রবিবার, ৪ আগস্ট, ২০১৩

Possible Tornado Causes Damage in Montana

Strong thunderstorms that moved across Montana left a trail of damage to crops and buildings along with downed trees and power outages.

The worst damage from Thursday's storm may have occurred in Gallatin County, where winds gusting up to 89 mph devastated wheat and barley crops that likely would have been harvested next week, Montana Grain Growers Vice President Matt Flikkema said.

"I've never seen crop damage to the extent we have here in the valley," Flikkema said Friday. "There are very little crops that will be harvested out of the area."

Flikkema said the damage could approach $50 million, even without taking into consideration what happened to 5,000 acres of potatoes.

Most of the crops are seed crops, meaning there could be a shortage of seed to plant next year, he said.

The storm started in southwestern Montana, where wind gusts up to 104 mph were recorded in Polaris, northwest of Dillon, causing major damage to homes and some trees, the National Weather Service reported.

Strong winds and possibly a tornado caused severe damage in Twin Bridges, uprooting trees and blowing the roof off at least one building.

A weather service representative was expected to visit Twin Bridges on Friday to determine if a tornado had touched down, said Steve DiGiovanna of Madison County Disaster and Emergency Services. DiGiovanna said he thought he saw a funnel cloud touch down.

Some falling trees damaged historic buildings, including the museum, and the roof was ripped off a veterinary clinic outside of Twin Bridges. An airport hangar was destroyed, a trailer was crushed by falling trees, and a grandstand at the Madison County Fairgrounds was flipped over and destroyed, he said.

Twin Bridges Mayor Tom Hyndman said the wind also uprooted a large spruce tree that is decorated every year for the town's Christmas Stroll.

Golf-ball sized hail fell across much of Belgrade and the northern part of Bozeman, the weather service reported.

NWS meteorologist Todd Chambers of Billings said the storm began in the southwestern part of the state Thursday afternoon and moved east, causing damage as far away as Billings.

The "long-lived, long-path" storm was unusual for this time of year, he said.

In eastern Montana, a funnel cloud was reported near Acton, north of Billings, and there was another unconfirmed report of a tornado in Broadview, Chambers said.

Golf-ball-sized hail was reported in parts of Billings, as well. A tree on the West End caught fire after being struck by lightning.

The storm knocked out power along its path and crews were still working Friday morning to restore service.

A second set of storms moved through the Helena. Over an inch of rain fell in a swath, moving northeast from an area near the city through eastern Chouteau County, the weather service said.

Source: http://feeds.abcnews.com/c/35229/f/654824/s/2f7af8ba/sc/32/l/0Labcnews0Bgo0N0CUS0CwireStory0Ctornado0Edamage0Emontana0Etown0E19850A136/story01.htm

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Deal of the Day: United Community Credit Union Auto Loan at 1.99% APR

United Community Credit Union

Looking for an affordable auto loan can be difficult when there are high interest rates involved at every turn. So many customers turn to credit unions for this very reason; these financial nonprofits make their members a No. 1 priority and show it through low interest rates and fair lending practices. In Houston, this takes the form of a United Community Credit Union auto loan as low as 1.99% APR.

United Community Credit Union Auto Loan: Terms and Conditions

United Community Credit Union?s auto loan is special because the 1.99% interest rate applies for all loans, from 48 to 84 months, on all new or used cars financed through the credit union. A 0.80% discount is available for members who sign up for direct payment, with a 20 percent down payment and credit union buyer program.

About United Community Credit Union

Committed to providing the highest level banking products today,?United Community Credit Union was established in 1950 to serve the financial needs of the employees of the Galena Park Independent School District. Now in its seventh decade, the credit union proudly serves anyone who lives, works or attends school in the North Channel Area of Houston, including Galena Park, Crosby, Channelview, Jacinto City, North Shore, Sheldon, Huffman and the Highlands.

Drive off with a United Community Credit Union auto loan.

Other Terms and Conditions may apply. Additionally, interest rates are based on the institution?s online published rates and may have changed since this offer was posted. Please contact the financial institution for the most recent rate updates and to review the terms of the offer.

Source: http://www.gobankingrates.com/auto-loans/united-community-credit-union-199-apr/

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বুধবার, ৩১ জুলাই, ২০১৩

US Mortgage Technology Giant LPS Opens Facility in India


Lender Processing Services, Inc. (NYSE: LPS), a leading provider of innovative technology, services, data and analytics to the mortgage and real estate industries today announced the opening of its mortgage technology services facility in India. The company handles about 50 percent of all U.S. mortgages by dollar value.

LPS acquired an office in Hyderabad as part of its acquisition of LendingSpace in 2012. LendingSpace provides residential mortgage origination technology, including a unique correspondent lending platform that enhances collaboration between retail originators and their correspondent lending partners in the United States. This new, larger Hyderabad location, which boasts 40,000 square feet, with space for further growth, has an advanced technological infrastructure that will accommodate increases in the number of employees and strengthens LPS delivery of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions.??

In addition to supporting the LendingSpace platform, employees in LPS India will also provide development quality assurance for the company?s mortgage servicing solutions. This work will allow LPS to improve its development cycles, which will benefit LPS? clients by allowing LPS to deliver products to its clients more quickly.?

?LPS, as a market leader in mortgage technology in the United States, has a unique edge that translates to numerous opportunities for employees in India,? said Casey Williams, senior vice president of LPS? Global Delivery Services. ?We anticipate tremendous growth in the next 3-5 years, as well as the chance to work on emerging technologies that will leverage the talented professionals and infrastructure in India.?

LPS, which is now operational in this new facility in India, plans to add development and testing professionals across entire development life-cycle during the next three to five years. A Fortune 1000 company with a revenue base of USD 1.8 billion, LPS currently has more than 7,000 employees

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/recentlyposted/~3/6AqUJMw-MbM/US-Mortgage-Technology-Giant-LPS-Opens-Facility-in-India-bid-y9KNhfi58941173.html

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মঙ্গলবার, ৩০ জুলাই, ২০১৩

Israel-Palestine Peace Talks To Start Monday Following Months Of John Kerry Diplomacy

WASHINGTON ? Israeli and Palestinian negotiators will resume long-stalled direct peace talks on Monday following six months of frenetic shuttle diplomacy by Secretary of State John Kerry.

The State Department announced Sunday that the two sides had accepted invitations from Kerry to come to Washington "to formally resume direct final status negotiations." In a statement, department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the initial meetings would begin Monday evening and continue Tuesday.

She said Kerry had called both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday and said they agreed that the talks would "serve as an opportunity to develop a procedural work plan for how the parties can proceed with the negotiations in the coming months."

"Both leaders have demonstrated a willingness to make difficult decisions that have been instrumental in getting to this point," Kerry said in the statement. "We are grateful for their leadership."

Kerry had announced on July 19 in Amman, Jordan, that negotiators from the two sides would be coming to Washington in a "week or so" after having agreed on a basis for resuming negotiations after a five-year break. However, he warned that the agreement was still being formalized.

Sunday's carefully worded statement offered no details of the framework for the resumption of the talks that broke down five years ago, although both sides' positions are well known.

The statement was released shortly after the Israeli Cabinet agreed to release 104 long-term Palestinian prisoners convicted of deadly attacks, meeting a longstanding Palestinian demand.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/28/israel-palestine-peace-talks-kerry_n_3667962.html

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সোমবার, ২৯ জুলাই, ২০১৩

Track My Mileage for Windows 8 1.4.0.0 (Ad-supported)

Track My Mileage for Windows 8 is a useful tool for the users or business managers who need to keep track of the mileage information for multiple vehicles. The program allows you to create a local database with the information about the drivers, cars and trips.

You can use the program to record every trip, sort the data and export the information as CSV files in order to use it in other programs.

Note: You can purchase the application by using the Mileage Types features and adding a new type.

Limitations:

? The Mileage Types feature is not available

What's New in This Release: [ read full changelog ]

? Added the Expenses fields bundle to the TMM Store. The bundle packages the purchasing of the Business Center, Conference, General, Incidental, Lodging, Meal, Per Diem, Expense Notes, Other Expense, Parking, Telephone and Tolls expense fields at a discounted price. As an added bonus, the advertisement banner will be removed also.

Users are advised to pay attention while installing this ad-supported application:

? Displays ad banners or other types of advertising material during its runtime

Source: http://www.softpedia.com/get/Others/Finances-Business/Track-My-Mileage.shtml

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রবিবার, ২৮ জুলাই, ২০১৩

South China 0-6 Tottenham: Defoe hat-trick seals third place for Spurs

Tottenham?registered the first win of their pre-season campaign as a Jermain Defoe hat-trick comfortably sealed third place in the Asia Trophy against South China.

A 12th-minute own goal from Tse Sean Ka Keung sent Spurs on their way before Clint Dempsey and Jermain Defoe extended their lead.

Tottenham continued in the same vein after the break, with Defoe grabbing two more and Andros Townsend completing the rout.

Andre Villas-Boas welcomed Defoe back into the starting line-up after Spurs? semi-final defeat to Sunderland but there was no place for injured duo Gareth Bale and Jan Vertonghen.

Despite the absence of their star man, chants of ?glory glory Tottenham Hotspur? greeted the visiting side as Spurs walked out to a terrific travelling support.

What did not work in anyone?s favour, however, was a terrible pitch ? already lambasted by Villas-Boas after Wednesday?s Sunderland clash.

The sandy surface visibly impeded the action from the off but Villas Boas? side did what they could and were rewarded early on after Tse deflected Danny Rose?s cross into his own net.

Mousa Dembele and Dempsey had combined to play Rose in, with the 23-year-old then driving a superb low cross into the area. The rest, as Tse will testify, was history.

More goals then looked a certainty but absent-minded finishing from Defoe and an unsuccessful penalty appeal after Kyle Walker went down in the box was as close as Spurs would get for a while.

Just short of the half-hour mark, though, Spurs thought they had a second, but Defoe?s short-range header ricocheted off the post.

The veteran striker would make amends minutes later, however, as he beat his man inside the area and squared to Dempsey, who made no mistake from close range.

And Defoe would finally find the net himself on the stroke of half-time, after Walker?s ambitious long-range free-kick deflected into the 30-year-old?s path to slot into the bottom corner.

All the while, South China offered little resistance, with their semi-final exerts against Manchester City clearly taking their toll on the Hong-Kong First Division side.

Boss Cheung Po Chun consequently made several half-time changes, while Tom Carroll and Kyle Naughton replaced Walker and Dempsey for Spurs.

It was more of the same after the break, though, with Defoe quickly adding his second and Tottenham?s third. South China goalkeeper Chun Hui Zhang had comically cleared Rose?s through ball straight into the forward?s path and, with an empty net gaping, the 30-year-old was never going to miss.

As per pre-season tradition, Tottenham?s next step was to ring the changes. Tom Huddlestone, Jake Livermore and Townsend came on, while Aaron Lennon, Scott Parker and Dembele made way.

With 20 minutes left, the question on everybody?s lips was whether Defoe could complete his hat-trick.

And on the eighty-minute mark, that question was resoundingly answered as the clinical finisher snuck into the penalty area and put the ball past Zhang at the near post.

Townsend then struck with a late free-kick and a good day at the office for Tottenham was complete.

Source: http://www.goal.com/en/news/5400/pre-season/2013/07/27/4146590/south-china-0-6-tottenham-defoe-hat-trick-seals-third-place

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শুক্রবার, ২৬ জুলাই, ২০১৩

Step up solutions for Syrian war's symptoms: refugees

Americans and their allies are reluctant to directly confront the root cause of Syria?s civil war ? the ruthless regime of Bashar al-Assad. But they can do more for the symptoms spilling across the Syrian border.

More than a third of the country?s 22.5 million people have now fled their homes since the conflict began in 2011. A comparable crisis in the United States would see 100 million people uprooted, many heading into Canada and Mexico.

As the number of people killed in Syria has topped 100,000 and the fighting has intensified, the exodus of people has only quickened ? 7,000 new departures every day ? reaching a global rate only last seen during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

RELATED: 5 guidelines for US role in Syria

The most heartbreaking figure is that half of the nearly 2 million refugees now living in Turkey, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon are children. Such numbers have led the United Nations to launch its largest appeal ever for humanitarian aid ? $5 billion.

The US has already provided nearly $1 billion in assistance, and Congress seems supportive of more. But Secretary of State John Kerry admitted to UN aid agencies this week that the US is having problems: ?We are having a very difficult time being able to access people, move people correctly, and protect people.?

Without an end to the war soon, the demographic map of the Middle East could permanently change.

In tiny Lebanon, 1 in 6 people is a Syrian refugee. In Jordan, about a tenth of the population is now Syrian, and one refugee camp is so big (160,000 people) that it could be the country?s fourth largest city. Ten years ago, Syria was home to 100,000 refugees from the Iraq war. Now Iraq has more than 100,000 refugees from Syria.

And looking ahead, the UN expects the number of those displaced within Syria or forced to flee to double by the end of this year.

The humanitarian crisis alone is stunning, especially when so many children have been traumatized by violence and could miss out on vital schooling. Donor nations can?t keep up with the necessary funding (only a third of requests have been filled). And a large portion of the refugees are not in camps run by international aid groups.

Yet equally worthy of global concern is the potential for trouble within refugee camps or with local populations. Syrian forces might also strike at refugee camps supplying fighters.

RELATED: Guarantee security of Syria's minorities

With Syria?s war in a long-term stalemate as both sides gain new weapons, the world must do more to alleviate the suffering of refugees, especially the children.

The UN hopes Western countries will take a high portion of the Syrian refugees. Europe has already taken about 40,000 so far, mainly in Germany and Sweden, while the flow to the US is much less.

So far, Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon have been mostly generous in how they treat the refugees. That generosity needs to spread as more countries find ways to help.

The crisis has cut across at least one hard line: A coalition of 14 Jewish organizations, mainly from the US, plans to provide aid for the refugees in Jordan. If that sectarian divide can be bridged, then perhaps dealing with the war?s symptoms might lead to solving its root cause.

Related stories

Read this story at csmonitor.com

Become a part of the Monitor community

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/step-solutions-syrian-wars-symptoms-refugees-201355245.html

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বৃহস্পতিবার, ২৫ জুলাই, ২০১৩

Cadence Health counters hospital trend by buying real estate ...

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Source: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20130723/NEWS03/130729954/as-some-hospitals-sell-real-estate-cadence-buys

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Can anyone please just walk me thru getting flash player to work with windows eight, please???

Windows 8 comes with Flash Player for IE. Running Windows Update should update it. "Should"... doesn't mean "will" though.

Download the Adobe Flash Player installer directly by clicking the following link.

Flash Player for ActiveX (Internet Explorer)

?

Save it... don't run it.

?

Perform a "clean install" following the instructions at the following link:

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/928315

Source: http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1262047

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বুধবার, ২৪ জুলাই, ২০১৩

LG Q2 2013 earnings: 12.1 million smartphones shipped, mobile revenue of $2.78 billion

LG

Mobile revenues up 34.5-percent year-over-year, still the smallest division in terms of operating income

LG has announced its Q2 2013 financial results, showing strong growth in all of its divisions including its mobile business. For that mobile business, LG posted revenues of $2.78 billion for the quarter, an increase of 34.5-percent year-over-year. Record sales of 12.1 million smart phones in the quarter led to an operating profit of $54.37 million, which is up year-over-year but down quarter-over-quarter due to lower average sales prices of phones.

As we all know, LG makes far more than just phones and posted solid profits in its Home Entertainment, Home Appliance and Air Conditioning and Energy Solutions divisions. LG as a whole posted $13.58 billion in revenue and 426.92 million in operating profit for the quarter.

In many previous quarters these stronger divisions were there to prop up its wavering mobile division, but it's nice to see LG doing well in mobile as a stand-alone business. With strong growth across a wide range of devices -- and more on the way -- we may be looking at the resurgence of LG.

Source: LG

    


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/YyUGA9E8DzQ/story01.htm

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সোমবার, ২২ জুলাই, ২০১৩

'R.I.P.D' gets buried at the box office

Movies

14 hours ago

Marking another blow for Hollywood's tentpole strategy, New Line's $20 million horror pic "The Conjuring" raced to a $41.5 million North American debut, while "R.I.P.D." limped to a seventh-place finish despite costing at least $130 million to produce.

"The Conjuring," directed by horror maestro James Wan, did far better than expected and is a major win for New Line and Warner Bros. The R-rated movie, earning an A- CinemaScore, stars Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson as paranormal investigators who help a family terrorized by a dark force. Ron Livingston and Lili Taylor also star.

More from THR: Hollywood's homegrown summer movie crisis

"R.I.P.D.," from Universal, opened to a dismal $12.8 million domestically. Robert Schwentke's action-comedy is the summer's latest big-budget bomb, and stars Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges as deceased police officers who must protect the living from evil spirits who refuse to move on. The pic, drawing comparisons to "Men in Black," earned a C+ CinemaScore.

Universal can certainly withstand a financial hit, considering the profits it will earn from "Fast & Furious 6" and "Despicable Me 2." And once the studio saw that "R.I.P.D." was in trouble, it scaled back its marketing spend.

"R.I.P.D." wasn't the weekend's only disappointment as both "Turbo" and "Red 2" underperformed in their domestic openings.

"Turbo," facing an unprecedented glut of animated product, grossed $21.5 million for the weekend to come in No. 3 and $31.2 million for the five-day stretch (it opened on Wednesday). From DreamWorks Animation and 20th Century Fox, "Turbo" marks one of the lowest domestic openings for a DWA title and lost the weekend itself to megahit "Despicable 2."

It is, however, off to a strong start overseas, grossing $22.6 million from 28 international territories representing 25 percent of the marketplace.

"Despicable 2" came in No. 2 in its third weekend, grossing a sensational $25.1 million for a domestic total of $276.1 million.

"Turbo" opens only two weeks after "Despicable Me 2" and four weeks after "Monsters University." Fox is counting on "Turbo" to have strong legs, noting that it received a glowing A CinemaScore and an A+ from moviegoers under age 18.

The film, directed by David Soren and costing $135 million to produce, is about an ordinary garden snail whose dream of racing in the Indianapolis 500 comes true. Reynolds voices the title role; Paul Giamatti, Snoop Dogg, Michael Pena, Maya Rudolph, Michelle Rodriguez and Samuel L. Jackson also lend their voices. DWA is playing up the fact that "Turbo" is an original story.

Photos from THR: 'Pacific Rim' premiere: Big robots bring out big stars

"Red 2" opened to $18.4 million to come in No. 5, not enough to match the $21.7 million opening of "Red" in 2010. Summit made a major gamble in moving the sequel to the summer; "Red" launched in October. The follow-up cost $84 million to produce.

"Red 2's" impressive cast includes Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, John Malkovich, Anthony Hopkins and Catherine Zeta-Jones. The movie earned a B+ CinemaScore.

Schwentke directed 2010's "Red," which grossed nearly $200 million worldwide; Dean Parisot is in the director's chair this time.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/entertainment/ryan-reynolds-r-i-p-d-gets-buried-box-office-6C10699396

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রবিবার, ২১ জুলাই, ২০১৩

Israel's deepest well targets 1.5B barrels of crude

(Bloomberg Businessweek) The deepest oil well drilled in Israel?s 65-year history may be the most important.

Houston?s Noble Energy Inc. (NBL:US) will probe 6,500 meters (4 miles) below the Mediterranean seabed later this year, targeting as much as 1.5 billion barrels of crude, equal to about 15 years of Israeli demand.

While explorers have found enough natural gas in the past five years to turn Israel into an exporter, a major oil discovery would break new ground. The Middle East?s third-largest economy spends about $10 billion a year importing 98 percent of the oil it uses. Domestic production would increase tax revenue, boost the country?s balance of payments and reduce vulnerability to supply disruptions.

Source: http://www.wnd.com/2013/07/israels-deepest-well-targets-1-5b-barrels-of-crude/

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শনিবার, ২০ জুলাই, ২০১৩

Tragedy at sea puts Australia's refugee policies to the test

More than 800 people seeking asylum from places like Afghanistan and Sri Lanka have died on the trip to Australia since 2009, including the recent drowning of a 1-year-old.

By John Zubrzycki,?Contributor / July 18, 2013

In this photo taken on April 14, 2013, Australian Customs officials search Vietnamese asylum seekers and their belongings soon after their arrival on Christmas Island, Australia.

AP

Enlarge

An unnamed 1-year-old baby boy lying in a morgue on an island off the northwestern coast of Australia could be the catalyst for the most far-reaching overhaul of Australia?s asylum-seeker policy since the country signed the United Nations Refugee Convention in 1951.

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The 1-year-old?s body was recovered from the sea late last week after an overcrowded fishing boat carrying nearly 100 asylum seekers from Iran, Afghanistan, and Sri Lanka sank in the waters off Christmas Island. Eight people still missing from the boat are presumed dead.

Since 2009, more than 800 people have drowned trying to make it to Australia, according to figures from the Department of Immigration. Refugee advocates claim the number is much higher because it doesn?t take into account boats that have disappeared without a trace after setting out from the Indonesian island of Java.

The child?s death has come to symbolize what critics say is the government?s cruel and inhumane approach to boat arrivals. The opposition has used the death to reinforce its argument that the government?s border protection policy has been a failure and is giving smugglers an incentive to cram hundreds of desperate people on barely seaworthy craft for the dangerous crossing to Christmas Island, the closest Australian territory to Indonesia.

Australia has a long history of accepting refugees and has largely avoided the racially fueled tensions that have plagued countries like France. But frustration with the government's failure to stem the tide of boat people, many of whom come from Muslim countries, and fears that Australia's very sovereignty is being threatened have polarized the electorate.?

This week, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd promised to make it harder for asylum seekers to be granted refugee status. He also hinted that Australia might review its obligations under the UN refugee convention. Prime Minister Rudd is tipped to unveil the new policy in the coming days and capitalize on the announcement to set a date for the next election, which must be held before the end of November. The asylum seeker issue is expected to dominate the election campaign, with pollsters predicting a close race.?

Meanwhile, those on the frontline are at a breaking point. Asylum seekers now outnumber locals by 2 to 1 on tiny Christmas Island, which is located just 220 miles south of Indonesia.

Nearly 4,000 boat arrivals are crammed into the island?s detention centers, which have a contingency capacity for only 2,724. The Australian patrol boat HMAS Bathurst has rescued six boats in the past 11 days carrying a total of 699 people, putting an immense physical and emotional strain on naval personnel.

The death of the child, believed to be from Sri Lanka, prompted the administrator of Christmas Island, John Stanhope, to decry what he said was the dehumanization of the refugee crisis.? ''We have a 1-year-old baby in our mortuary, the child of an asylum seeker family. I wished we named [him] ... I wish we humanized them. I wish we gave them that respect in death,'' Mr. Stanhope told ABC radio.

Seizing on the tragedy, the opposition leader Tony Abbott on Wednesday called the situation a ''national emergency'' and demanded that Mr. Rudd ?be man enough? to admit he had his refugee policy wrong.

Sky rocketing asylum seekers

There is no dispute that the number of asylum seekers arriving by boat has skyrocketed since the Labor Party came to power in 2007. The number of boat people rose from 161 individuals in 2007,?to 17,202 people in 2012. The first seven months of 2013 have nearly eclipsed that total with 15,182 asylum seekers arriving on 218 boats.

Refugee advocates cite push factors such as the persecution of the minority ethnic Tamils in Sri Lanka and Hazaras in Afghanistan and point out that around 90 percent of boat people are found to be genuine refugees.

The opposition blames the Labor government for abandoning temporary protection visas for refugees and of sending asylum seekers to Papua New Guinea and Nauru for processing. It has pledged to turn asylum seeker boats back to Indonesia when it is safe to do so, even though former naval chiefs have called the policy unworkable and the Indonesian government has given no indication it will cooperate.

Rudd, who was reinstated as prime minister late last month, is keen to distance himself from his predecessor Julia Gillard, whose failure to tackle the asylum seeker crisis was blamed for her party?s dismal showing in the polls. (Read more about Julia Gillard's dramatic ousting here)

In the past two weeks he has visited Indonesia and Papua New Guinea seeking their cooperation for a regional solution. He has flagged abolishing refugee review tribunals, which give asylum seekers the right to appeal their initial departmental assessments and to draw up new country assessments that would make it harder for asylum seekers from countries like Iran to qualify for permanent settlement in Australia.

Causing concern

But it is Rudd?s statement that he has the Refugee Convention in his sights that has caused most concern. The Australian government is understood to be in talks with the UN?s High Commissioner for Refugees on tightening the way the treaty is applied.

Professor Mirko Bagaric, dean of the law school at Deakin University in Melbourne says the government should withdraw from the UN treaty altogether.

?The people smugglers ... know the Australian government is hooked to the Refugee Convention and they know if they bring the people here, the Australian government must process them. Anything that this government does now that is short of withdrawing from the convention won't fix it.?

But Professor William Maley, director of the Asia Pacific College of Diplomacy at the Australian National University in Canberra, disagrees, saying any such move would undermine Australia?s attempts to find a regional solution: ?You can?t relieve yourself of your obligations under the Refugee Convention and then go to a country like Indonesia and tell it to do more to share the burden.?

Meanwhile, the latest batch of 120 asylum seekers rescued after their vessel sent out a distress signal on Wednesday were being processed on Christmas Island yesterday. Unlike an earlier incident this week when four people drowned, all made it ashore safely. But naval personnel and immigration staff say it is only matter of time before tragedy strikes again.

As Stanhope points out, the capacity of the island?s morgue has been increased tenfold. ?We now have mortuary facilities that will cater for 50 bodies, and that is a statement within itself.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/qgu8T3-vwQw/Tragedy-at-sea-puts-Australia-s-refugee-policies-to-the-test

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McDonald: From Washington to Wasatch

Brandon McDonald (D.C. United photo)

Brandon McDonald (D.C. United photo)

With a trade in the works, veteran center back Brandon McDonald flew to Utah from Washington on Monday and was ready to practice with Real Salt Lake. He just had to wait for the deal to go through.

On Wednesday morning, D.C. United made it official: The struggling club had dealt one of its most experienced players to MLS?s Western Conference leaders for two draft picks.

?Spiritually, I am still part of what is going on in D.C.,? he told the Insider in a phone conversation Wednesday night. ?It?s a family. It?s something you don?t get too often in your career. It was a special time.?

But with playing time dwindling the past two months, McDonald approached United Coach Ben Olsen and General Manager Dave Kasper?about exploring other options.

?We all knew I needed a fresh start,? he said. ?There was no bad blood. It was all good. I wanted to stay and fight it out. I didn?t want to leave something unfinished, but I wasn?t playing either. I wanted to go somewhere I would play.?

McDonald, a cornerstone of last season?s drive to the Eastern finals, had faltered in multiple matches in the spring and had an emotional meltdown at halftime of a loss at Columbus.

He plummeted on the depth chart, falling behind young backs Ethan White and Conor Shanosky, and did not accompany the squad to Seattle and Denver for the two most recent league matches.

Real Salt Lake expressed interest a few weeks ago, McDonald said. United was eager to dump his $235,000 salary ? fourth on the payroll behind Dwayne De Rosario, Chris Pontius and Dejan Jakovic ? and clear space for future moves. No MLS club would accept an out-of-form player at that rate, so United had to keep a portion of McDonald?s number on its books for the remainder of the season. United officials declined to reveal the financial breakdown.

McDonald will reunite with Real forward Robbie Findley ? they were teammates at the Sereno youth club in Arizona that also included former MLS players Rob Valentino and Michael Gavin.

McDonald admitted the inactivity with United has left him short on fitness. But with Real understaffed on the backline because of injuries, he said he is prepared to play if needed Saturday night against visiting Sporting Kansas City.

McDonald wanted to retain his No. 4 jersey, but Aaron Maund has it. The next preferences were 14 and 7, but those were taken. He considered 77, but that was retired?Andy Williams?s former number. ?He?s a legend around here!? McDonald said. So he chose No. 44.

United and RSL have already met in the regular season ? a 1-0 DCU victory in March at RFK Stadium ? but they could collide in the U.S. Open Cup final. (Both are semifinalists.) McDonald, however, is cup-tied to United after playing 27 minutes against Philadelphia in the round of 16.

?I?m going to miss D.C. ? my friends, the organization, the fans, who deserve better than what we gave them this season,? he said after two years, mostly as a starter, with United. ?This is a new beginning for me. I will help any way I can and try to help [RSL] win a championship.?

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/soccer-insider/wp/2013/07/18/mcdonald-from-washington-to-wasatch/

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মঙ্গলবার, ১৬ জুলাই, ২০১৩

Snapshots of Military Science from 1913, One Year Before World War I [Slide Show]

Cover Image: July 2013 Scientific American MagazineSee Inside

Nations Raced to Gain an Advantage with New Technology and Better Armaments


submarine gun

Submarine Gun: 75 millimeter gun made by the German arms manufacture Krupp. Image: Scientific American

There are many tangled causes for World War I, fought from 1914 to 1918. Historians cite the alliance system, imperialism, nationalism, and the social shifts caused by modernity and industrialization. Rival nations raced to build more efficient and effective weapons and ways to control sea, sky and land. Countries also raced to develop the military systems to wield these weapons and industrial capacity to supply them. There is something of a chess game in watching the buildup of Germany?s zeppelin fleet in an attempt to gain an advantage over Britain?s battleship fleet, or seeing French aircraft industry as it was built up to gain an advantage over the German land war capability. Perhaps one reason that the public and governments were keen to go to war was a severe underestimation of the damage and casualties that massive numbers of these weapons could cause.

? View the Military Science from 1913 Slide Show

Scientific American observed this race keenly in 1913, even though the United States was not drawn into the war until 1917. The images, mostly of weapons, in this photo album show some of the mistaken assumptions about how a war would be fought. Battleships were a main focus of war at sea, a traditional path to victory for many countries. But torpedo attacks by submarines against supplies and raw materials carried by merchant shipping could wreck a country?s war capabilities just as surely as large-caliber shells could. The idea of enemy airships and airplanes suddenly appearing in the skies to rain deadly bombs were a huge factor in the minds of the civilian population and military planners. But the psychological terror of these attacks far outweighed their actual results.

From the archives of Scientific American of 1913, here are some snapshots of military technology. In 1914 the rivals would become opponents in a war that was called ?the Great War for Civilization.?

? View the Military Science from 1913 Slide Show

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/~r/sciam/history-of-science/~3/oJH7cuTA0IA/article.cfm

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সোমবার, ১৫ জুলাই, ২০১৩

Tech Review Water resistance stands out in Sony phone

  • American-Statesman - Sunday 14th July, 2013

    Conventional wisdom might be that a jury of high-ranking Army officers wouldn't hesitate to send Maj. Nidal Hasan to death row for the killing of 12 soldiers and a civilian during a 2009 rampage at Fort Hood.And that might yet be the case. But at least two jurors who will decide Hasan's fate expressed some reservations about the death penalty last week during jury selection, which ...

  • Perez taking on Tigers in series finale in Detroit

    Texas Rangers - Sunday 14th July, 2013

    The Rangers fell to Doug Fister and got past Max Scherzer. Now they'll face Justin Verlander in Sunday's rubber match at Comerica Park. That doesn't sound like an easy path to the All-Star break. "The three pitchers we're facing in this series aren't just anybody," Texas' David Murphy said. "They're tough on everybody they face. We've had ...

  • Will new law spur transit in Austin suburbs

    American-Statesman - Sunday 14th July, 2013

    Mass transit supporters around here have some big dreams.Their vision, set out in a "Project Connect" regional transit plan finalized last year, includes several passenger rail lines crisscrossing Central Texas, long-distance bus lines, express toll lanes on several area ...

  • Author of ?Waco State Home? books wants to tell family?s story

    American-Statesman - Sunday 14th July, 2013

    When Sherry Matthews published "We Were Not Orphans: Stories from the Waco State Home" in 2011, she breached an emotional levee that had held for decades.Inspired partly by her family's experience with the home -- her three older brothers were sent there in 1948, when Matthews was 3 -- the book, through documentation and oral histories, told of a beyond-Dickensian institution that ...

  • Ball Hot cars much misery ? how to survive the summer without air conditioning

    American-Statesman - Saturday 13th July, 2013

    My stiflingly hot hell on wheels started in the summer of 2011.The air conditioning in my 14-year-old Saturn was dead. It was too expensive to fix. And so I decided to suffer the ...

  • Jury Finds George Zimmerman Not Guilty In Killing Of Trayvon Martin

    WBZ4 - Saturday 13th July, 2013

    Homicide suspect George Zimmerman, left, sits in the courtroom with defense lawyers Don West and Mark O?Mara on Saturday, July 13, 2013. (Credit: Joe Burbank-Pool/Getty ...

  • Florida jury finds George Zimmerman not guilty

    Reuters - Saturday 13th July, 2013

    1 of 17. George Zimmerman (R) is congratulated by his defense team after being found not guilty in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin at the Seminole County Criminal Justice Center in Sanford, Florida, July 13, ...

  • Jury finds George Zimmerman NOT GUILTY

    Yahoo News - Saturday 13th July, 2013

    George Zimmerman has found the neighborhood watchman not guilty. Zimmerman, 29, was charged with second-degree murder in the death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, whom the defendant shot during a scuffle in a nearby gated community on Feb 26, 2012. The jury was also able to convict Zimmerman on the lesser charge of manslaughter. The decision from the jury is sure to spark outrage from Martin ...

  • Man hospitalized in accident on RM 2222

    KXAN 36 - Saturday 13th July, 2013

    AUSTIN (KXAN) - Austin police are investigating an accident between a motorcycle and a car that has closed all lanes of RM 2222 at Capital of Texas Highway. Police say shortly after 8:00 pm a motorcycle was involved in a crash with another vehicle. The driver of the motorcycle was transported to University Medical Center Brackenridge with life-threatening injuries. Police say all lanes of RM ...

  • Tech Review Water resistance stands out in Sony phone

    American-Statesman - Saturday 13th July, 2013

    Think of a leading phone maker. Apple and Samsung might come to mind -- maybe even HTC, maker of the well-received One. But you're probably not thinking Sony, a company better known for its TVs, cameras and video game machines.With the new Xperia Z, Sony shows it can play in the smartphone big leagues.The Xperia Z, unveiled last week in the U.S., helps Sony catch up with offerings from ...

  • Game-makers aim to keep girls interested in STEM fields

    American-Statesman - Saturday 13th July, 2013

    Consider, for a moment, the possibility of a completely addictive electronic game that had a more noble objective than destroying pigs with slingshot-flung birds or traveling through post-apocalyptic wastelands.What about a game that was geared toward teen girls -- a free game that kept them engrossed in math and science, nudging them toward careers in those fields, at that very time in their ...

  • Technology starting to alter the bank branch

    American-Statesman - Saturday 13th July, 2013

    As more people do their banking on computers, tablets and mobile devices, trips to the local bank branch are increasingly rare. Still, convenient branch access remains the top reason that people select a bank.Many banks are therefore in the midst of a balancing act when it comes to their branches. They're juggling how to create a network that deals with the realities of less frequent use, ...

  • Health care technology blossoms in hospitals clinics

    American-Statesman - Saturday 13th July, 2013

    A slip of paper at the nurses' station indicated a certain medication dose was due for a patient. Dallas Fulton knew better. Actually, his hand-held computer knew better.Fulton, a registered nurse on staff in Truman Medical Centers' Hospital Hill intensive care unit, gets real-time electronic information about prescriptions, vital signs and any other aspect of patient care. His ...

  • Plans to tear down wooden playscape in Georgetown draw criticism

    American-Statesman - Saturday 13th July, 2013

    More than 900 volunteers worked around the clock for six days in 1993 to build a wooden playscape in Georgetown designed by a nationally known New York architect.In 2008 the playscape was named the favorite playground in the state by Texas Monthly ...

  • Democratic activist Anne McAfee dies

    American-Statesman - Saturday 13th July, 2013

    Anne McAfee, a longtime Democratic activist who suffered a stroke during state Sen. Wendy Davis' filibuster in an abortion debate June 25, died Saturday morning at her home in Austin. She was 82.Born Anne Elizabeth Castleberry on Oct. 15, 1930, McAfee was a lifelong Austinite and became interested in politics as a child, volunteering at age 13 on Minnie Fisher Cunningham's 1944 ...

  • Lockhart man drowns in Bastrop park

    KXAN 36 - Saturday 13th July, 2013

    BASTROP, Texas (KXAN) - Bastrop Police are investigating a drowning in the Colorado River that took the life of a Lockhart man Saturday. Police say a 39-year-old man drowned Saturday at Fishermans Park . Witnesses say the man went under the water while holding onto his wifes inner tube. The name of the man has not been released. KXAN is following this developing story and has a crew en route. ...

  • UT researchers find swamp and stream systems under Antarctic ice

    American-Statesman - Saturday 13th July, 2013

    A team of University of Texas researchers recently discovered a swamplike system of water under an Antarctic glacier the size of New Mexico -- a finding that might hold the key to how quickly the polar ice will melt and the seas will rise.From a nondescript office at the J.J. Pickle Research Campus, sweltering in the midsummer heat like the rest of Central Texas, this research team has become ...

  • 74 laid off amid changes at Seton

    American-Statesman - Saturday 13th July, 2013

    In recent weeks, the Seton Healthcare Family has laid off 74 employees and cut the hours or changed the schedules of 45 others as part of a long-term restructuring that also affects patient services, a spokeswoman said.Seton officials say they are transforming their system into one that focuses more attention on keeping patients well and less on hospitalizing them. At the same time, they ...

  • Two Capital Metro board members dominate travel spending

    American-Statesman - Saturday 13th July, 2013

    Six weeks ago, two Capital Metro board members decided they wanted to attend workshops and seminars at a national transportation conference, so they asked the taxpayer-funded agency to cover their estimated $3,000 cost for registration and hotel rooms at a Hyatt Regency over the four-day event.The catch: The conference was in Austin. The Hyatt, on Lady Bird Lake, is a half-hour commute from ...

  • PolitiFact Extremely premature babies surviving at greater rates

    American-Statesman - Saturday 13th July, 2013

    Rick Perry spoke up for restricting abortions earlier in pregnancy by saying that extremely premature births increasingly result in healthy children."We will ban abortion after 20 weeks" of pregnancy, Perry told the the National Right to Life Convention on June 27. "And you think about it, it makes sense considering the growing number of healthy, happy children who are born ...

  • At stake in battle Dell?s future

    American-Statesman - Saturday 13th July, 2013

    On Thursday morning, the shareholders of Dell Inc. will help decide what the future might look like for the largest private employer in Central Texas.They will vote their shares for or against the proposed $24.4 billion buyout of the company by founder and CEO Michael Dell and his financial ally, Silver Lake Partners of ...

  • After throwing BP Lewis ready for rehab assignment

    Texas Rangers - Saturday 13th July, 2013

    Email DETROIT -- Right-hander Colby Lewis threw 46 pitches of batting practice on Saturday at Comerica Park, and the next step is a return to the Minor Leagues for a rehab assignment. "It was a lot better today, that's for sure," Lewis said. "I had a lot better carry on my fastball, and when that happens, my other pitches have good bite. My curveball had real good ...

  • Source: http://www.austinnews.net/index.php/sid/215814343/scat/3772e08ad12afe08

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    রবিবার, ১৪ জুলাই, ২০১৩

    The Hardest Thing To Find In The Universe?

    What is rarer than a shooting star?

    Rarer than a diamond?

    Rarer than any metal, any mineral, so rare that if you scan the entire earth, all six million billion billion kilos or 13,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 pounds of our planet, you would find only one ounce of it?

    What is so rare it has never been seen directly, because if you could get enough of it together, it would self-vaporize from its own radioactive heat?

    What is this stuff that can't be seen or found? Well, here's a hint. It's sitting modestly in a lower row in the Periodic Table, down on the lower right, in a box marked "At."

    "At" stands for astatine. It is an element with 85 protons packed into its nucleus, thus the atomic number "85" ...

    The problem is, there's something about 85 protons in a tight space that nature doesn't enjoy. Almost as soon as they squeeze together bits of nuclear material get spat out, or get added, and poof!It isn't astatine any longer.

    This element has a half life of roughly 8 hours, meaning if you could get a clump of it to stay on a table (you can't), half of it would disintegrate in 8 hours, and then every 8 hours another half would go until in a few days, there'd be no astatine on the table. Its nickname should be "Goodbye!"

    By comparison, a clump of bismuth (atomic number 83) loses half its atoms in 20 billion billion years. So astatine blinks out fast. Its name comes from the Greek "astastos" meaning "unstable."

    How Do You Know It's There?

    How do you discover something you can't see and can't find? Well, according to science writer (and Radiolab regular) Sam Kean, you believe it should be there, and it will come.

    In his book The Disappearing Spoon Sam explains that when the periodic table was being assembled, nobody had seen an atom with 85 protons, but ? because the 85 box is directly below the Iodine box ("I" ? atomic number 53) ...

    ... they figured, when it turns up, it might resemble iodine. Elements sharing a vertical column often share behaviors. What's more, they figured heavier atoms might be made to disintegrate and become astatine (however briefly). Or lighter atoms could be made weightier. So thinking it would show up, in the 1930s lots of physicists tried to make some "element 85."

    Alabamine! Dakkin! Helvetia!

    In 1931, an Alabama physicist said, "I've done it!" and he called his discovery "alabamine" (discoverers get naming rights), but his work was invalidated. A chemist in Dacca (now Bangladesh, then India) said "I've got it!" and named his version "dakkin", but his method proved faulty. A Swiss chemist came next and called his discovery "helvetium" from Helvetia, (Latin for Switzerland), but nobody could reproduce what he'd done, until finally three Berkeley scientists did it right, and so it became Astatine.

    Check The Rodent ...

    A few years later, some lab-created astatine was injected into a guinea pig and traces were found in the little rodent's thyroid gland, which is where you'd normally find iodine! So the element did behave like its upstairs neighbor! Now they were sure. "Astatine remains the only element whose discovery was confirmed by a nonprimate," writes Sam.

    Alma Mater-izing

    But with all this place-naming, I wondered, why didn't the Berkeley scientists name their element after Berkeley?

    Well, Sam reports, scientists at UC Berkeley discovered so many elements in the 40s and 50s, they could be patient. Element 85 is astatine. Element 97 is called berkelium. Element 98 is called Californium. These discoveries led The New Yorker to muse that if only they'd waited longer they could have spelled out their complete name ...

    ... the university ... has lost forever the chance of immortalizing itself in the atomic tables with some such sequence as universitium (97), ofium (98), californium(99), berkelium(100).

    Berkeley scientists Glenn Seaborg and Albert Ghiorso quickly wrote back to point out if they'd done "universitium" "ofium" they'd have been in dangerous territory. What if some NYU scientists found elements 99 and 100 and named them "newium and yorkium"? Then Berkeley would have handed NYU a four-element crown.

    The New Yorker staff, rooting for the home team, warmed to the challenge: "We are already at work in our office laboratories on 'newium' and 'yorkium,' they wrote back. "So far we have just have the names."

    Ah, the vanities of science!

    Some of you will say that another element, francium (atomic number 87), is even more unstable than astatine, and you're right. Its nickname should be "gone!" As Sam writes, "If you had a million atoms of the longest-lived type of astatine, half of them would disintegrate in 400 minutes. A similar sample of francium would hang on for 20 minutes. Francium is so fragile, it's basically useless." Astatine, however, is rarer and can be used to treat thyroid cancers.

    For a more official version of Astatine's discovery, here's a synopsis from Chemistry World:

    Astatine was the second synthetic element to be conclusively identified just three years after Technetium, was isolated by Carlo Perrier and Emilio Segre of the University of Palermo. The element had actually been created in a cyclotron particle accelerator at the University of California in Berkeley where Segre spent the following summer continuing his research. But miles away from Italy Mussolini's government passed anti Semitic laws which barred Jewish people like Segre from holding University positions; so he stayed where he was, taking up a job at Berkeley and in 1940 he helped to discover Astatine along with Dale Corson, he was then a post doc and later went on to become President of Cornell University and grant student Kenneth MacKenzie. They bombarded a sheet of bismuth metal, that's two doors down from Astatine in the periodic table, with alpha particle to produce Astatine 211, which has a half life of about 7 1/2 hours and it neatly filled the gap in the periodic table just beneath iodine. Segre went on to become a group leader for the Manhattan project which built the first atomic weapon. And it was only once the Second World War was over that the trio proposed the name Astatine for their elemental discovery. It was from the Greek word meaning unstable.

    Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2013/07/12/201481293/the-hardest-thing-to-find-in-the-universe?ft=1&f=1007

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    শুক্রবার, ১২ জুলাই, ২০১৩

    Hyper-Personalization Is Key for Dutch E-commerce Player ...

    VanSlootenOne of the first ? and now, largest ? e-commerce companies in the Netherlands, wehkamp.nl has tapped IBM to help the platform improve its marketing and dynamic-merchandising strategies. Using myriad IBM cloud products, including Digital Analytics, LIVEMail and Campaign, the e-retailer has noticed significant gain in click-through rates on banner ads (500%) and a 271% lift in its sales-per-send ratio on marketing emails.

    Alexander van Slooten, Wehkamp.nl?s marketing director, spoke with AdExchanger about ways the online retailer is optimizing site experiences for individual visitors.

    AdExchanger: Can you describe Wehkamp.nl and who you target?

    ALEXANDER VAN SLOOTEN: Wehkamp.nl started as a mail-order company in 1952 and we are a very strong brand in the Netherlands that [went] online in 1995 as one of the first e-commerce companies in the Netherlands. Since 2004, the main part of our annual [business] comes through the online channel. In 2010, we stopped [operating] our print catalog and we are now 100% online. We have no physical stores and had 122 million visitors to our site last year. We sell in five different categories ? fashion, living, electronics, beauty and wellness and sports and leisure. We?re very large in women?s fashion. Seventy-five percent of our customer base is female, and for the demographics, if you look at the age we serve, it?s 22-49; the average age is around 33-34.

    How are you using IBM solutions to crack the code on customer data?

    Our involvement with IBM came more or less [as a result] of IBM buying [many of] the products we use in the online channel. We started with Web analytics six or seven years ago, because we had to analyze everything that was happening on our website. We started using Coremetrics, and IBM bought Coremetrics. The first question that we as an online retailer had about the website is, how can we improve the customer journey and funnel? Why do people leave the checkout process? It was anything about optimizing and usability. We were in need of a very extensive Web analytics tool, so we chose Coremetrics.

    The second product we bought was Tealeaf, because Web analytics show everything that?s happening on your site, but it doesn?t really show why it?s happening. You see things, but you keep asking yourself, ?What exactly did this customer see on the site?? Using Tealeaf, an analyst in our marketing intelligence team can sit back and see all the pages that an individual customer has seen, including the error messages and any problems they had. It?s all used to optimize our website, so we use it for individual problems. We have a very complex checkout process with well over 100 different ways to get from the cart to the Thank You page. It?s almost impossible to monitor all those flows, so you have to have software that keeps an eye on all those flows in the checkout process. We have alerting in Tealeaf, for example, every time a customer does strange things in a specific flow. Maybe there?s a bug, or maybe we can try to solve it.

    How have you used Criteo in conjunction with IBM's Coremetrics for remarketing purposes?

    We track, for every visitor, what product he or she looks at. That data is used to display that specific product in display ads on another website. When I?m behind my computer and I?m looking at a [product] at this moment, I might browse the Internet this evening and go to a news page. The odds are a display ad will show up and show the exact product I looked at that afternoon combined with the products that are also relevant for that customer based on products that are often bought with the product, or that have been viewed in different sessions. Coremetrics has something called Intelligent Offer that predicts, or gives a list of products that are bundled together with the main product or have been viewed in the same session with that product, so it?s kind of a prediction that can be relevant for a customer looking at the display ad. The conversions are really good, as is the return on investment.

    To improve your profitability when selling clearance items, do you ?segment? the clearance customer vs. the full-price purchaser?

    What we don?t do, yet, is use a different price for different customers, but we will be starting to use DemandTec, another product of IBM, in a few months. What it does for us is predict what price (a product needs to be) at a specific moment. You can imagine when a product is out of stock and we start to sell it on our site, it has a specific product lifecycle and if the product doesn?t get bought in the first month, we have to lower the price a little sooner than products that are faster moving. It helps us to determine the right price and right setting for a specific product. We have a lot of returns. People have two weeks to decide if they want to keep or return the product, and DemandTec has to keep in mind all the returns and base the new price setting based on all the products that will be returned.

    What?s your mobile strategy?

    We have a tablet app and, right now, 25% of our sales are from the mobile channel. About 24% come through the tablet, being our tablet app and optimized tablet website. Only 1% is through smartphones. When an offer is placed, we have to consider that the mobile channel is part of the customer journey. People use the smartphone to look at products, but to buy the product they switch to the desktop or tablet version. They?re not really buying on smartphones.

    Does this have any bearing on ads?

    No, it does not really, for us. On tablets, the display part is more or less the same as a desktop version and for displaying in apps, it?s not that large in the Netherlands, so mobile display ads are basically the same as the desktop version right now.

    Where have you seen valuable ROI around your use of IBM products?

    We used to basically send out the same mail to every single customer. But ? now we know what products the customer has looked at and what products are relevant in combination to that product, and we can use it to personalize our email ... The trick is to be relevant to all individual customers and that?s quite hard when you have 1.7 million customers. You need solutions to collect data, build profiles, and you have to have email tooling that can use that data to personalize all those messages and promotions.

    That 271% higher sales percent ratio is due to the fact that we have been able to send out more relevant emails to every customer we have a profile for.

    Can you describe the inroads you?re making in personalization?

    We personalize in email now, but we also want to do it on our website. For example, if you are of a customer of wehkamp.nl and we know you are size ?x,? why do we show you products we don?t have in your size? You like a product, go to the product detail page, go to your size and if it?s not available, that?s really dissatisfying. So I can use all your data to optimize everything on our website. If I know you have a strong interest in certain brands, I will position those brands and promotions higher than other brands. The next step is to do what we?re already doing with email on our (online) platform and not just be serving one website, but dynamically building almost 2 million websites for each and every individual customer. That will also be done with the help of IBM, because the basic profile of our customer is in our system and we have a lot of data and a big data problem. But, as we see it, IBM will collect the data and build the profile in their system, and we come up with different tricks to use the data.


    Email This Post?Email This Post

    Source: http://www.adexchanger.com/ecommerce-2/hyper-personalization-is-key-for-dutch-ecommerce-player-wehkamp-nl/

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    বৃহস্পতিবার, ১১ জুলাই, ২০১৩

    My 10 Favourite Health & Fitness Smartphone Apps | Active Physio ...

    The smart-phone and tablet penetration has gone ahead in leaps and bounds over the past couple of years, and the statistics tell us that that includes all age ranges and groups.
    There are a huge number of fantastic ?apps? for these devices out there, and that includes some to help your health and fitness. I wanted to share some of my favourites with you today.
    My Fitness Pal (Apple, Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile): this great app sets you a ?target? of calories that you should be consuming over a day, depending on whether you are trying to maintain or put on weight, and also dependent on age/height/weight etc. Whenever you eat or are active, put it in the app and see how your target is going. Great for smackers like me!
    Instant Heart Rate (Apple, Android, Windows Mobile): use the flash on your phones camera on the skin of our finger, to measure and record your current heart rate
    MapMyRun, MapMyWalk,MapMyRide (Apple, Android):?says it all really?where have you been, how far, what speed, what elevation?it?s all here!
    Geocaching (Apple, Android, Blackberry): want some motivation to go walking, tramping or running? Why not discover these worldwide little hidden treasure caches while out and about!
    Recognise Hands/Recognise Feet (Apple/Android): had a hand or foot/ankle injury? There?s evidence that your brain may alter your perception of your body, which can slow its ability to heal. This flash-card based app will aid in re-training your brain in its perception of the body.
    iTriage (Apple, Android): informations on all sorts of conditions, medications and symptoms (but note NOT a substitute for your health professional!)
    WebMD/MedScape (Apple,Android, Windows Mobile): great for health professionals, as they have a full list of medical terms and conditions explained, plus a drugs reference. Not for the un-trained though.
    BMI ? Body Mass Index Calculator (Apple, Android): yes I know, not the greatest and most relevant tool, but still a good one for anyone wanting to know their BMI
    Zombies, Run! (Apple, Android): sick of your music or audio book while exercising? Why not try an interactive zombie apocalypse story while you are doing it then? Lots of fun, and a few scary moments!
    Active Physio Albany (Apple, Android): info on our clinic and services, plus you can have your Pilates concession card on the phone, to save you carrying around a cardboard one in your purse or wallet!

    Have a health and fitness app you like? Why not tell everyone about it in the comment section.

    App photo

    Source: http://albany-physio.com/my-10-favourite-health-fitness-smartphone-apps/

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    মঙ্গলবার, ২ জুলাই, ২০১৩

    Egypt: Protesters gather to demand Morsi's ouster

    CAIRO (AP) ? Tens of thousands of opponents of Egypt's Islamist president massed in Cairo's Tahrir Square and in cities around the country Sunday, launching an all-out push to force Mohammed Morsi from office on the one-year anniversary of his inauguration. Fears of violence were high, with Morsi's Islamist supporters vowing to defend him.

    Waving Egyptian flags, crowds packed Tahrir, the birthplace of the 2011 uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak, and chants of "erhal!", or "leave!" rang out.

    On the other side of Cairo, thousands of Islamists gathered in a show of support for Morsi outside the Rabia al-Adawiya Mosque near the Ittihadiya presidential palace, which the opposition planned to march on in the evening. Some Morsi backers wore homemade body armor and construction helmets and carried shields and clubs ? precautions, they said, against possible violence.

    There is a sense among opponents and supporters of Morsi that Sunday is a make-or-break day, hiking worries that the two camps will come to blows, even as each side insists it won't start violence. Already at least seven people, including an American, have been killed in clashes the past week, mainly in Nile Delta cities and the coastal city of Alexandria.

    The demonstrations are the culmination of polarization and instability that have been building since Morsi's June 30, 2012 inauguration as Egypt's first freely elected leader. The past year has seen multiple political crises, bouts of bloody clashes and a steadily worsening economy, with power outages, fuel shortages, rising prices and persistent lawlessness and crime.

    In one camp are the president and his Islamist allies, including the Muslim Brotherhood and more hard-line groups. They say street demonstrations cannot be allowed to remove a leader who won a legitimate election, and they accuse Mubarak loyalists of being behind the campaign in a bid to return to power. They have argued that for the past year remnants of the old regime have been sabotaging Morsi's attempts to deal with the nation's woes and bring reforms.

    Hard-liners among them have also given the confrontation a sharply religious tone, denouncing Morsi's opponents as "enemies of God" and infidels.

    On the other side is an array of secular and liberal Egyptians, moderate Muslims, Christians ? and what the opposition says is a broad sector of the general public that has turned against the Islamists. They say the Islamists have negated their election mandate by trying to monopolize power, infusing government with their supporters, forcing through a constitution they largely wrote and giving religious extremists a free hand, all while failing to manage the country.

    The opposition believes that with sheer numbers in the street, it can pressure Morsi to step down ? perhaps with the added weight of the powerful military if it signals the president should go.

    "Today is the Brotherhood's last day in power," predicted Suliman Mohammed, a manager of a seafood company who was protesting at Tahrir, where crowds neared 100,000 by early afternoon.

    "I came here today because Morsi did not accomplish any of the (2011) revolution's goals. I don't need anything for myself, but the needs of the poor were not met."

    Another Tahrir protester, 21-year-old Mohammed Abdel-Salam, said he came out because he wanted early presidential elections. "If he is so sure of his popularity why doesn't he want to organize early elections? If he wins it, we will tell the opposition to shut up."

    Underlining the potential for deadly violence, a flurry of police reports on Sunday spoke of the seizure of firearms, explosives and even artillery shells in various locations of the country, including Alexandria and the outskirts of Cairo. Sunday afternoon, two offices belonging to the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice party, were attacked and ransacked Sunday by protesters in the city of Bani Suef, south of Cairo.

    In an interview published Sunday in The Guardian, Morsi ? who has three years left in his term ? said he had no plans to meet the protesters' demand for an early presidential election.

    "If we changed someone in office who (was elected) according to constitutional legitimacy ? well, there will (be) people or opponents opposing the new president too, and a week or a month later, they will ask him to step down," Morsi told the British daily.

    "There is no room for any talk against this constitutional legitimacy," he said.

    Traffic in Cairo's normally clogged streets was light at midday as many residents chose to stay home for fear of violence or a wave of crime similar to the one that swept Egypt during the 18-day, anti-Mubarak uprising. Banks were closing early and most government departments were either closed for the day or were thinly staffed. Most schools and colleges are already closed for the summer holidays.

    The opposition protests emerge from a petition campaign by a youth activist group known as Tamarod, Arabic for "Rebel." For several months, the group has been collecting signatures on a call for Morsi to step down.

    On Saturday the group announced it had more than 22 million signatures ? proof, it claims, that a broad sector of the public no longer wants Morsi in office.

    It was not possible to verify the claim. If true, it would be nearly twice the around 13 million people who voted for Morsi in last year's presidential run-off election, which he won with around 52 percent of the vote. Tamarod organizers said they discarded about 100,000 signed forms because they were duplicates.

    Morsi's supporters have questioned the authenticity and validity of the signatures, but have produced no evidence of fraud.

    Adding to his troubles, eight lawmakers from the country's interim legislature announced their resignation Saturday to protest Morsi's policies. The 270-seat chamber was elected early last year by less than 10 percent of Egypt's eligible voters, and is dominated by Islamists.

    A legal adviser to Morsi also announced his resignation late Saturday in protest of what he said was Morsi's insult of judges in his latest speech on Wednesday.

    A week ago, with the public sense of worry growing over the upcoming confrontation, Defense Minister Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi last week gave the president and his opponents a week to reach a compromise. He warned that the military would intervene to prevent the nation from entering a "dark tunnel."

    Army troops backed by armored vehicles were deployed Sunday in some of Cairo's suburbs, with soldiers, some in combat gear, stood at traffic lights and major intersections. Army helicopters flew over Cairo on several occasions on Sunday, adding to the day's sense of foreboding.

    Morsi had called for national reconciliation talks in a Wednesday speech but offered no specifics. Opposition leaders dismissed the call as cosmetics.

    Asked by The Guardian whether he was confident that the army would not intervene if the country becomes ungovernable, Morsi replied, "Very."

    The Egyptian leader, however, said he did not know in advance of el-Sissi's comments last week.

    ____

    Associated Press reporter Tony G. Gabriel contributed to this report.

    Source: http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-protesters-gather-demand-morsis-ouster-093244528.html

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    Scholarship created in memory of MSU faculty member ...

    To honor the memory of the late Dr. Paul McNeary, a former associate professor of industrial education at Murray State University (MSU), his wife, Sue McNeary, two daughters, Sarah Elizabeth McNeary Cunningham and Kathryn Marie McNeary Kusch, and friends created the Paul R. McNeary Career and Technical Education Scholarship to support new teachers and students of industrial education at Murray State.

    ?Paul was very dedicated to Murray State and passionate about education. He devoted his skills and knowledge to help students fulfill their educational endeavors, especially students who needed more assistance,? Sue said. ?We created this scholarship in order to remember his devotion and passion for the university and make sure his commitment to future students continues on.?

    The McNeary family donated $20,000 to the Murray State University Foundation to establish an endowment that gives full-time students majoring in career technical education/engineering technology education (CTE-ETE) the opportunity to apply for a scholarship beginning fall 2014. Additional requirements in order to be considered for the scholarship include being an upper-level student with a minimum GPA of 2.75 on a 4.0 scale.

    Dr. Robert Lyons, chair of the college of education?s department of educational studies, leadership and counseling, said McNeary?s work was always about students. ?As evidenced by reference after reference to him by those that were his students, they tell me how he cared, how he was patient and how his work with them transformed their lives. It made them into teachers that now do the same for their students. As a colleague, I saw how he focused on his students and worked tirelessly to help them. His teaching was truly service to others and he is a role model for teacher educators in all disciplines.?

    Dr. Danny Claiborne, current chair of the department of industrial and engineering technology, said McNeary was a role model as both a teacher and administrator. ?His top priority was to make sure students received the best education possible. He was also a mentor to young faculty. He coached me in all areas of my teaching and helped me to understand the responsibilities of an administrator. As I followed in his footsteps as department chair, I used his philosophy to keep the education of our students as the primary function of why we exist,? Claiborne said. ?Paul was a true friend, mentor, leader and exemplary educator.?

    McNeary began his education at Northern State College, receiving a B.A. in industrial arts and political science and an M.S. in industrial education. For a few years, McNeary and his wife lived in places such as Sydney, Australia, and Jakarta, Indonesia, where he taught industrial arts classes to high school students at the Picnic Point High School and the Joint Embassy School.

    In 1976, the McNearys moved to Stillwater, Okla., where he taught in the school of occupational and adult education at Oklahoma State University. In 1978, he completed his Ed.D. in vocational-technical and career education at Oklahoma State and moved to Murray where he served as a faculty member for industrial education at Murray State University for 28 years.

    During his time at MSU, he served as a field-based teacher education and curriculum specialist for the Bureau of Vocational Education. From 1984-89, McNeary took time off from Murray State in order to teach at an international school in Saudi Arabia and work for the U.S. Department of Labor.

    Amy Cathey, CTE occupational field based teacher educator coordinator in the MSU college of education, first worked with Paul as a student and now continues a role he had at the university. ?I had the pleasure of working for and with Paul during my time at MSU as his first master?s level CTE student. I am now very honored to be a part of the CTE program and continue many of the roles he established,? Cathey noted. ?Many of the teachers I work with in the field still talk about Paul. He made a huge impact on the vocational education program as well as the teachers he served. Paul held a great love and respect for the program he had built, his students and especially his family.?

    In addition to their daughters, Paul and Sue?s family includes a grandson, Asher Cunningham, and two granddaughters, Eden Rachael Cunningham and Lily Sophia Kusch.

    For more information about the scholarship, contact Melanie Brooks in the MSU office of development at 270.809.3026.

    Source: http://www.roundaboutmurray.com/?p=4421

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