changing the world.

I went to Sir Tim's old office where he worked at Cern's IT department trying to find new ways to handle the vast amount of data the particle accelerators were producing.

I was not allowed in because apparently the present incumbent is fed up with people wanting to go into the office.

But waiting outside was someone who worked at Cern as a young researcher at the same time as Sir Tim. James Gillies has since risen to be Cern's head of communications. He is occasionally referred to as the organisation's half-spin doctor, a reference to one of the properties of some sub-atomic particles.

Amazing dream

Mr Gillies is among those involved in the project. I asked him why he wanted to restore the first website.

"One of my dreams is to enable people to see what that early web experience was like," was the reply.

"You might have thought that the first browser would be very primitive but it was not. It had graphical capabilities. You could edit into it straightaway. It was an amazing thing. It was a very sophisticated thing."

Continue reading the main story

?Start Quote

One of my dreams is to enable people to see what that early web experience was like... It was an amazing thing?

End Quote James Gillies Co-author, How the Web Was Born

Those not heavily into web technology may be sceptical of the idea that using a 20-year-old machine and software to view text on a web page might be a thrilling experience.

But Mr Gillies and Mr Noyes believe that the first web page and web site is worth resurrecting because embedded within the original systems developed by Sir Tim are the principles of universality and universal access that many enthusiasts at the time hoped would eventually make the world a fairer and more equal place.

The first browser, for example, allowed users to edit and write directly into the content they were viewing, a feature not available on present-day browsers.

Ideals eroded

And early on in the world wide web's development, Nicola Pellow, who worked with Sir Tim at Cern on the www project, developed a simple browser to view content that did not require an expensive powerful computer and so made the technology available to anyone with a simple computer.

According to Mr Noyes, many of the values that went into that original vision have now been eroded. His aim, he says, is to "go back in time and somehow preserve that experience".

"This universal access of information and flexibility of delivery is something that we are struggling to re-create and deal with now.

"Present-day browsers offer gorgeous experiences but when we go back and look at the early browsers I think we have lost some of the features that Tim Berners-Lee had in mind."

Mr Noyes is reaching out to ask those who were involved in the NeXT computers used by Sir Tim for advice on how to restore the original machines.

Awe

The machines were the most advanced of their time. Sir Tim used two of them to construct the web. One of them is on show in an out-of-the-way showcase outside Mr Noyes's office.

I told him that as I approached the sleek black machine I felt drawn towards it and compelled to pause, reflect and admire in awe.

"So just imagine the reaction of passers-by if it was possible to bring the machine back to life," he responded, with a twinkle in his eye.

The initiative coincides with the 20th anniversary of Cern giving the web away to the world free.

Continue reading the main story

?Start Quote

Keeping the web free and freely available is almost a human right?

End Quote Prof Nigel Shadbolt Southampton University

There was a serious discussion by Cern's management in 1993 about whether the organisation should remain the home of the web or whether it should focus on its core mission of basic research in physics.

Sir Tim and his colleagues on the project argued that Cern should not claim ownership of the web.

Great giveaway

Management agreed and signed a legal document that made the web publicly available in such a way that no one could claim ownership of it and that would ensure it was a free and open standard for everyone to use.

Mr Gillies believes that the document is "the single most valuable document in the history of the world wide web".

He says: "Without it you would have had web-like things but they would have belonged to Microsoft or Apple or Vodafone or whoever else. You would not have a single open standard for everyone."

The web has not brought about the degree of social change some had envisaged 20 years ago. Most web sites, including this one, still tend towards one-way communication. The web space is still dominated by a handful of powerful online companies.

But those who study the world wide web, such as Prof Nigel Shadbolt, of Southampton University, believe the principles on which it was built are worth preserving and there is no better monument to them than the first website.

"We have to defend the principle of universality and universal access," he told BBC News.

"That it does not fall into a special set of standards that certain organisations and corporations control. So keeping the web free and freely available is almost a human right".

Follow Pallab Ghosh on Twitter @bbcpallab

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22249490#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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Pathological gambling caused by excessive optimism

Apr. 29, 2013 ? Compulsive gamblers suffer from an optimism bias that modifies their subjective representation of probability and affects their decisions in situations involving high-risk monetary wagers. This is the conclusion drawn by Jean-Claude Dreher's research team at the CNC (Centre de Neurosciences Cognitives, CNRS / Universit? Claude Bernard Lyon 1). These findings, published in the May print edition of Psychological Medicine, could help explain and anticipate certain individuals' vulnerability to gambling, and could lead to new therapeutic approaches.

A growing number of gamblers suffer from pathological gambling, a disease that is usually characterized as either a loss of impulse control or a behavioral addiction. It results in an inability to limit the frequency of gambling and the amount of money wagered. This increasingly common psychiatric disorder creates financial, professional and personal hardships that can have severe consequences for the patients and the people around them. The mechanisms responsible for its emergence and development remain largely unknown, which limits the clinician's ability to proceed with a diagnosis, prognosis or effective treatment for this condition.

In this study, the researchers set out to test and verify the hypothesis that links pathological gambling to an alteration of probabilistic reasoning. The capacity to reason in probabilistic terms appears only at an advanced stage of human intellectual development (in fact, the basic concept of probability is not fully understood until the age of 11 or 12). Pioneering research in the late 1970s had already shed light on the difficulties that people experience in situations involving risk or uncertainty. These difficulties are reflected in the development and perpetuation in adults of cognitive biases1 specific to probabilistic decision-making, one of the most common being probability distortion (2).

The researchers conducted an experiment on compulsive gambling patients using a standard experimental economics task and a mathematical model for measuring both probability distortion and a more general optimism bias in relation to high-risk bets. The primary result obtained confirms the general hypothesis of a distortion, associated with pathological gambling, in the subjective representation of probabilities. The results also show that the compulsion to gamble is not explained by an exaggerated distortion of probability, but rather by an increased optimism bias. In other words, regardless of the objective probability of winning a high-risk bet, gamblers tend to act as though this probability were greater than it actually is. The researchers also observed that in the patient population under study, the intensity of this bias was significantly correlated to the severity of the symptoms.

For clinical psychiatrists, the simplicity of the procedure used to reach this conclusion could offer a rapid and reliable way of measuring the representation of probability, thus allowing them to refine both their diagnoses and therapeutic decisions. This study raises many new questions for researchers in the cognitive neurosciences: how does the brain represent the probability of winning? How do the cerebral structures responsible for this representation interact with the structures involved in the development and perpetuation of an addiction? Is a pathological gambler's particular relationship to probability accompanied by an increased sensitivity to reward and/or insensitivity to monetary loss? These important questions are now being investigated at the CNC.

(1) Internal or external influence causing an alteration of human judgment or perception.

(2) Identified by the Nobel laureates Kahneman and Tversky in 1979, probability distortion is characterized by the overestimation of low probabilities and underestimation of high probabilities.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by CNRS (D?l?gation Paris Michel-Ange).

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


Journal Reference:

  1. R. Ligneul, G. Sescousse, G. Barbalat, P. Domenech, J.-C. Dreher. Shifted risk preferences in pathological gambling. Psychological Medicine, 2012; 43 (05): 1059 DOI: 10.1017/S0033291712001900

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/~3/6ThD_ZBimlQ/130429102400.htm

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Monday, April 29, 2013

Vermont Telephone Company's Gigabit internet service is live, half the price of Google Fiber

http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/28/vermount-telephone-companys-gigabit-internet/

Remember how Google Fiber's recent announcement for planned service in Austin by 2014 spurred immediate competition from AT&T? It's safe to say telcos in other areas have taken note about the Gigabit speeds, not to mention the $70 montly pricing. According to the Wall Street Journal, Vermont Telephone Company is now offering Gigabit-speed service to some of its customers for the crazy-low price of $35 bucks a month. To keep things in perspective, WSJ notes that roughly 600 folks are subscribed (out of VTel's total base of about 17.5K) and that the company is essentially going to be analyzing whether the current pricing will remain for the long-term. With Google Fiber to continuing to expand, it's certainly promising to see how superspeed internet is trickling across the US -- and how easy it's been looking on the wallet.

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Via: The Wall Street Journal Digits

Source: VTel

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/28/vermount-telephone-companys-gigabit-internet/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Sunday, April 28, 2013

NH honors Old Man 10 years after formation's fall

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) ? Edward Geddes already had spent two long days on the mountain when the weather turned. Battered by wind and soaked by rain ? "like shower baths of ice water" ? he clung to a rope and pressed on, even after the rain turned to ice that coated his clothing and left two of his fingers crooked for the rest of his life.

It was 1916, and the crew assigned to help Geddes rescue New Hampshire's Old Man of the Mountain had given up. But Geddes continued the work alone, drilling 11-inch holes into the granite and installing turnbuckles and rods to hold the ledges in place.

"When the men Col. Greenleaf had hired to help me all deserted, I did not intend to be beaten. I leave it to you to judge whether I had time to play or not," he wrote when the work was complete.

Thanks to Geddes' efforts and those of others who followed, the 40-foot-tall natural rock formation that resembled an old man's face remained suspended 1,200 feet above Franconia Notch until May 3, 2003, when it smashed to the ground. Over the years, it became the state's most recognizable symbol ? the Legislature adopted it as the state emblem in 1945, and it still appears on the state quarter, highway signs, license plates and countless souvenirs.

A decade after the Old Man's demise, the famed stone profile is little more than a historical footnote to the state's youngest residents. But it remains a beloved family member to others, including the descendants of Geddes, a granite quarry superintendent from Quincy, Mass., who performed the first repair work on the Old Man nearly a century ago.

Ronald Geddes, 71, was a toddler when the man he knew as Uncle Ed died in 1944. But his father ? Edward Geddes' nephew ? was close to him, and Ronald Geddes grew up hearing about his connection to the Old Man.

"He was very focused, very wiry, and he was fearless," Geddes said of his great-uncle. "He suffered, and he prevailed."

Geddes, who lives in Boston, visited the Old Man many times growing up and as an adult. And while his first thought was always how proud he was that "someone in our family actually did that," he also understood what drew countless others to the site.

"It became a symbol of something. It had a magical, spiritual quality," he said.

Although no one knows how old the Old Man of Mountain was before it fell, several groups of surveyors working in the Franconia Notch area took credit for discovering it in 1805. It quickly became a popular tourist attraction and inspired many works of art and literature. Statesman Daniel Webster compared it to the signs hung outside shops to indicate specific trades: "Shoe makers hang out a gigantic shoe; jewelers a monster watch, and the dentist hangs out a gold tooth; but up in the Mountains of New Hampshire, God Almighty has hung out a sign to show that there he makes men."

Edward Geddes, who returned to the mountain in 1937 amid rumors that the Old Man was about to topple, offered a slight tweak to that quotation after his measurements showed the rocks had not moved even a sixteenth of an inch in 21 years.

"I came to the conclusion that the words of Daniel Webster should be extended to read that once in a while New Hampshire as well as producing men produces a few 'liars,'" he said, according to an article published in the Quincy Patriot Ledger at the time.

Although Geddes was followed by other equally devoted caretakers who protected and patched up the Old Man in later years, Mother Nature had the last word.

Soon after the profile's 2003 tumble, a nonprofit volunteer group began raising money for a $5 million multiphase memorial dedicated to the Old Man, but donations dried up after the first phase was completed in 2011 and no further work will be done, said Dick Hamilton, a board member of the Old man Legacy Fund.

More than 25,000 people visited the memorial site last summer, but it's unclear whether it will continue to attract visitors. Some visitors who left reviews on the travel website tripadvisor.com said they appreciated learning more about the Old Man's history, but others complained that it wasn't worth the trip.

At a Concord playground Thursday, 8-year-old Alexis Tramontozzi of Goffstown paused for a moment when asked if she had ever heard of the Old Man of the Mountain before replying with a definite "no." Her grandmother, Eloise Frank, said her family always stopped to see the Old Man when they took vacations in the White Mountains when she was a child, but she is unlikely to ever visit the memorial site.

But that doesn't mean she wants the state to find a new symbol.

"I think it should stay," she said. "What would you change it into?"

In 1955, President Dwight D. Eisenhower and 5,000 others attended a 150th birthday party for the Old Man at the Cannon Mountain tramway parking area. On Friday, a much smaller ceremony is planned to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Old Man's fall.

Ralph Geddes, another great-nephew of the profile's first repairman, will be driving up from his home in Raynham, Mass., much like he did a decade ago.

"The morning I heard he fell, I went straight there," he said. "I needed to do it. It was in my family."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nh-honors-old-man-10-years-formations-fall-163851178.html

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How does pregnancy reduce breast cancer risk?

How does pregnancy reduce breast cancer risk? [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 28-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Hilary Glover
hilary.glover@biomedcentral.com
44-020-319-22370
BioMed Central

Being pregnant while young is known to protect a women against breast cancer. But why? Research in BioMed Central's open access journal Breast Cancer Research finds that Wnt/Notch signalling ratio is decreased in the breast tissue of mice which have given birth, compared to virgin mice of the same age.

Early pregnancy is protective against breast cancer in humans and in rodents. In humans having a child before the age of 20 decreases risk of breast cancer by half. Using microarray analysis researchers from Basel discovered that genes involved in the immune system and differentiation were up-regulated after pregnancy while the activity of genes coding for growth factors was reduced.

The activity of one particular gene Wnt4 was also down-regulated after pregnancy. The protein from this gene (Wnt4) is a feminising protein - absence of this protein propels a foetus towards developing as a boy. Wnt and Notch are opposing components of a system which controls cellular fate within an organism and when the team looked at Notch they found that genes regulated by notch were up-regulated, Notch-stimulating proteins up-regulated and Notch-inhibiting proteins down-regulated.

Wnt/Notch signalling ratio was permanently altered in the basal stem/progenitor cells of mammary tissue of mice by pregnancy. Mohamed Bentires-Alj from the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, who led this study explained, "The down-regulation of Wnt is the opposite of that seen in many cancers, and this tightened control of Wnt/Notch after pregnancy may be preventing the runaway growth present in cancer."

###

Media Contact

Dr Hilary Glover
Scientific Press Officer, BioMed Central
Tel: +44 (0) 20 3192 2370
Mob: +44 (0) 778 698 1967
Email: hilary.glover@biomedcentral.com

Notes to Editors

1. Parity induces differentiation and reduces Wnt/Notch signaling ratio and proliferation potential of basal stem/progenitor cells isolated from mouse mammary epithelium

Fabienne Meier-Abt, Emanuela Milani, Tim Roloff, Heike Brinkhaus, Stephan Duss, Dominique S Meyer, Ina Klebba, Piotr J Balwierz, Erik van Nimwegen and Mohamed Bentires-Alj

Breast Cancer Research (in press)

Please name the journal in any story you write. If you are writing for the web, please link to the article. All articles are available free of charge, according to BioMed Central's open access policy.

2. Breast Cancer Research is an international, peer-reviewed online journal, publishing original research, reviews, commentaries and reports. Research articles of exceptional interest are published in all areas of biology and medicine relevant to breast cancer, including normal mammary gland biology, with special emphasis on the genetic, biochemical, and cellular basis of breast cancer. In addition, the journal publishes clinical studies with a biological basis, including Phase I and Phase II trials.

3. BioMed Central is an STM (Science, Technology and Medicine) publisher which has pioneered the open access publishing model. All peer-reviewed research articles published by BioMed Central are made immediately and freely accessible online, and are licensed to allow redistribution and reuse. BioMed Central is part of Springer Science+Business Media, a leading global publisher in the STM sector. @BioMedCentral


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share 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.


How does pregnancy reduce breast cancer risk? [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 28-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Hilary Glover
hilary.glover@biomedcentral.com
44-020-319-22370
BioMed Central

Being pregnant while young is known to protect a women against breast cancer. But why? Research in BioMed Central's open access journal Breast Cancer Research finds that Wnt/Notch signalling ratio is decreased in the breast tissue of mice which have given birth, compared to virgin mice of the same age.

Early pregnancy is protective against breast cancer in humans and in rodents. In humans having a child before the age of 20 decreases risk of breast cancer by half. Using microarray analysis researchers from Basel discovered that genes involved in the immune system and differentiation were up-regulated after pregnancy while the activity of genes coding for growth factors was reduced.

The activity of one particular gene Wnt4 was also down-regulated after pregnancy. The protein from this gene (Wnt4) is a feminising protein - absence of this protein propels a foetus towards developing as a boy. Wnt and Notch are opposing components of a system which controls cellular fate within an organism and when the team looked at Notch they found that genes regulated by notch were up-regulated, Notch-stimulating proteins up-regulated and Notch-inhibiting proteins down-regulated.

Wnt/Notch signalling ratio was permanently altered in the basal stem/progenitor cells of mammary tissue of mice by pregnancy. Mohamed Bentires-Alj from the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, who led this study explained, "The down-regulation of Wnt is the opposite of that seen in many cancers, and this tightened control of Wnt/Notch after pregnancy may be preventing the runaway growth present in cancer."

###

Media Contact

Dr Hilary Glover
Scientific Press Officer, BioMed Central
Tel: +44 (0) 20 3192 2370
Mob: +44 (0) 778 698 1967
Email: hilary.glover@biomedcentral.com

Notes to Editors

1. Parity induces differentiation and reduces Wnt/Notch signaling ratio and proliferation potential of basal stem/progenitor cells isolated from mouse mammary epithelium

Fabienne Meier-Abt, Emanuela Milani, Tim Roloff, Heike Brinkhaus, Stephan Duss, Dominique S Meyer, Ina Klebba, Piotr J Balwierz, Erik van Nimwegen and Mohamed Bentires-Alj

Breast Cancer Research (in press)

Please name the journal in any story you write. If you are writing for the web, please link to the article. All articles are available free of charge, according to BioMed Central's open access policy.

2. Breast Cancer Research is an international, peer-reviewed online journal, publishing original research, reviews, commentaries and reports. Research articles of exceptional interest are published in all areas of biology and medicine relevant to breast cancer, including normal mammary gland biology, with special emphasis on the genetic, biochemical, and cellular basis of breast cancer. In addition, the journal publishes clinical studies with a biological basis, including Phase I and Phase II trials.

3. BioMed Central is an STM (Science, Technology and Medicine) publisher which has pioneered the open access publishing model. All peer-reviewed research articles published by BioMed Central are made immediately and freely accessible online, and are licensed to allow redistribution and reuse. BioMed Central is part of Springer Science+Business Media, a leading global publisher in the STM sector. @BioMedCentral


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share 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/2013-04/bc-hd042613.php

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Rambler Takes Home The Disrupt NY 2013 Hackathon Grand Prize, Learn To Drive And Radical Are Runners Up

IMG_7362The past 24 hours have just flown by for the hundreds of hackers here at the Disrupt NY Hackathon, but the sun is finally up and it’s time to pass judgment on their caffeine-fueled projects. As it turns out, there’s a ton of them here — with 164 registered projects this is our biggest Hackathon yet, and each presenter only had 60 seconds to wow our judges (not to mention the rest of the audience). As you might guess there was no shortage of amazing projects that came together in a single day, but our judges could only choose one team to take home our $5,000 grand prize. Anyway, that’s enough out of me — meet our newest Hackathon winner! Winner: Rambler Rambler, created by William Hockey, Zach Perret and Michael Kelly, is a web app that lets users view their credit and debit card transactions on a map. During the dev process, the team tapped the Foursquare API for locations and the Plaid API to access user spending data. Runner-up #1: Learn To Drive Learn To Drive, created by Jared Zoneraich, Jemma Issroff, Kenny Song, and Nicholas Joseph, is an app for the GM vehicle platform that acts as a virtual driving instructor by speaking driving instructions aloud and display driving statistics like miles driven, hours driven, and hours driven at night. Runner-up #2: Radical Radical, created by Sam Saccone, Carl Sednaoui, and Jeff Escalante, allows users to create attractive calendars and embed on webpages with a single line of code. These three teams will also demo their projects on the main Disrupt stage on Wednesday afternoon, but that’s not to say everyone else is going home empty-handed. Hackathon sponsors Appery.io, AT&T, CrunchBase, General Motors, Microsoft Bizspark, Microsoft Skydrive, NewAer, Pearson, Samsung, Twilio, Visa, Wrigley and Yammer have also graciously doled out prizes of their own for the most innovative and interesting uses of their APIs and services. And just who decided the fate of these sleep-deprived hackers? Our panel of judges includes Mahaya CEO Tarikh Korula, Path101 co-founder Charlie O?Donnell, founder/CEO of The Muse Kathryn Minshew, bit.ly chief?scientist?Hilary Mason, FuturePerfect Ventures founding partner Jalak Jobanputra, and TechStars NYC Managing Director David Tisch.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Ugb3ZVF49D4/

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Stocks stall on tepid US economic growth

NEW YORK (AP) ? The stock market stalled Friday after the U.S. economy didn't grow as much as hoped and earnings from a handful of big companies failed to rev up investors.

The economy grew at a 2.5 percent annual rate in the first three months of the year, the government said. That was below the 3.1 percent forecast by economists.

The shortfall reinforced the perception that the economy is grinding, rather than charging, ahead. Investors have also been troubled by reports in the last month of weaker hiring, slower manufacturing and a drop in factory orders. Many economists see growth slowing to an annual rate of around 2 percent a year for the rest of the year.

U.S. government bonds, where investors seek safety, rose after the report.

"There are some concerns as we head into the summer," said JJ Kinahan, chief derivatives strategist for TD Ameritrade. "In the last three weeks, we've seen numbers that weren't exactly what you'd love to see."

Corporate earnings this week have also contained worrisome signs. Many companies missed revenue forecasts from financial analysts, even as they reported higher quarterly profits. For example, Goodyear Tire slipped 3.3 percent to $12.51 Friday after revenue fell short of analysts' estimates, hurt by lower global tire sales.

Of the companies that have reported earnings so far, 70 percent have exceeded Wall Street's expectations, compared with a 10-year average of 62 percent, according to S&P Capital IQ. But 43 percent have missed revenue estimates. Just over half of the companies in the S&P 500 have reported quarterly results.

The S&P 500 index dropped 2.92 points, or 0.2 percent, to close at 1,582.24.

The Dow rose 11.75 points, or 0.1 percent, to 14,712.55. The index got a big lift from Chevron. Profit for the U.S. oil company beat expectations of financial analysts in the first quarter, pushing shares up 1.3 percent to $120.04.

Three stocks fell for every two that rose on the New York Stock Exchange.

Both indexes were up for the week and remain slightly below their all-time highs reached April 11. The Dow index rose 1.1 percent this week while the S&P gained 1.7 percent.

The market has been bolstered by the Federal Reserve's easy money policy. The disappointing growth figure for the economy will ensure that the Fed sticks with its stimulus policy, providing support for stocks, said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital.

"The economic data that we've been getting points to no early exit for the Fed's stimulus," Cardillo said.

The Nasdaq composite fell 10.72 points to 3,279.26, a decline of 0.3 percent. The index is 2.3 percent higher this week.

The tech-heavy index has lagged the Dow and the S&P 500 this year, but it led the way higher this week, boosted by Microsoft. The software giant, which makes up 5.3 percent of the Nasdaq, recorded its biggest weekly gain since January of last year ? up 6.8 percent. It reported earnings April 19 that beat Wall Street expectations. The company also began an aggressive push into the computer tablet market.

Apple, the largest stock in the Nasdaq, also had a good week. The stock rose 6.8 percent to $417.20, its best weekly gain since November, despite posting a decline in quarterly profit Tuesday. Apple accounts for 7.6 percent of the Nasdaq composite.

Among other big names investors focused on:

Amazon.com fell 7 percent to $254.81 after the company warned of a possible loss in the current quarter. The online retailer also reported lower income for the first quarter as it continued to spend heavily on rights to digital content.

Expedia fell 10 percent to $58.56 after the online travel company reported a quarterly loss.

Homebuilder D.R. Horton surged 8.7 percent to $26.66 after its income nearly tripled thanks to a continuing recovery the housing market. The results handily beat the forecasts of financial analysts who follow the company.

J.C. Penney jumped 12 percent to $17 after the billionaire financier George Soros disclosed that he had taken a 7.9 percent stake in the struggling company.

In government bond trading, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note slipped to its lowest rate of the year, 1.67 percent, from 1.71 percent the day before. The yield has fallen from 2.06 percent six weeks ago as traders move money into lower-risk investments.

The dollar weakened against the euro.

The European currency bought $1.3029 at the end of day, compared with $1.3002 the day before. The ISE dollar index, which measures the U.S. currency against a group of other world currencies including the Japanese yen and the euro, dropped 0.3 percent, to 82.48.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stocks-stall-tepid-us-economic-growth-195845422.html

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Saturday, April 27, 2013

Win The Undertaker's custom West Coast Choppers motorcycle

WWE Universe, you can enter to win a special, one-of-a-kind piece of Undertaker memorabilia, and it's for a great cause!

The Undertaker's own custom-made West Coast Chopper, which was created by Jesse James, is being raffled off benefit America's Mighty Warriors & the SPUR Compassion Ministries of Lake Hills Church of Austin, Texas. The raffle runs from Saturday, April 27, at midnight through Friday, June 14, at 11:55 p.m. at spurraffle.com. Tickets cost $10.

Lake Hills Church is sponsoring the SPUR Ride & Rally Raffle for America's Mighty Warriors and SPUR Ministries. For more on Lake Hills Church and SPUR Ministries, visit lhc.org. America's Mighty Warriors is an organization created to honor and remember Marc Alan Lee, the first Navy SEAL killed in Iraq. For more on America's Mighty Warriors, visit americasmightywarriors.org.?

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Source: http://www.wwe.com/inside/overtheropes/win-undertaker-west-coast-choppers-motorcycle

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Harlem Shake Fire Snafu: Yikes!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/harlem-shake-fire-snafu-yikes/

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Friday, April 26, 2013

Syrian troops capture key town near Damascus

BEIRUT (AP) ? After five weeks of battle, Syrian government troops captured a strategic town near Damascus, cutting an arms route for rebels trying to topple President Bashar Assad's regime, state media and activists said Thursday.

By taking the town of Otaybah, east of the capital, the army dealt a major setback to opposition forces that in recent months have made gains near the city they eventually hope to storm.

Also Thursday, the White House and other top Obama administration officials said that U.S. intelligence has concluded with "varying degrees of confidence" that the Syrian government has twice used chemical weapons in the civil war, which has dragged on for two years.

However, officials also said more definitive proof was needed and the U.S. was not ready to escalate its involvement in Syria beyond non-lethal aid despite President Barack Obama's repeated public assertions that Syria's use of chemical weapons, or the transfer of its stockpiles to a terrorist group, would cross a "red line."

Syria's main Western-backed opposition promptly called on the international community to act "urgently and decisively." The opposition's statement said: "Failure to act will be seen by the regime as encouragement to use chemical weapons on a larger scale in the future."

Ahmad Ramadan, a member of the Syrian National Coalition opposition group's executive body, called the U.S. assertion an "important step" that should be followed by actual measures. "The U.S. has a moral duty to act ... we are waiting for the next steps," he told The Associated Press by phone from Istanbul.

The Syrian conflict began with largely peaceful protests against the Assad regime in March 2011, but eventually turned into a full-scale civil war. The fighting has exacted a huge toll on the country, killing an estimated 70,000 people and laying waste to cities, towns and villages.

With fresh supplies of weapons from foreign backers, the rebels have recently seized military bases and towns south of the capital in the strategically important region between Damascus and the border with Jordan, about 160 kilometers (100 miles) away.

The regime has largely kept the rebels at bay in Damascus, although opposition fighters control several suburbs of the capital from which they have threatened the heart of the city, the seat of Assad's power. Last month, government troops launched a campaign to repel the opposition's advances near the capital, deploying elite army units to the rebellious suburbs and pounding rebel positions with airstrikes.

The director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdul-Rahman, said government troops regained control of Otaybah late Wednesday.

State-run SANA news agency said Thursday that the army has "restored complete control" over Otaybah. The official news services also said Assad's troops "discovered a number of tunnels which were used by terrorists to move and transfer weapons and ammunitions."

The regime and state media refer to rebels as terrorists and accuse them of being part of a foreign plot seeking to destroy Syria.

"It's a huge victory for the regime, and a big blow to the opposition that is now in danger of losing other towns and villages around Damascus," Abdul-Rahman said of the army's campaign.

On Thursday, the army was already capitalizing on the territorial gains, pounding southern suburbs of Damascus, including the long-contested Daraya with artillery barrages and airstrikes, according to the Observatory. The group, which relies on a network of activists on the ground, also reported fierce clashes between rebels and army troops to the east of the capital.

The army's offensive to dislodge rebel fighters from neighborhoods ringing Damascus is part of the government's broader campaign to secure central provinces of Hama and Homs, and areas along the Lebanese border. The region is of strategic value to Assad's regime because it links Damascus with the coastal enclave that is the heartland of Syria's Alawites and also home to the country's two main seaports, Latakia and Tartus.

Syria's regime is dominated by the president's minority Alawite sect ? an offshoot of Shiite Islam ? while the rebels are mostly from the country's Sunni majority. Assad's major allies, the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group and Iran, are both Shiite.

Otaybah is located on a road linking Damascus with the eastern suburbs of Damascus known as Eastern Ghouta. Rebels have been using the road to transport weapons and other supplies to the capital. Many of the capital's surrounding towns and neighborhoods have been opposition strongholds during the 2-year-old conflict.

Losing control of the town will make the defense of rebel enclaves in northeastern suburbs such as Douma, Harasta and others more difficult, Abdul-Rahman said.

In Hama, rebels ambushed and destroyed an army vehicle after a six-hour battle with troops. Amateur videos uploaded by activists online showed an army vehicle in flames amid sounds of intense gunbattles.

Another video showed rebels raising black Islamic flags over the Nasseh Alwani school after "liberating it" from troops who had transformed it into a military base, and what appeared to be the bodies of soldiers burning inside.

The videos appeared consistent with AP reporting from the area.

Fighting in Hama is rare because the government keeps it under tight control. The city was the site of a notorious massacre in 1982, when Assad's father and predecessor, Hafez, ordered the military to quell a Sunni rebellion. Amnesty International has estimated that between 10,000 and 25,000 people were killed in the siege, though conflicting figures exist and the Syrian government has never made an official estimate.

The fighting across the country has forced more than 1 million people to flee their homes and seek refuge abroad. Millions have also been displaced inside Syria.

International aid agencies have been pleading for funds to help refugees in neighboring countries such as Jordan and Lebanon. They have also been asking the Syrian government to allow aid convoys into the country and facilitate access to the area inside cities and towns that have been affected by fighting.

Jordan's U.N. Ambassador Prince Zeid al Hussein sent a letter to the U.N. Security Council on Thursday, saying the increasing influx of Syrian refugees had sparked "a grave humanitarian situation" that threatens his country's security and stability. More than 500,000 Syrians have fled to Jordan since the conflict began.

The letter asks members to make a determination that the refugee influx, "if left unchecked and in the absence of the financial assistance required to enable Jordan to cope," constitutes a threat to international peace and security, a statement obtained by AP said. The letter asked the Security Council to invite Jordan to a private meeting on the issue and to visit Jordan as soon as possible.

___

AP journalist Mohammad Hannon reported from Zaatari. AP writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-troops-capture-key-town-near-damascus-064600068.html

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Google policy change requires apps like Facebook to update via the Play Store (updated)

Google policy change stops apps like Facebook from bypassing Play Store updates

Google just released a new Play Store version (4.0.27) that, at first glance, contains only very minor tweaks -- except for one little thing. A new policy change will no longer permit any apps to update without going through the Play Store's internal system. That won't affect most software, but there's a notable exception in Facebook, which recently added auto-downloading to the latest version of its Android app, allowing it to bypass Play. The new policy seems designed to put a stop to that kind of thing, but you never know -- it could be just be a coincidence.

Update: Google has reached out to clarify that it also posted the policy changes to its Developer Console with the following statement:

Google Play Program Policies have been updated. See "Content Policies" section, which clarifies that "An app downloaded from Google Play may not modify, replace or update its own APK binary code using any method other than Google Play's update mechanism." Google Play is a trusted source for Android application downloads, and we are committed to providing a secure and consistent experience. Learn More.

[Thanks, Thomas]

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Source: Google Play

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/cKEkHJUZcWc/

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A Driver's Guide to Mastering Public Transit

If you're used to driving everywhere, taking the subway or the bus might seem overwhelming. Even so, if you live in an urban area where it makes more sense, or you're just tired of car payments, gas prices, and vehicle maintenance, it's a good option. Here's how to learn the ropes of your public transit system quickly and painlessly.

When I moved downtown from the suburbs, there was a lot for me to love. but taking the subway and the bus from place to place instead of just hopping in my car?which I had always done?was a bit of a shift. I was used to being in complete control of when I left somewhere and when I got to my destination.

Still, frustrations like parking, parking tickets, gas prices, and traffic started to mount, so I decided it was time to get better acquainted with my transit options. Here's what I learned, along with some tools and tricks that you can use to become a transit ninja in your town.

Use Mobile Apps and Tools to Navigate the System

Most major cities (at least here in the US) have their own websites with trip planners, schedules, and other useful tools to help you plan your route and find out the best time to leave in order to get where you're going in good time. Here in Washington DC, the local travel authority has a start to finish trip planner that includes subways, buses, and walking routes. Some cities even have apps dedicated to helping commuters and visitors navigate their transit systems. Some of them are official, others are made by travelers for travelers. New York City, for example, has several worth checking out.

Similarly, HopStop uses open data from transit agencies and crowd-sourced travel information to give you incredibly accurate and up-to-date information on your commute or transit times. NextBus is another app that will show you when, as the name implies, the next bus will arrive, in dozens of cities and municipalities in the United States. Keep an eye out for specific apps that are designed to make the commute a little easier in your city.

If your community doesn't have a trip planner (or it's not terribly accurate), you can always turn to Google Maps. Google Maps' transit and walking directions are remarkably accurate and available in major cities and municipalities around the globe. They may not always have the most current data, like subway track closures or incident reports, but depending on where you live, they just might.

Use Street View to Make Sure You're In the Right Place

We've discussed some clever uses for Google Street View before, but it's also a useful tool to help you navigate public transit. If you know you'll be taking a bus to the office, you can use Street View to look around the nearby roadways, zoom in on signage, and see which stop is the one you need to remember, and which buses will pick you up or drop you off at which stops. It's also great for helping you figure out where the closest bus stop to your house, favorite lunch spot, or other destination really is, and how far you'll have to walk to get there (so you'll be ready for a hike if you know the bus will drop you off a mile from the office). Similarly, it's useful to help you figure out where the subway station entrance is exactly if you've never seen it before?instead of trusting a top-down map with an "M" labeled on the corner of an intersection.

Do a Dry Run

If you drive to and from work, you know it can be pretty useful to do a dry run when your commute changes. Whether it's a new office address or a new job, it's worth trying the route you plan to drive so you can get the hang of how long it'll take before you're crunched for time on your first day. The same is true for transit. You don't have to try it during rush hour (although that's the best way to get a real idea of what you're in for), but even an after-hours ride on the subway will help you understand how to navigate subway stations, transfer points, and which exit you should use to leave the station and catch your bus or walk to the office.

If you have a bus trip in store, you may want to do a "pretend commute" one day, get up, and see how difficult it is to get to your new office on a typical morning, buses, transfers, walking, and all. You don't want to plan for a half-hour commute only to find out the buses don't run as often when you need to catch one, or you didn't account for the walk from the bus stop to the office.

Don't Overburden Yourself

One of the things you'll have to get used to when you don't drive is that you don't have a car to go back to or use as supplemental storage. Everything you need during the day you'll have to have in your everyday carry, and if you want to navigate the subway smoothly or slip on and off the bus, you probably don't want a massive backpack loaded down with stuff or a box under both arms. It can tempting to carry everything in your bag, but try to only keep the things you know you'll really need on you, just for comfort (and back health) purposes.

You may really want to take that box of desk toys to work, but think about how much of a pain it'll be to carry on the subway before you head out the door. The same applies for things you want to bring home from the office: if it's heavy, maybe you should bring the car in tomorrow and pick it all up. Also, leave a little room for entertainment: subway trips and bus rides aren't the most interesting things in the world, so while it's great to not have to deal with traffic and annoying drivers, you may want to pack a good book or an ereader, a 3DS, or load up your phone with games, music, and podcasts to keep you occupied. Don't forget to pack a nice pair of headphones. We have some in-ear and over-ear suggestions for you.

Watch, Learn, and Be Courteous

Transit etiquette isn't something taught in school, but it's not hard to pick up when you're actually using the subway or the bus. Some things are pretty common sense: If you're sitting in a crowded subway or a bus, don't spread out?keep your bag or backpack on your lap and leave the seat open. When riding an escalator, stand to the right so faster-moving people can climb the steps on your left. If you need to stop and look at your phone, talk to someone, or check something in your bag, move out of the flow of foot traffic. These things may seem like basic courtesy, but you'd be surprised how often I ride the subway or hop on a bus and see otherwise.

Wear comfy shoes (I know a lot of people who wear sneakers on the subway and change into nicer shoes when they get to the office) and get a reusable fare card (in many places, the same card can be used for trains, buses, and transfers). If you're a tourist, look for day passes?they almost always save you money and give you complete freedom to roam. Beyond that, some cultural nuances are only apparent once you start taking transit in a specific location. Keep your eyes open and be aware of your surroundings?don't get overwhelmed, and if you're a tourist, don't fall into the glassy-eyed-tourist-stare. Watch the people around you and move in time with them: you'll get to your destination faster.

Keep Emergency Cash In Your Wallet and Taxi Numbers On Your Phone, Just In Case

Sometimes you can't help but run a little late. Other times you're on time only to find out that there's a problem on the subway line you ride, or the bus that normally picks you up broke down. For most of us, it's not a big deal if we're late once in a blue moon, but if you're on a timetable or have an important appointment to get to, you need options. For those occasions, keep a $20 stashed in your wallet (preferably not where you keep the rest of the cash, so you won't be tempted to spend it) and a local cab company in your phone's contacts.

This way, the moment you descend into a train station and see the big message board lit up with transit alerts all along your route, you know you can call a cab and arrange a pickup at the last stop before there's trouble. In some places, cabs queue up outside of transit stations waiting for fares, but they usually depart after dark or when rush hour ends, so make sure you have a backup plan. You'll usually pay for the flexibility, but it's important to have a fallback travel option when you're giving up the reins and taking transit.


It all may sound like a hassle, but it's actually really liberating to know your way around the transit system enough that you can get anywhere you need to go quickly?and sometimes in less time than it takes to get to your car and drive to your destination.

With a little attention to the people around you and a little prep, you'll be able to navigate even the most complex transit systems in far-away cities easily. Even if you do prefer to drive, knowing how to decipher a subway map, make a tricky bus transfer, and get where you're going smoothly under any condition is a valuable skill to have.

Photos by Paulo Ordoveza, Raevyns, Raevyns, Alan Wolf, and Marcin Wichary.

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/12BXosJ9Yao/a-drivers-guide-to-mastering-public-transit-480119176

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Israel: OK to check emails of foreigners at border

JERUSALEM (AP) ? Israel's attorney general says security officials may continue the practice of searching emails of some foreigners who want to enter Israel.

Nadim Aboud of the attorney general's office wrote to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel Wednesday, saying officials may ask a person to open an email account for checks if they believe the person is suspect.

Abboud wrote potential entrants may refuse, but that would be a factor in deciding whether a person would be allowed entry.

The ruling follows an uproar last year when some visitors trying to enter Israel were ordered to open their emails after hours of interrogation at Israel's Ben-Gurion airport. Two Palestinian-American women were forbidden from entering after email checks were conducted.

ACRI says the attorney general's letter effectively legalizes the email checks.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/israel-ok-check-emails-foreigners-border-170015531.html

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Thursday, April 25, 2013

'Human computer' who bested the machines dies in India at 83

Vijay Mathur / Reuters file

Math prodigy Shankutala Devi in 2007.

By Haresh Pandya, The New York Times

Shakuntala Devi, an Indian mathematical wizard known as ?the human computer? for her ability to make incredibly swift calculations, died on Sunday in Bangalore, India. She was 83.?

The cause was respiratory and cardiac problems, said D. C. Shivadev, a trustee of the Shakuntala Devi Educational Foundation Public Trust.

Ms. Devi demonstrated her mathematical gifts around the world, at colleges, in theaters and on radio and television. In 1977, at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, she extracted the 23rd root of a 201-digit number in 50 seconds, beating a Univac computer, which took 62 seconds.

In 1980, she correctly multiplied two 13-digit numbers in only 28 seconds at the Imperial College in London. The feat, which earned her a place in the 1982 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records, was even more remarkable because it included the time to recite the 26-digit solution.

The New York Times

Problems solved by Ms. Devi during a demonstration in 1976, as they appeared in The New York Times.

(The numbers, selected at random by a computer, were 7,686,369,774,870 and 2,465,099,745,779. The answer was 18,947,668,177,995,426,462,773,730.)

Shakuntala Devi was born in Bangalore on Nov. 4, 1929. Her father was a trapeze artist and lion tamer in a circus. Survivors include a daughter and two grandchildren.

She was about 3 and playing cards with her father when he discovered that she was a mathematical prodigy with an uncanny ability to memorize numbers. By the time she was 5, she had become an expert at solving math problems.

Ms. Devi won fame demonstrating her math skills at the circus, and later in road shows arranged by her father.

?I had become the sole breadwinner of my family, and the responsibility was a huge one for a young child,? she once said. ?At the age of 6, I gave my first major show at the University of Mysore, and this was the beginning of my marathon of public performances.?

She toured Europe in 1950. When she appeared on the BBC, her answer to a difficult calculation was different from the interviewer?s. It turned out that she was right. Similarly, at the University of Rome, one of her answers to a problem was found to be wrong, until the experts re-examined their own calculations.

When Ms. Devi performed in New York in 1976, an article in The New York Times marveled at her abilities: ?She could give you the cube root of 188,132,517 ? or almost any other number ? in the time it took to ask the question. If you gave her any date in the last century, she would tell you what day of the week it fell on.?

In a 1990 journal article about Ms. Devi, Arthur R. Jensen, a researcher on human intelligence at the University of California, Berkeley, noted that unlike the Dustin Hoffman character in the movie ?Rain Man,? an autistic savant who was also a mathematical prodigy, ?Devi comes across as alert, extroverted, affable and articulate.?

He posited that for Ms. Devi, ?the manipulation of numbers is apparently like a native language, whereas for most of us arithmetic calculation is at best like the foreign language we learned in school.? But he added that she built on her inherent skills through intense practice as a child.

Ms. Devi was also a successful astrologer, cookbook author and novelist.

More tech and science from NYTimes.com:

This story, "Shakuntala Devi, 'Human Computer,' Dies in India at 83," first appeared in The New York Times. Copyright 2013 The New York Times Company.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653377/s/2b20e35b/l/0Lscience0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A40C240C17899150A0Ehuman0Ecomputer0Ewho0Ebested0Ethe0Emachines0Edies0Ein0Eindia0Eat0E830Dlite/story01.htm

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How to Take Advantage of Article Directories for Internet Marketing ...

Businesses have been taking advantage of online directories as marketing platforms for some time now, but a new development in this field has expanded the potential of directory submission. Article directories are a newer development in the blogging world, and they offer both businesses and individuals a great opportunity for internet advertising. However, many webmasters don?t know how to take advantage of this new opportunity.

Blogging is one of the best ways to help build traffic and generate exposure for your website. Whether it?s business or personal, a blog is a great promotional platform. Search engine indexing is strengthened by regular updates full of relevant content, making blog articles some of the best available tools for improving search engine optimization. Article directories combine the SEO benefits of blogging with the increased exposure that comes from directory submission to give you a whole new internet marketing platform for their websites.

Article directories are websites that accept article submissions from writers all over the web for publication on their pages. The writers are not paid by the directory, and there is typically no charge for uploading articles to the directory. Both you and the directories reap their benefits from secondary sources; the directory gets to increase traffic by keeping its pages stocked with relevant and highly searched content. As the writer, on the other hand, you get a free place to publish articles. The potential for writers to use this as a marketing platform makes it a kind of symbiotic relationship.

For example, any business owner could write and publish an article about their own business, generating tons of exposure through the article directory?s traffic. Whatever industry you call home has tons of potential for article writing. If you?re operating a web design service, for example, you could write an interesting article about recent trends in web design and the importance of professional design for businesses. You could include links to your own website and drop the name of your business to increase exposure and lead new traffic to your own pages. The potential for marketing on a platform like this is huge, almost too great to resist.

If you already run a blog for your website, then you already know the importance and benefits of generating fresh content. New and interesting articles keeps your audience engaged and captivated, turning casual viewers into loyal readers. Every mention of your business or website on an article directory is a new opportunity for bringing in readers. If your website is too young to get the exposure it needs, article directories can be a great help in growing your traffic and readership. Always remember to stay relevant and engaging, and your articles will bring new readers in droves.

When you get right down to it, article directories are free advertising. When you can fill some of your marketing needs for free, you can allocate your funds to other pursuits, like securing ad space or listing with a paid?property directory. Enjoy huge potential benefits from this new development in online directories, and put your website on top.

Related posts:

  1. 5 Internet Marketing Tactics for Real Estate Professionals
  2. Top 5 Internet Marketing Tips for Car Dearlerships
  3. Top 5 Internet Marketing Tips for Healthcare Professionals
  4. 5 Internet Marketing Techniques to Promote and Sell Music Online
  5. The Best Internet Marketing Techniques for the Auto Industry

from your own site.

Source: http://www.toddwestmedia.com/477/how-to-take-advantage-of-article-directories-for-internet-marketing-purposes.html

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Police ID suspect in Illinois shootout

MANCHESTER, Ill. (AP) ? The nephew of a small-town Illinois mayor shot and killed five people, including two boys, before leading police on a chase that ended in an exchange of gunfire that left him dead, authorities said Wednesday.

Illinois State Police said they believe Rick O. Smith, 43, entered a Manchester home through the back door and shot the victims at close range with a shotgun, leaving two women, one man and the boys dead. Two people were found in a bedroom, two in a second bedroom and the man in the hallway. A sixth victim, a 6-year-old girl, was injured and taken to a Springfield hospital.

"The offender took the 6-year-old out of the residence and put her in the hands of a neighbor," State Police Lt. Col. Todd Kilby said.

Officials have not revealed a motive for the killings. Police said the victims are related. Authorities believe Smith and the victims were acquainted, but they didn't provide details of the relationships.

A bystander called police and told them that Smith fled the home in a white sedan. A car chase ensued, leading authorities to the nearby town of Winchester, where Smith and officers exchanged gunfire. Officers shot Smith, and he later died at a hospital.

Police said they found a rifle, shotgun and large hunting knife in Smith's car.

Coroner officials said they plan autopsies on the victims Thursday morning in Bloomington and identities would be released at that time.

Scott County State's Attorney Michael Hill said Smith, of rural Morgan County, had previous convictions for reckless homicide, drugs and bad checks.

Manchester Mayor Ronald Drake confirmed that Smith was his nephew, saying he hadn't spoken to Smith in two years, but he believed his nephew was unemployed. Drake said the last time Smith contacted him was to borrow tools.

In Manchester, yellow police tape surrounded the small one-story brick home where the victims were found. Manchester is a village of about 300 residents located about 50 miles west of Springfield.

"It's a close-knit community," Drake said. "Everybody talks to everybody. ... We enjoy that goes on (in) town. This is just a tragedy for (the) whole town."

The last homicide in Scott County was 20 years ago, in 1993.

Manchester resident Julie Hardwick, 48, said she lives in the same county housing authority complex as the victims. Authorities told her she couldn't return to her home yet because of the investigation, she said.

"The kids were really nice," Hardwick said of the family. "You couldn't ask for better kids."

The Rev. Robin Lyons of Manchester United Methodist Church, one of two churches in the community said, "this shows tragedy can happen anywhere."

Two area school superintendents said they received calls from county sheriffs before 6 a.m. informing them that five people had been shot to death at a house in Manchester and that a suspect was at large.

Superintendent David Roberts of the Winchester School District and Les Stevens of the North Greene Unit District No. 3 both said they immediately canceled classes when they were told of the shootings and that other school districts did the same.

Roberts said the wounded girl is a student at Winchester Grade School and her teacher was with her at the Springfield hospital.

The school will use its own counselor, nurse and other staff members to help students who need to talk, Roberts said. Other area districts have offered to help too.

Roberts said he also will call on area ministers to be available on campus. "I've found that to be helpful in the past," he said.

___

Associated Press writers Don Babwin and Jason Keyser in Chicago and David Mercer in Champaign, Ill., contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/2-boys-3-adults-shot-death-illinois-town-210821243.html

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Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Afghanistan quake kills at least four, wounds 69

JALALABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) - An earthquake centered in Afghanistan's east killed at least four people and injured almost 70, after wet weather weakened the country's traditional mud-brick homes, officials said on Wednesday.

The 5.7 magnitude quake was felt as far away as the Indian capital of New Delhi, the latest in a string of tremors to shake Asia this month.

The quake was 40 miles deep with an epicenter 11 km (seven miles) from Mehtar Lam, the capital of Afghanistan's eastern province of Laghman, according to the U.S. Geological Survey's website.

Initial reports from officials in neighboring Nangarhar and Kunar provinces said four people had been killed, with the death toll expected to rise. Sixty-nine people were injured.

Hundreds of homes collapsed across Kunar, the provincial governor's spokesman, Wasifullah Wasifi, said.

Wednesday saw steady rain across most of Afghanistan, which would have weakened the traditional mud-brick homes many Afghans live in, said the deputy chief of Afghanistan's National Disaster Management Authority.

The agency did not yet have casualty figures, he said.

Buildings swayed in New Delhi and people ran into the street in the disputed northern region of Kashmir, where an earthquake killed about 75,000 people in 2005, most on the Pakistan side. The quake was also felt in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad.

Last week, a 6.6 magnitude earthquake killed nearly 200 people in southwest China, a few days after another powerful tremor killed 35 people in Pakistan near the border with Iran.

(Reporting by in Rafiq Sherad in JALALABAD, Mohammad Anwar in ASADABAD, Satarupa Bhattacharjya in NEW DELHI, Fayaz Bukhari in SRINAGAR and Kathryn Houreld in ISLAMABAD; Writing by Frank Jack Daniel and Dylan Welch; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/earthquake-felt-indias-delhi-kashmir-witnesses-094113969.html

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Lawmakers ask if intel blocked before Boston bombs

(AP) ? Lawmakers say U.S. law enforcement and other agencies may not have shared enough intelligence about the Boston Marathon bombing suspects in the months before the deadly bombings.

But none of the lawmakers are saying ? yet? that better sharing could have stopped the attacks, after FBI officials briefed them on the investigation Tuesday.

The chairwoman and top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee ? Dianne Feinstein and Saxby Chambliss ? say the incident showed there was a lack of sharing of some information, despite intelligence-sharing reforms implemented after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Officials say Homeland Security officials were tracking now-deceased suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev's (tsahr-NEYE'-ehv) trip to Russia last year, for instance, but were not coordinating their suspicions with the FBI.

Investigators suspect he may have become radicalized during that journey.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-04-23-US-Boston-Marathon-Congress/id-bb4cf2a4763044fbae86488dd38d2569

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