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Tuesday, February 26, 2013
White Moleskines Add Two Extra Pages To Write On
Monday, February 25, 2013
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Friday, February 22, 2013
TurboTax for iPad
This is the second year that Intuit has produced an iPad-optimized version of TurboTax. While you can still access TurboTax Online through your iPad browser, there's no reason not to go with the versions that were built specifically for Apple's tablet computer?unless you want to be able to access the return on another computing device, a desktop, or laptop. You can only work on your return on your iPad if you intend to complete it there. H&R Block lets you switch back and forth.
The other deficits I noted in the 2011 version are now absent. You can "bookmark" pages you want to revisit with a "Flag," and it's much more convenient to correct problems or omissions in the Error Check section.
TurboTax for iPad was very good last year, considering that it was Intuit's first tablet app effort. This year, it's better.
Much the Same
TurboTax Deluxe for the iPad, which I reviewed this year, has changed little internally. It still supports the most common tax situations as well as some obscure ones through forms and schedules like Schedule A, B, C, D, 1040-ES, 1098, 1099s, etc. If you live in a state that charges income tax, your relevant data can move automatically into your state's version.
Intuit pioneered a more user-friendly process for getting data onto IRS forms and schedules nearly 20 years ago, and all tax software and websites work the same way now. They recreate the experience of visiting a tax preparer's office by asking a lengthy series of questions in a wizard-like framework, performing the calculations required and entering your answers in the correct fields on actual tax returns. You don't see the forms until your return is completed; all you see are windows containing questions and ways for you to answer (blank fields, lists, Yes or No boxes, etc.).
When you've gone through all of the topics that you think apply to you, TurboTax analyzes your information, looking for deductions you might have missed and identifying errors and omissions. This year, it's much easier to fix mistakes, since the app provides a way for you to correct them right on the screen where they're identified. No going back into earlier screens and finding your way back out. H&R Block's approach is not as simple.
Commendable Support
All of the major tax preparation sites that compete for Editors' Choice do a commendable job of providing help for users (H&R Block was the weakest in my review of its online solution). TurboTax is consistently the best, and Intuit has carried that success over to the iPad version.
Unless a particular question is clear, like What is your name?, there's usually some text explaining the question succinctly right on the page with it. You can click on hyperlinked words and phrases?or "Learn More"?on the interview screens, and a smaller window containing a more thorough explanation appears. There's a link here to Intuit's Live Community, where taxpayers and experts meet to ask and answer questions.
And if you click on the question mark in the upper right corner, the TurboTax Help Center opens. Here, you can search through voluminous help files to learn more about a topic. Paid users of TurboTax can also email, chat online or actually talk on the phone to one of Intuit's tax professionals?as often as needed. No one else offers this for the iPad.
Almost a Carbon Copy
TurboTax for the iPad looks and works much like the online application. It follows the same interview process through the same topics, so you don't have to worry that you'll be missing a form or schedule. Anything you can download online (like W-2 data) is available for import on the iPad version.
As far as the user interface goes, it's practically identical. The only things missing are the excerpts from Live Community at the bottom of the screen and the Tools icon (gives you access to the topic search, topic list and fee informational utilities in the online version). There's no help query box, but you can get to the Help Center (and Live Community) by clicking the question mark in the upper right corner.
Navigation works similarly, too. You can jump back and forth among the site's primary sections by clicking on the outline in the left vertical pane (topic search is now located here). But you'll primarily move through the app by clicking buttons at the bottom of the screen, like Back/Continue and Yes/No, just like online.
Close, but TurboTax for the iPad Prevails
Both TurboTax for the iPad and H&R Block for the iPad are thorough, competent, comprehensive tax preparation apps. They don't support absolutely every personal tax situation, and neither is a good choice if you know little about taxes, are apprehensive about using an unfamiliar application and/or your financial situation in 2012 was quite complicated. In those situations, a visit to a tax professional may be in order.
But if you had a reasonably uncomplicated year with no major changes and you like the idea of preparing and filing your taxes using your iPad, TurboTax for the iPad is your best option. It offers more kinds of help at no cost, and you won't face what you can face when you've completed your return using H&R Block for the iPad: an expert solution telling you that you've done something wrong, but which makes it difficult to fix.
There's no Editor's Choice for the category of mobile tax preparation apps this year?just the recommendation that you go with Intuit's iPad and smartphone applications.
More Accounting and Tax Software Reviews:
??? TurboTax for iPad
??? H&R Block for iPad
??? TaxACT Deluxe Tablet App (for iPad)
??? TurboTax SnapTax (for iPhone)
??? eSmart Tax Premium
?? more
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/bxkBn4NY86E/0,2817,2415658,00.asp
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Thursday, February 21, 2013
Raymond Hsia clinches third spot on victory stand in 2013 USA ...
Raymond Hsia clinches third spot on victory stand in 2013 USA Badminton Junior International ?
The budding male shuttler Raymond Hsia made amends after the failure in semi-final round and secured third position in USA Badminton Junior International Trials on Tuesday, February 19, 2013.
He locked horns with Darren Yang and this Boy?s Singles Under-17 encounter remained kept both contenders busy for three gruelling sets.
Though, Raymond lost first set with a narrow margin but he came back from this horrendous start and secured the honour in ending two games.
Both shuttlers challenged each other in all areas of game and kept the audience intact while piling up final figures of 20-22, 21-12 and 21-11.
Darren, who was underrated earlier in this event, also played impeccable badminton and walked tall despite of losing this crucial match.
He raised his chances of success by ruling the court in first set but then his fluctuated performance proved the biggest hurdle in his way to victory.
The opening game started with couple of gruelling rallies as both youngsters put all they had to gain an early advantage. However, neither of them could establish a permanent lead and remained close until the half time.
After the mid-game break, Darren gathered some pace and left his challenger far behind on the points table. He registered a tight yet decisive margin of 22-20 and bagged this important match point.
However, it proved his last success in this international event as Raymond stormed back with a strong reply and levelled the match score.
This time he did not repeat previous mistakes and launched a brisk attack. His powered packed campaign confined the opposing shuttler in rear court.
At first, Raymond mounted pressure by registering a mountainous figure of 11 and then capitalised this psychological edge to pile up a winning margin of 21-12.
The decider was supposed to be a nerve-racking contest as both shuttlers were looking to pocket this final match point.
Initially, they stood toe-to-toe but then Raymond struck hard when it mattered and tipped the scale in his favour.
He maintained a significant difference all the way to game point situation and locked the honour with an overwhelming score of 21-11.
Bahrain says Iran's Revolutionary Guard behind "terror" cell
ABU DHABI (Reuters) - Bahrain has accused Iran's Revolutionary Guard of setting up a militant cell to assassinate public figures in the Gulf Arab kingdom and attack its airport and government buildings.
Bahraini authorities said on Sunday they had arrested eight Bahrainis in the group, with links to Iran, Iraq and Lebanon.
The kingdom, base for the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, has been in political turmoil since protests erupted there in 2011, led by majority Shi'ite Muslims demanding an end to the Sunni monarchy's political domination and full powers for parliament.
Bahrain has accused Shi'ite Iran of fuelling the unrest, an accusation Tehran has consistently denied.
In a statement published by the official Bahrain News Agency late on Tuesday, Bahrain's head of public security said the cell was part of a group called the "Imam Army" which included Bahrainis at home and abroad and members of other nationalities.
"Investigation has also revealed that a member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard codenamed 'Abu Naser' masterminded the whole terror operation," the agency quoted public security chief Major-General Tariq Hassan al-Hassan as saying.
Abu Nasser supplied the group with $80,000, Hassan said, and instructed it to gather information, recruit and obtain weapons storage in Bahrain.
"MISTAKEN PATH"
The cell's planned targets included the Ministry of Interior and Bahrain International Airport, he said. The group attended training camps run by the Revolutionary Guard inside Iran, as well as some operated by Iraq's Hezbollah in Baghdad and the Iraqi city of Kerbala, Hassan added.
Five of the detainees were arrested in Bahrain and three in Oman, General Hassan said, adding another four Bahrainis were being sought by the authorities.
He said authorities had collected evidence in the form of papers and electronic documents, flashcards, phones, computers, cash and images of bank transactions.
On Monday Ramin Mehmanparast, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman, dismissed Sunday's news of the arrests.
"Unfortunately Bahraini officials are following a mistaken path," Iran's ISNA news agency quoted him as saying.
He said Bahraini officials were "making accusations against various countries including Iran, and they imagine that in this way they can solve the problem they are encountering".
News of the arrests emerged after an upsurge in unrest on the island last week. A protester and a policeman were killed in clashes on February 14 as anti-government protesters marked the second anniversary of the uprising.
The violence has clouded the atmosphere around talks that began on February 10 between the mostly Shi'ite opposition and the Sunni-dominated government to find a way out of the impasse over Shi'ite demands for more democracy.
Another round of talks was due to be held on Wednesday afternoon.
(Reporting by Raissa Kasolowsky; Editing by William Maclean and Andrew Roche)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bahrain-says-irans-revolutionary-guard-behind-terror-cell-094228863.html
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U.S. says has brought cyber-theft concerns to Chinese government
DEAR ABBY: My boyfriend, "Doug" (24), and I (22) have been in a long-distance relationship for a year, but we were friends for a couple of years before that. I had never had a serious relationship before and lacked experience. Doug has not only been in two other long-term relationships, but has had sex with more than 15 women. One of them is an amateur porn actress.I knew about this, but it didn't bother me until recently. Doug had a party, and while he was drunk he told one of his buddies -- in front of me -- that he should watch a certain porn film starring his ex-girlfriend. ...
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-says-brought-cyber-theft-concerns-chinese-government-053736493.html
Source: Boeing to propose 787 battery fix to FAA
This photo taken Feb. 7, 2013 show a Boeing 787 jet landing, in view of a line of parked 787's at Paine Field in Everett, Wash. Boeing has developed a plan that it intends to propose to federal regulators to temporarily fix problems with the 787 Dreamliner?s batteries that have kept the planes on the ground for more than a month, a congressional official told The Associated Press. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
This photo taken Feb. 7, 2013 show a Boeing 787 jet landing, in view of a line of parked 787's at Paine Field in Everett, Wash. Boeing has developed a plan that it intends to propose to federal regulators to temporarily fix problems with the 787 Dreamliner?s batteries that have kept the planes on the ground for more than a month, a congressional official told The Associated Press. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Boeing has developed a plan that it intends to propose to federal regulators to temporarily fix problems with the 787 Dreamliner's batteries that have kept the planes on the ground for more than a month, a congressional official told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Ray Conner is expected to present the plan to Michael Huerta, head of the Federal Aviation Administration, in a meeting on Friday, the official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly.
Boeing Co. spokesman Marc Birtel said the company doesn't talk in advance about meetings with federal officials.
"Everyone is working to get to the answer as quickly as possible, and good progress is being made," Birtel said.
The FAA and overseas aviation authorities grounded all 50 of the planes in service worldwide after a lithium ion battery caught fire on a plane parked in Boston and a smoking battery led to an emergency landing by another plane in Japan. The 787 is Boeing's newest and most technologically advanced plane. It was supposed to exemplify the future of commercial aviation, but the groundings have been a major public black eye and financial drain for Boeing, which vies with Airbus for the position as the world's largest commercial aircraft maker.
The plane is also the first airliner to make extensive use of lithium ion batteries to help power its electrical systems. Lithium ion batteries weigh less, charge faster and hold more energy than other batteries of comparable size. But they are also more susceptible to short-circuiting that can cause fires if they are damaged, have manufacturing flaws, are exposed to excessive heat or are overcharged.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the battery fire in a Japan Airlines 787 that was discovered shortly after the plane landed at Boston's Logan International Airport on Jan. 7. Japanese authorities are investigating a battery failure in an All Nippon Airways 787 that made an emergency landing nine days after the fire. Investigators have said the batteries experienced short-circuiting and thermal runaway, a chemical reaction that causes progressively hotter temperatures, but they haven't found the root cause of the incidents.
Japan's Transport Ministry said Wednesday its investigation has uncovered a new problem: The aircraft's auxiliary power unit, which contains a lithium ion battery, was improperly connected to the main battery that overheated.
NTSB investigators found the Boston fire started with multiple short-circuits in one of the battery's eight cells. That created an uncontrolled chemical reaction known as "thermal runaway," which is characterized by progressively hotter temperatures. That spread the short-circuiting to the rest of the cells and caused the fire.
The board's findings are at odds with Boeing's initial battery testing before FAA's safety certification of the plane, which concluded that any short-circuiting could be contained within a single cell, preventing thermal runaway and fire from spreading.
Among the measures being discussed to make the batteries safe enough to return the 787 to the skies are adding more ceramic spacers between battery cells to contain any short-circuiting and fire within that cell. That would be in line with Boeing's initial test results.
More ceramic spacers would make the battery larger, which would require a bigger box to contain the battery cells. A more robust box lined with material to prevent any fire from spreading is also under discussion.
"What Boeing is trying to do is fix the battery so that (its initial testing) assumption is now valid," said Jon Hansman, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology aeronautics professor and a member of the FAA's Research and Development Advisory Committee.
"So if you can fix this part, the rest should be ok," he said.
Boeing hasn't said how much the 787 grounding will cost it. Imperial Capital analyst Ken Herbert estimated last week that it could cost Boeing $25 million a month in direct costs, with the total price tag climbing past $1 billion, including spending to fix the problem and expenses for delayed deliveries.
Boeing is still building five 787s each month, and has said it still wants to speed up to 10 a month by the end of the year. The company had orders for 800 of the planes at the time they were grounded.
It would take a delay of more than a couple of months for Boeing to back away from its speed-up plan, UBS analyst David Strauss wrote in a note on Wednesday.
Eight airlines in seven countries have 787s in their fleets. United Airlines, the only U.S. carrier with 787s, has cut its five 787s out of its schedule through the end of March. The grounding has been the most disruptive for Japan's All Nippon Airways, which has 17 of the planes.
LOT Polish Airlines is losing $50,000 a day due to the grounding of its two Boeing 787 Dreamliner planes, according to information made public by the Polish government on Wednesday. One of LOT Polish Airlines' 787s was stranded in Chicago by the grounding. LOT is still waiting for six more 787s to be delivered, several of them early this year.
___
Freed reported from Minneapolis.
___
Follow Joan Lowy on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/AP_Joan_Lowy
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Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Los Angeles mayor: Education is our civil rights struggle
Tuesday, February 19, 2013 - 9:13pm
(CNN) -- ? Editor's note: Antonio Villaraigosa is the 41st mayor of the city of Los Angeles.
My story began like far too many people across this country. My father left when I was 5 years old. My mother, sometimes working two jobs, raised four children on her own in East Los Angeles. She was always my touchstone, the person who taught me my core values. It was her quiet grace, strength in the face of adversity and unflinching will that served me so well in life.
However, despite everything she poured into our family, we kids didn't always make it easy for her. By age 16, I was kicked out of the Catholic school she had worked so hard to send me to.
I found myself at the local public high school, Roosevelt. It was a "drop-out factory." I was put into remedial classes, which I found boring and unchallenging after my previous education. But even worse than that, I felt like the school had given up on me. So, I gave up on myself and dropped out.
My story could have ended there.
I could have become one of my many peers who didn't graduate. But my mother would not accept that fate for me, and a Roosevelt teacher named Herman Katz took an interest in me. They saw my potential and fought for me. They pushed me back into school. They pushed me to finish what I started - and I did, graduating in 1971.
From there, I went to East Los Angeles Community College and transferred to UCLA, one of the finest institutions in the world. At UCLA, I was the beneficiary of affirmative action. Some would say I walked in through the back door. But one thing's for sure, I went out the front. I had a diploma in hand, a future ahead of me and my head held high.
For me, public education really was the great equalizer.
That's why I believe education is the civil rights issue of our time. As a high school dropout, I see a part of myself in every kid who wants to give up because they think the system has failed them. Sadly, the United States now enjoys less economic mobility than Canada and most of Western Europe. Those born into poverty in America lack genuine opportunities to change their fate because they lack access to great public schools.
Now, more than ever, the American dream is linked to our education system. So, as mayor of Los Angeles, I chose to make education a priority. Soon after I took office, we fought to take control of our school district. We were defeated in the court, but we did not give up on improving education for our kids. We worked to elect pro-reform members to the school board, we fought to turn around struggling schools, we expanded school choice and we dedicated ourselves to demanding accountability at every level, from the classroom to the administration. Now, we have a Los Angeles Unified School District that gives parents more power, that works harder to lift every child out of poverty and that strives to offer the same opportunity to every family.
We have not accomplished everything we set out to do, but we have made real progress. Notably, we have doubled the number of Los Angeles schools that meet California's academic performance goal, nearly doubled the percentage of our third graders who are reading proficiently and made double-digit gains in our graduation rate.
How did we do it? First, we knew we had to expand access to better schools in order to serve our most disadvantaged children. So we passed an initiative that allowed charter organizations, teacher teams and other similar groups to run new and failing schools. One-hundred-sixty-four Los Angeles schools have undergone aggressive turnaround efforts. We have also tripled the number of charter schools in Los Angeles, increasing ninefold the number of successful ones - those scoring 800 or more on the state's Academic Performance Index.
Second, we created the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, an innovative nonprofit that runs 22 of our worst schools, including Roosevelt High School. The Partnership allows us to implement new and creative solutions to our most difficult educational challenges and then export these practices to all district schools. We launched a school report card, increased access to gifted programs and established a Parent College to directly engage parents in their kids' education. This year, if the Partnership were its own school district, it would be the most improved in California.
Third, we are building a system of empowerment and accountability. Every student deserves a great teacher, and our teachers deserve a system that values their contributions and supports their development. We negotiated a contract that places teachers at the forefront of school improvement efforts. We developed a stronger evaluation system and focused on changing broken tenure and layoff policies. And we worked to keep good teachers at struggling schools during the depths of the Great Recession.
Over the last eight years, we've taken important steps forward. We've made a difference in Los Angeles, and the policies and practices I've mentioned here can be emulated across the United States - as long as educators, parents, community members and government leaders all come together to make education a priority and enact change.
However, so much work remains ahead of us. We owe it to every child - no matter the color of their skin or the money in their family's pocket - to build a world-class education system in this country. Because when we fall short of the promise of our schools, we fall short of the promise of our nation. This is simply a future we cannot permit.
The opinions expressed are solely those of Antonio R. Villaraigosa.
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Source: http://www.ketknbc.com/news/los-angeles-mayor-education-is-our-civil-rights-st
EU regulators unsatisfied with Google's response to privacy policy concerns
European Union regulators weren't exactly content with Google after it rolled up most of its privacy policies into a monolithic document early last year, and it doesn't seem like that's about to change. After giving Page and Co. four months to respond to 12 recommendations regarding its new policy, French regulator CNIL has come to the conclusion that "Google did not provide any precise and effective answers." Though EU officials aren't happy with Mountain View's responses, Google says its policies respect European law and that it replied with steps to address the concerns by the January 8th deadline. Still, data protection regulators are committed to their investigation and are aiming to form a group before the summertime that would respond to the search titan.
Source: Reuters
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/19/eu-regulators-google-privacy-policy-investigation-continues/
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Friday, February 15, 2013
Offensive line coach leaves West Virginia for Oklahoma
West Virginia offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh is leaving to accept the same position at Oklahoma, leaving Dana Holgorsen with a fourth vacancy to fill on his staff this offseason.
The Charleston Gazette first reported Bedenbaugh accepted the job Thursday night, and a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette source confirmed it.
Bedenbaugh, a highly regarded coach and recruiter, will be a significant loss for the program.
He helped land several top rated prospects in the class of 2013, including touted Ohio receiver Shelton Gibson.
Bedenbaugh has been connected with Holgorsen since the two attended Iowa Wesleyan.
He worked for Mike Leach at Texas Tech from 2000-06 and with Sooners defensive coordinator Mike Stoops at Arizona (2007-10) before joining Holgorsen's staff in 2011.
On Tuesday, SoonerScoop.com reported Bedenbaugh would be tabbed for the position, and Post-Gazette sources confirmed the report had validity.
The hire has not been announced by Oklahoma, nor has Bedenbaugh's departure been announced by West Virginia.
The Mountaineers rushed for 458 yards in a 50-49 loss in November to Oklahoma at Milan Puskar Stadium.
The vacancy occurred when James Patton announced his resignation Monday from the position for a job at Indiana University. He reportedly was fired by Sooners coach Bob Stoops, according to the Oklahoman.
In addition to Bedenbaugh, Holgorsen fired cornerbacks coach Daron Roberts in December, then let longtime assistant Steve Dunlap go after the 38-14 Pinstripe Bowl loss to Syracuse at Yankee Stadium.
Quarterbacks coach Jake Spavital was the third departure when he took a position with Texas A&M.
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Factory images for Android 4.2.2 posted for most Nexus devices
Factory Images For Android 4.2.2 Posted For Most Nexus Devices
www.droiddog.comIf you've been looking for an official way to get your Nexus device back to stock, look no further. Google has posted the Android 4.2.2 factory images on their site for most Nexus devices. This means that the Nexus 4, Nexus 7 (WiFi and HSPA+), Nexux 10, and the yakju and takju Galaxy Nexus models al...
Source: http://www.facebook.com/DroidDog/posts/466524000069692
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Crippled cruise ship finally docks after 5 days
People watch from their balconies and hold up signs aboard the Carnival Triumph after it was towed to the cruise terminal in Mobile, Ala., Thursday, Feb. 14, 2013. The ship with more than 4,200 passengers and crew members has been idled for nearly a week in the Gulf of Mexico following an engine room fire. (AP Photo/John David Mercer)
People watch from their balconies and hold up signs aboard the Carnival Triumph after it was towed to the cruise terminal in Mobile, Ala., Thursday, Feb. 14, 2013. The ship with more than 4,200 passengers and crew members has been idled for nearly a week in the Gulf of Mexico following an engine room fire. (AP Photo/John David Mercer)
The cruise ship Carnival Triumph is pushed towards the cruise terminal along the Mobile River in Mobile, Ala., Thursday, Feb. 14, 2013. The ship with more than 4,200 passengers and crew members was idled for nearly a week in the Gulf of Mexico following an engine room fire. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)
The cruise ship Carnival Triumph is towed into Mobile Bay near Dauphin Island, Ala., Thursday, Feb. 14, 2013. The ship with more than 4,200 passengers and crew members has been idled for nearly a week in the Gulf of Mexico following an engine room fire. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)
The cruise ship Carnival Triumph is towed up the Mobile River in Mobile, Ala., Thursday, Feb. 14, 2013. The ship with more than 4,200 passengers and crew members has been idled for nearly a week in the Gulf of Mexico following an engine room fire. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)
The cruise ship Carnival Triumph into Mobile Bay near Dauphin island, Ala., Thursday, Feb. 14, 2013. The ship with more than 4,200 passengers and crew members has been idled for nearly a week in the Gulf of Mexico following an engine room fire. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)
MOBILE, Ala. (AP) ? A cruise ship disabled for five nightmarish days in the Gulf of Mexico finally docked with some 4,200 people aboard late Thursday, passengers raucously cheering the end to an ocean odyssey they say was marked by overflowing toilets, food shortages and foul odors.
"Sweet Home Alabama!" read one of the homemade signs passengers affixed alongside the 14-story ship as many celebrated at deck rails lining several levels of the stricken ship Triumph. The ship's horn loudly blasted several times as four tugboats pulled the crippled ship to shore. Some gave a thumbs-up sign and flashes from cameras and cellphones lit the night.
About an hour after the ship pulled up at 9:15 p.m. Central, a steady stream of passengers began making their way down the gang plank, some in wheelchairs and others pulling carry-on luggage. One man gave the thumbs up.
An ambulance pulled up to a gate at the bottom of the gang plank, began flashing its lights and then pulled away.
For 24-year-old Brittany Ferguson of Texas, not knowing how long passengers had to endure their time aboard was the worst part.
"I'm feeling awesome just to see land and buildings," said Ferguson, who was in a white robe given to her aboard. "The scariest part was just not knowing when we'd get back"
As the ship pulled up, some aboard shouted, "Hello, Mobile!" Some danced in celebration on one of the balconies. "Happy V-Day" read one of the homemade signs made for the Valentine's Day arrival and another, more starkly: "The ship's afloat, so is the sewage."
A few dozen relatives on the top floor of the parking deck of the terminal were waving lights at the ship as it carefully made its way alongside. Those about were screaming, whistling and taking pictures.
Hundreds gawked from dockside at the arrival at the Alabama cruise terminal in Mobile, the state's only seaport, as the Triumph docked.
Taxis were lined up waiting for people, and motorists on Interstate 10 stopped to watch the exodus of passengers from the cruise ship.
Some still aboard chanted, "Let me off, let me off!"
It took six grueling hours navigating the 30-odd-mile ship channel to dock, guided by at least four towboats. Nearly 900 feet in length, it was the largest cruise ship ever to dock at Mobile.
It will take up to five hours for all the 3,000 passengers to be off, Carnival has said.
In texts and flitting cellphone calls, the ship's passengers described miserable conditions while at sea, many anxious to walk on solid ground.
Buses started leaving the raucous terminal. Up to 100 have been reserved to carry passengers either on a seven-hour ride to the Texas cities of Galveston or Houston or a two-hour trip to New Orleans. Some also can stay in Mobile. From there, passengers will make their way home with Carnival's help.
Deborah Knight, 56, decided to stay in Mobile after the arduous journey was over rather than board a bus for a long ride. Her husband Seth drove in from Houston and they checked in at a downtown Mobile hotel.
"I want a hot shower and a daggum Whataburger," said Knight, who was wearing a bathrobe over her clothes as her bags were unloaded from her husband's pickup check.
She said she was afraid to eat the food on board and had gotten sick while on the ship.
Galveston is the home port of the ill-fated ship, which lost power in an engine-room fire Sunday some 150 miles off Mexico's Yucatan peninsula. It was the end of a cruise that wasn't anything like what a brochure might describe.
Carnival CEO Gerry Cahill apologized at a news conference and later on the public address system as people were disembarking.
"I appreciate the patience of our guests and their ability to cope with the situation. And I'd like to reiterate the apology I made earlier. I know the conditions on board were very poor," he said. "We pride ourselves on providing our guests with a great vacation experience, and clearly we failed in this particular case."
Passenger Ferguson said crew members tried to make the situation bearable.
"They did their best to keep our spirits up," she said.
Joseph and Cecilia Alvarez of San Antonio said they were on the lowest deck near the back of the ship when the fire broke out and they smelled smoke coming from the vents. She said there was confusion that night about whether to evacuate cabins, with firefighters running through the halls.
He said some passengers passed the time by forming a Bible study group that drew about 45 people.
"It was awesome," he said. "It lifted up our souls and gave us hope that we would get back."
While the passengers are headed home, Triumph will head to a Mobile shipyard for assessment, Thornton said.
Earlier Thursday ? four days after the 893-foot ship was crippled in the middle of the Gulf? the passengers and crew suffered another setback with towline issues that brought the vessel to a dead stop for about an hour just as it was getting close to port.
As the vessel drew within cellphone range Thursday, passengers vented their anger.
Renee Shanar of Houston was on board with her husband, whom she said has heart trouble. They were told they would be among the first to disembark, she said.
"I don't believe them; they've been lying to us from the beginning," Shanar said.
Disgusted by the foul air and heat on the lower decks, many passengers hauled mattresses and bed sheets onto the top deck and slept there, even staying put in a soaking rain. As the ship approached the coast, a slew of Carnival workers removed the bedding and took it downstairs.
In a text message, Kalin Hill, of Houston, described deplorable conditions over the past few days.
"The lower floors had it the worst, the floors 'squish' when you walk and lots of the lower rooms have flooding from above floors," Hill wrote. "Half the bachelorette party was on two; the smell down there literally chokes you and hurts your eyes."
She said "there's poop and urine all along the floor. The floor is flooded with sewer water ... and we had to poop in bags."
The company disputed the accounts of passengers who described the ship as filthy, saying employees were doing everything to ensure people were comfortable.
Some travel agents said cruise prices and bookings have not been affected by the disabled Carnival ship, but others in the industry say it's too early to tell.
Thelbert Lanier was waiting at the Mobile port for his wife, who texted him early Thursday.
"Room smells like an outhouse. Cold water only, toilets haven't work in 3 1/2 days. Happy Valentines Day!!! I love u & wish I was there," she said in the text message, which was viewed by The Associated Press. "It's 4:00 am. Can't sleep ... it's cold & I'm starting to get sick."
Carnival has canceled a dozen more planned voyages aboard the Triumph and acknowledged the crippled ship had been plagued by other mechanical problems in the weeks before the engine-room blaze. The National Transportation Safety Board has opened an investigation.
Passengers were supposed to get a full refund and discounts on future cruises, and Carnival announced Wednesday they would each get an additional $500 in compensation.
___
Plushnick-Masti reported from Houston. Associated Press writers Bob Johnson in Montgomery, Ala., and Melissa Nelson-Gabriel in Mobile contributed to this report..
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Thursday, February 14, 2013
Pope Benedict XVI: I'm resigning for the good of the Church
In his first public appearance since he announced his resignation, Pope Benedict XVI thanked the public for their "love and prayers," and explained that he was resigning for the "good of the Church."
According to the Associated Press, the 85-year-old Benedict received a one-minute long standing ovation when he entered the hall at the Vatican for his weekly Wednesday audience. He said that he didn't believe that he could carry on as pope as he didn't have the strength it required.
"As you know, I have decided to renounce the ministry that the Lord gave to me on April 19, 2005," he said during the speech. "I did this in full liberty for the good of the church."
More from GlobalPost: Goodbye Pope Benedict XVI, some of us will miss you ?
Pope Benedict is the first pope in almost 600 years to resign.
He will hold his last public Mass in Saint Peter's Basilica this Wednesday for Ash Wednesday. According to BBC, the Vatican holds a retreat for the remainder of lent, but the world will most likely have a new Pope by Easter.
Though after his retirement Pope Benedict will no longer have a say in Vatican affairs, he appointed 67 of the 117 cardinals that will decide on the new pope. ?
More from GlobalPost: Lightning strikes Vatican soon after Pope's announcement
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/culture-lifestyle/world-religion/130213/pope-benedict-xvi-im-resigning-the-good-the-ch
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Cellular renewal process may underlie benefits of omega fatty acids
Feb. 13, 2013 ? A search for genes that change their levels of expression in response to nutrient deprivation has uncovered potential clues to the mechanism underlying the health benefits of omega fatty acids. In the Feb. 15 issue of Genes & Development, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers describe finding that feeding omega-6 fatty acids to C. elegans roundworms or adding them to cultured human cells activates a cellular renewal process called autophagy, which may be deficient in several important diseases of aging. A process by which defective or worn-out cellular components and molecules are broken down for removal or recycling, autophagy is also activated in metabolically stressful situations, allowing cells to survive by self-digesting nonessential components.
"Enhanced autophagy implies improved clearance of old or damaged cellular components and a more efficient immune response," says Eyleen O'Rourke, PhD, of MGH Molecular Biology, lead author of the report. "It has been suggested that autophagy can extend lifespan by maintaining cellular function, and in humans a breakdown in autophagic function may involved in diseases including inflammatory bowel disease, Parkinson's disease, and in a more complex way in cancer and metabolic syndrome."
O'Rourke is a research fellow in the laboratory of MGH investigator Gary Ruvkun, PhD, whose team investigates the development, longevity and metabolism of C.elegans. Ruvkun and other researchers have discovered that simple mutations in genetic pathways conserved throughout evolution can double or triple the lifespan of C. elegans and that similar mutations in the corresponding mammalian pathways also regulate lifespan. Many of these mutations also make animals resistant to starvation, suggesting that common molecular mechanisms may underlie both response to nutrient deprivation and the regulation of lifespan.
To find these mechanisms O'Rourke searched genomic databases covering many types of animals for shared genes that respond to fasting by changing their expression. She found that expression of the C. elegans gene lipl-4 increases up to seven times in worms not given access to nutrients. A transgenic strain that constantly expresses elevated levels of lipl-4, even when given full access to food, was found to have increased levels of arachidonic acid (AA), an omega-6, and eicosapentanoic acid (EPA), an omega-3 fatty acid and to resist the effects of starvation.
Following the implication that omega fatty acids stimulate a process leading to starvation resistance, the researchers found that feeding AA and another omega-6 fatty acid, but not EPA, activated autophagy in non-transgenic C. elegans with full access to nutrients. Since activation of autophagy has been shown to increase lifespan in several genetic models, the authors tested the effect of omega-6 fatty acids on C. elegans lifespan and found that roundworms consuming a full normal diet supplemented with omega-6 fatty acids lived 20 to 25 percent longer than usual.
Since dietary supplementation with both omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids has been shown to prevent or improve several human health conditions, the researchers tested the response of cultured human cells to omega fatty acid supplementation. As in C. elegans, the human cells responded to supplementation with the omega-6 acids, but not to EPA, by activation of autophagy, measured by levels of marker proteins. That result suggests that omega-6 acids induce autophagy across the full range of multicellular animal species. The researchers then showed that the lifespan-increasing properties of omega-6 fatty acids in C. elegans depend on the presence of genes required for autophagy.
"Almost all the mechanisms of lifespan extension studied until now -- sterility, insulin insensitivity, and caloric restriction -- have been shown to depend on activation of autophagy," says O'Rourke. "Our finding that omega-6 supplementation activated roundworms' cellular response to fasting -- namely autophagy -- even though the worms were eating normally suggests that consumption of omega-6 fatty acids may provide the benefits of caloric restriction without the need to limit food consumption. It also suggests that the reported benefits of omega-6 acids could depend in part on activation of an evolutionarily ancient program for surviving food deprivation."
O'Rourke and her co-authors note that many investigators and clinicians believe that omega-6 fatty acids -- commonly found in meats, poultry and vegetable oils -- may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, despite epidemiologic evidence that omega-6 consumption actually reduces cardiovascular risks. "We hope that our findings -- made by investigating the cellular responses of a 1-millimeter roundworm -- will lead the scientific and medical community to look back at all the epidemiologic, basic and clinical research data and to study the effects of omega-6 fatty acids on multiple types of human cells and live animals in order to gain better knowledge on how balanced intake of these nutrients benefits human health," she says.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Massachusetts General Hospital, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- E. J. O'Rourke, P. Kuballa, R. Xavier, G. Ruvkun. ?-6 Polyunsaturated fatty acids extend life span through the activation of autophagy. Genes & Development, 2013; DOI: 10.1101/gad.205294.112
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/wtyeik7QzSI/130213152523.htm
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Banana Joe the affenpinscher wins Westminster
NEW YORK (AP) ? Banana Joe didn't monkey around this time.
The little affenpinscher with the bouncy step and shiny black coat walked off as America's top dog Tuesday night, winning best in show at the Westminster Kennel Club.
Affectionately called a monkey dog because he looks just like one, Banana Joe made up for near misses the last two years at Madison Square Garden.
The 5-year-old wagged his tail a mile a minute after earning his 86th best in show title overall. It was a timely win, too, coming a day before he was set to fly back to the Netherlands with his owner.
An old English sheepdog only 20 months old was picked as the runner-up on the green carpet of the Garden. Swagger the sheepdog drew the most cheers, but judge Michael Dougherty picked Banana Joe.
Also in the best-of-seven final ring were a German wirehaired pointer ranked as the nation's No. 1 show dog, an American foxhound, a Portuguese water dog, a bichon frise and a smooth fox terrier.
Handler Ernesto Lara kept hoisting Banana Joe after the victory at the country's premier dog show. The playful pooch enjoys tugging at his squeaky mouse toy ? now he'll be able to put it in the prized silver bowl he won.
There were 2,721 entries in the 137th Westminster.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/banana-joe-affenpinscher-wins-westminster-040159393--spt.html
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Thursday, February 7, 2013
Woman in Timbuktu punished for forbidden love
24-year-old Salaka Djicke reflects on the horror she endured during 10 months of Islamist rule in her hometown of Timbuktu, Mali, Wednesday Feb. 6, 2013. Salaka and her boyfriend continued seeing each other in secret, even after Shariah rule was imposed, risking death for a chance to love. Her body still bears the scars of the Shariah punishment she endured, after she was caught on Dec. 31, just two weeks before French forces liberated Timbuktu. (AP Photo/Rukmini Callimachi)
24-year-old Salaka Djicke reflects on the horror she endured during 10 months of Islamist rule in her hometown of Timbuktu, Mali, Wednesday Feb. 6, 2013. Salaka and her boyfriend continued seeing each other in secret, even after Shariah rule was imposed, risking death for a chance to love. Her body still bears the scars of the Shariah punishment she endured, after she was caught on Dec. 31, just two weeks before French forces liberated Timbuktu. (AP Photo/Rukmini Callimachi)
In this Sunday, Feb. 3, 2013 photo, Salaka Djicke tells how she was jailed and flogged after being caught having a relationship with a married man, in Timbuktu, Mali. Until they were chased out by the French last week, the Islamic extremists who controlled northern Mali since April applied a harsh brand of Shariah in the moderate Muslim region. Djicke was publicly whipped, and at least one other unmarried couple was executed by stoning. (AP Photo/Harouna Traore)
In this Monday, Feb. 4, 2013 photo, Salaka Djicke stands in the prison cell where she was held for two nights by Islamic police after being caught having a relationship with a married man, in Timbuktu, Mali. Until they were chased out by the French last week, the Islamic extremists who controlled northern Mali since April applied a harsh brand of Shariah in the moderate Muslim region. Djicke was publicly whipped, and at least one other unmarried couple was executed by stoning. (AP Photo/Harouna Traore)
In this Monday, Feb. 4, 2013 photo, Salaka Djicke stands in the town square where she was publicly whipped after being caught having a relationship with a married man, in Timbuktu, Mali. Until they were chased out by the French last week, the Islamic extremists who controlled northern Mali since April applied a harsh brand of Shariah in the moderate Muslim region. Djicke was jailed and publicly flogged, and at least one other unmarried couple was executed by stoning. (AP Photo/Harouna Traore)
In this Feb. 4, 2013 photo, Salaka Djicke stands at the entrance to the women's jail where she was held for two nights by Islamic police after being caught having a relationship with a married man, in Timbuktu, Mali. Until they were chased out by the French last week, the Islamic extremists who controlled northern Mali since April applied a harsh brand of Shariah in the moderate Muslim region. Djicke was publicly whipped, and at least one other unmarried couple was executed by stoning. (AP Photo/Harouna Traore)
TIMBUKTU, Mali (AP) ? The love story in this fabled desert outpost began over the phone, when he dialed the wrong number. It nearly ended with the couple's death at the hands of Islamic extremists who considered their romance "haram" ? forbidden.
What happened in between is a study in how al-Qaida-linked militants terrorized a population, whipping women and girls in northern Mali almost every day for not adhering to their interpretation of the strict moral code known as Shariah. It is also a testament to the violent clash between the brutal, unyielding Islam of the invaders and the moderate version of the religion that has long prevailed in Timbuktu, once a center for Islamic learning.
Salaka Djicke is a round-faced, big-boned girl with the wide thighs still fashionable in the desert, an unforgiving terrain that leaves many women without curves. Until the Islamists came and upended her world, the 24-year-old lived a relatively free life.
During the day, she helped her mother bake bread in a mud oven, selling each puffy piece for 50 francs (10 cents). In the afternoon, she grilled meat on an open fire and sold brochettes on the side of the road. She saved the money she earned to buy herself makeup and get her hair styled.
Like her sisters and friends, she spoke openly with men ? including the stranger who called her by mistake more than a year ago.
The man thought he was calling his cousin. When he heard Salaka's voice, he apologized. His voice was polite but firm, with the authoritative cadence of a man in his prime. Hers was flirtatious, and her laugh betrayed her youth.
They started talking.
A few days later, he called her again. For two weeks, they spoke nearly every day, until he asked for directions to her house.
She explained how to find the mud house on Rue 141, past the water tower also made of mud, in a neighborhood less than a mile from where he sold gasoline from jerrycans by the roadside. She had time to put on a yellow dress.
He arrived on his motorcycle.
He was older ? she does not know how old ? and already married, a status that bears no taboo in a predominantly Muslim region where men can take up to four wives. She found him handsome.
From that day on, he ended phone conversations with the phrase, 'Ye bani,' or "I love you" in the Sonrai language. Instead of Salaka, he called her "cherie" ? sweetheart in French, still spoken in this former French colony.
He showered her with gifts, starting with a 6-yard-long piece of bazin fabric, the hand-dyed, polished cotton which is the mainstay of Malian fashion. It was a royal violet, and he paid to have it tailored into a two-piece outfit, with a flame-like flourish of orange brocade on the bodice.
She put it on for him, and they went to the photo studio one street over. They stood against the poster backdrop of an enamel-blue waterfall. He put his arms around her and invited her to sit on his lap.
By the time the first group of rebel fighters carrying the flag of the National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad drove past her house on April 1, the two had been seeing each other for several months. He called to see if she was OK.
These fighters in military uniforms made clear their goal: They wanted to create an independent homeland known as Azawad for Mali's marginalized Tuareg people.
Only days later, a different group of fighters arrived, wearing beards and tunics that looked like the kurtas common in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Their black flag resembled the one people had seen on YouTube videos posted by al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb. They called themselves Ansar Dine, or "Defenders of the Faith."
They produced a pamphlet outlining how a woman should wear the veil, and whom she could and could not be seen with. Eschewing any contact with women, they handed the leaflets out to the men.
One of them was Salaka's boyfriend. He drove his motorcycle to her house to give it to her.
She didn't have enough money to buy the plain, colorless veil prescribed to cover the entire body. So her boyfriend went to the market and paid for two, one red and one blue. The women of sub-Saharan Africa are so used to wearing vibrant colors, he couldn't find any that were black.
___
As their love affair grew more intense, so did the crackdown by the Islamists in northern Mali, an area equal in size to Afghanistan.
Three months after they arrived, they arrested an illiterate man and woman, both dirt-poor herders living together for years with their animals outside the town of Aguelhok. The man had left his wife to reunite with his teenage love, and they had two children out of wedlock, the youngest just six months old.
In the last week of July, the Islamists sped into their nomadic camp and arrested them. They drove them to the city center, where they announced the couple would be stoned to death for adultery.
They dug a hole the size of a man and forced them to kneel inside. They made the villagers come out to see what Shariah was.
Then they cast the first stone.
__
The fear was now palpable on the streets of Timbuktu. Salaka and her boyfriend stopped seeing each other in public. When he came, they sat in the enclosed courtyard of her parents' home, behind the veil of its chrome-red dirt walls.
Even in relatively modern Timbuktu, it was not considered appropriate to leave the couple alone in a room. So he arranged for a friend to loan him the keys to his empty house in a neighborhood less than a mile away.
Would she please join him there, just for an hour, once a week?
She hesitated. He begged her, saying he couldn't be without her. They determined that the Islamic police stopped their patrols at 10 p.m.
She went once and got home safely. She went again.
They began meeting once a week. She insisted on staying no longer than 40 minutes. He brought her on his motorcycle, stopping close to the house and pushing the bike through a blanket of sand to avoid attention.
By this time, the Islamists were beating everyone from pregnant mothers and grandmothers to 9-year-olds for not covering themselves fully. A woman was no longer supposed to talk even to her own brother on the stoop of her house.
At a certain point Salaka knew they were going to get caught. She planned out what they would say.
In one version, she would say he was her uncle. In another she would call him her older brother. In yet another, they would try to pass off as a married couple.
On the night of Dec. 31, the two left Salaka's house on a motorcycle, headed west and turned onto Road No. 160.
They passed the bread oven belonging to one of her mother's competitors. They skirted an alley crowded with handmade bricks laid out to dry. They turned left, and then right again, taking a circuitous path to confuse anyone who might be following them.
When they got close, they chose the narrowest alleyways, used only by motorcycles and donkey carts instead of the Toyota pickup trucks of the Islamic police. They passed the house where they planned to meet and doubled back in an alley. He cut the motorcycle's engine, told her to stay 100 yards behind him and pushed the bike through the sand as usual.
She watched him leave. She was breathing so hard she was afraid the stars could hear her. He passed the first intersection, then the second, and then the third.
The bearded men came on foot via the third intersection. There were four of them. Her lover jumped on his motorcycle and gunned it across the sand. He was the married one and would have paid the higher price.
She knew she couldn't outrun them. So she stood. And in the moments it took for them to descend on her, she realized it would be futile to lie.
___
They took her to the headquarters of the Islamic police, inside a branch of the local bank. They shoved her into the closet-like space where the ATM machine is located and locked the gate behind her.
When she didn't come home that night, her worried sister called her cell phone. The Islamic police answered and told her where Salaka was.
In the morning, her family came to slip her a piece of bread through the grills of the gate, feeding her like an animal at the zoo. Later that day, the police transferred her to a prison they had set up just for women in a wing of the city's central jail. For the next three nights, she slept alone on a hard floor in a large, cement room.
On Jan. 3 they took her to the Islamic tribunal. Just eight days before French President Francois Hollande unilaterally approved a military intervention in Mali on Jan. 11, Salaka was convicted of being caught with a man who was not her husband and sentenced to 95 lashes. It was a severe punishment even by the standards of the Islamists.
They took her to the market at noon on Jan. 4, the same place where she bought the beef for the brochettes she sold and the flour used to make her mother's flatbread. She recognized the meat sellers. One of them used his phone to record what happened next.
The police made her kneel in a traffic circle. They covered her in a gauze-like shroud. They told her to remove her dress, leaving only the thin fabric to protect her skin from the whip. Curious children jostled for a better view.
What they did to her was witnessed by dozens of people in Timbuktu, and can still be heard on the meat seller's cell phone.
The executor announced Salaka's crime and her punishment. Then he began flogging her with a switch made from the branch of a tree. Her high-pitched cries are contorted with pain. You can hear the slap of the whip. You can hear her labored breathing.
They hit her so hard and for so long that at one point she wasn't sure if the veil had fallen off. She could feel the blood seeping through.
When it was over, they told her that if they ever saw her with a man again, they would kill her.
Her lover called as soon as she got home. The night she was caught, he ran away to Mali's distant capital, becoming one of an estimated 385,000 people who have fled their homes from the north.
He said over and over: "I'm sorry." He promised to marry her. But he has not yet returned. She still will not name him, fearing the Islamist extremists will be back.
Her face warms when she speaks of him and contracts when she describes her pain and humiliation. There isn't a child in Timbuktu who doesn't recognize her, she says. Even now she avoids the market, sending her sisters to buy the meat instead.
"This was a tyrannical regime, which had no pity towards women," she says. "I'm not the only one that went through this. I did this because I was in love."
Last week, Salaka was among the thousands of people who poured into the streets to cheer French soldiers as they liberated the city. She folded and put away her blue and red veils.
In recent days, she pulled out her lover's gift of the violet bazin with the flame-patterned brocade from the bottom of a pile of clothes she was not allowed to wear under the city's occupiers. She painted her lips a translucent fuschia. She went to the newly opened hairdresser.
The photo studio where she and her lover posed by the cardboard waterfall remains closed, so instead her brother snapped a picture of her.
If you look closely, you can see the marks left by the whip across her now-naked shoulders.
___
Salaka's story was pieced together from interviews with her over three days. Salaka took AP journalists to the rendezvous house, the place where she was arrested, the ATM machine, her prison cell and the market. Her family, city officials and several witnesses confirmed the whipping, and a meat seller shared with the AP a sound recording that captures the sentencing and her screams. The account of the stoning in Aguelhok is from the city's mayor.
Rukmini Callimachi can be reached at www.twitter.com/rcallimachi.
Associated PressSigns of modest hiring in unemployment applications
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Fewer Americans sought unemployment benefits last week, indicating companies continue to hire at a modest but steady pace.
The Labor Department said Thursday that weekly applications for unemployment benefits fell 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 366,000.
The four-week average, a less volatile measure, dropped to 350,500, the lowest in nearly five years. The average is low because of seasonal factors, which reduced applications sharply last month.
Still, economists were encouraged by the decline. Weekly applications are a proxy for layoffs. When layoffs decline, net hiring typically rises.
The drop in the four-week average "is good news and supports the view that the U.S. labor market is gradually improving," said Jennifer Lee, an economist at BMO Capital Markets.
The four-week average of applications has dropped nearly 6 percent in the past three months. At the same time, hiring has picked up: Employers added an average of 200,000 jobs a month from November through January.
In January, employers added 157,000 jobs. And annual revisions included in the Labor Department's January employment report showed the economy created 600,000 more jobs in 2011 and 2012 than previously thought.
Still, the unemployment rate ticked up to 7.9 percent in January from 7.8 percent in December. Economists expect unemployment will decline if hiring continues at last year's monthly pace of 180,000. The rate fell 0.7 percentage points in 2012.
Overall, nearly 5.6 million people received unemployment benefits in the week ended Jan. 19, the latest data available. That's about 325,000 fewer than the previous week.
That's also less than half the number of unemployed, which stood at 12.3 million last month. Many of the unemployed aren't eligible for benefits, while others have used up all the benefits available to them.
More hiring and income are needed to fuel greater economic growth. The economy shrank at an annual rate of 0.1 percent in the October-December quarter. But the decline was mostly caused by deep cuts in defense spending and sluggish growth in company stockpiles ? one-time events that analysts say are likely rebounding in the current quarter.
Economists expect growth of around 2 percent this year. Strength in areas like housing and auto sales could partly offset government spending cuts this year.
Home builders are stepping up construction to meet rising demand. That should create more construction jobs. Home prices and sales are also increasing.
The housing recovery is boosting jobs at home-supply stores and retailers. Home Depot said Wednesday that it plans to hire 80,000 temporary employees for the spring selling season. The jobs will be part-time and full-time, the company said.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-unemployment-aid-applications-decline-366k-133649419--finance.html
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CRM No Commitment ? Means No Results | Commence CRM Blog
Posted by Commence on February 6, 2013 under CRM White Papers, Customer Success | 
As an executive of a company servicing the Customer Relationship Management software sector, CRM has become a bit of an oxymoron for me.? I believe that building long term business relationships with your customers requires a commitment to providing quality products and great customer service.?? This traditionally involves reaching out to your customers and engaging with them so that they realize the maximum value from your product.
But many small to mid-size companies and CRM vendors that service the SMB sector just don?t see it this way.? The vendors prefer that you just buy their product over the internet. If you need assistance send an e-mail and they will get back to you when it?s convenient for them. The buyers seem to feel comfortable with this and often hold the position that if I need assistance using your product, then it?s too hard so I?m not interested.? It?s almost as if they view CRM software as nothing more than a commodity.
Your CRM Success Needs Your Commitment
Interestingly enough industry reports have indicated that there is as much as a 70% failure rate among CRM implementations.? This is far worse than any other segment of the software industry.? Much of this occurs in the SMB space where companies never get off the ground and as a result discontinue the service.
You could place the blame on the CRM software providers for developing products that are too hard to use; or perhaps the management of the company that purchased the system for failing to properly match their business requirement with the vendor?s offering or assign a champion who?s in charge of the CRM system. I blame the management and here?s why.
The CRM sector is crowded and highly competitive, with several hundred solutions ranging in price from free to more than $200 dollars per user per month.? Most of the offerings targeted at the SME sector offer basic functionality and as such are very easy to use so this is not the problem.? Furthermore, they are designed to offer limited to no customization so that the customer can?t get themselves in too much trouble. This is because with price points of free to $15 per user per month the vendor cannot afford to hire the resources to provide customer service.? So when you see CRM products offered for free ? no contract, or go month-to-month with no commitment, they mean it.
The real problem lies with the management of these small to mid-size businesses that have limited resources, are stretched thin and often do not understand that in order to improve how they market, sell and provide service to their customers they have to do more than download a cheap piece of software over the Internet.? This commodity mentality is what I believe has led to the high failure rate in the industry.? So how does this change?
Successfully Implementing Your CRM Solution
First, the management needs to agree that No Commitment ? Means No Results.? The first task is to make a commitment to put someone in charge of the CRM process. A champion who will document the business challenges such as ?we need to improve lead generation?. Then focus on finding a CRM solution that will address these challenges and a CRM vendor who can provide advice, counsel or value added services that will ensure results.
CRM is a two way street and you need to feel comfortable that the vendor has the staff and experience to make a commitment to your success. As I stated earlier you won?t get this by putting your credit card over the internet. This does not mean you have to mortgage the business to find a quality product and company that can deliver both at an affordable price. There are several good ones and you may be surprised to find out that the difference between a low cost CRM product and a CRM solution provider offering the value added services you need may be less than you think.
About the Author:
Larry Caretsky is President of Commence Corporation, a leading provider of online CRM software for small to mid-size businesses.? Caretsky is considered an expert in the field and has written numerous white papers on the subject and the book,?Practices That Pay ? Leveraging Information to Achieve Selling Results.? All are available from the company?s web site at www.commence.com
Image by Piero Fissore on Flickr under Creative Commons license.
Source: http://www.commence.com/blog/index.php/2013/02/06/crm-no-commitment-means-no-results/
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