If you already have extensive business experience and are looking to bring it to the next level, consider checking out Florida International University?s Online Master of International Business program.
That?s right, we said online! Don?t sacrifice your budget to get a high quality international business degree. Instead, do it from the comfort of your home. The Online Master of International Business program gives students insight into understanding international business practices including an analysis of global markets as well as an in-depth look of international trade, investments, international marketing, finance and more.
This one year program will develop your leadership, interpersonal, and communication skills, so that you can develop both your business and networking competence required to have a successful career in international business.
Ranked 23rd as one of the best graduate international business programs by US News & World Report in 2011 ? FIU is home to faculty and students from over 100 countries across the globe.
International students will also have the opportunity to connect with South Florida?s business community through networking functions and the opportunity to act as a ?consultant? for a local company as part of the Master?s project.
If you are looking to get your international business degree and want a program whose focus is to expand your realities of doing business internationally, look no further than the Online Master of International Business.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 26th, 2012 at 6:15 am and is filed under International Student. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
85% of U.S. health consumers say that emails, text messages, and voicemails are at least as helpful as in-person or phone conversations with health providers, according to the?TeleVoxHealthy World study,?Technology Beyond the Exam Room. The study was based on surveys conducted with over 2,200 health providers across specialties, and 1,015 U.S. adults over 18.
Furthermore, one in 3 consumers admit to being more honest when talking about medical needs via automated voice response systems, emails or texts than face-to-face with a health provider.
And 3 in 10 consumers believe that receiving digital health communications from providers such as texts, voicemails or emails that provide patient care would build trust with their providers. 51% say they?d feel more valued as a patient via digital health communications.
The chart illustrates various communications messaging that consumers value via various digital channels. The red bar represents email: clearly, email is a valued channel across nearly all message types surveyed, from patient care (49%) and health tips (68%) to seasonal reminders (55%, THINK: flu shots, illustrated in the second infographic from TeleVox) and payment reminders (56%).
All consumers, from Gen X and Gen Y to Baby Boomers, look for these messages to be personally tailored, welcoming in the era of personalized medicine via digital communications.
Health Populi?s Hot Points:? Patients are educating themselves to be health consumers in the emerging healthcareDIY era. While payers and providers should be doing a better job preparing people to play this role, the education is largely done by people themselves. Consumers? demands for digitally-delivered health services are central to this education, which nurtures empowerment and trust, as people pointed out in the TeleVox survey.
That 1 in 2 consumers (49%) say they?re open to receiving medical care between visits via email testifies to consumers? demand for telehealth services. If payment can align between payers, providers and consumers to marshall distance health services to the home and workplace, we?ll be building a more satisfied, empowered, and healthy patient. Value-based and accountable care can help get us to this Patient 2.0.
Tagged as: aging and technology, Baby boomers and health, behavior change, CONNECTED HEALTH, CONSUMER-DIRECTED HEALTH, DESIGN AND HEALTH, doctors, electronic health records, Health Populi, HEALTHCARE DIY, INTERNET AND HEALTH, INTERNET DEMOGRAPHICS, Jane Sarasohn-Kahn, MEDICATION ADHERENCE, mHealth, Mobile health, MOMS AND HEALTH, PERSONAL HEALTH RECORDS, personalized medicine, POPULAR CULTURE AND HEALTH, privacy and security, REMOTE HEALTH MONITORING, RETAIL HEALTH, social media and health, TELEHEALTH, TELEMEDICINE, WOMEN AND HEALTH
I installed some speed reading apps and tested them. I?ve so far notices a few ?categories? or groups of equals:
One kind exists mostly from showing a text word by word in the middle of the screen. Showing each word a very short time and so you can read at a high wpm because you never need to move your eyes.
Another kind is merely a speed reading article disguised as app.
Another kind is no speed reading app but just a reading app with a fancy name.
Yet another kind is training in the form of news/actually.
And the last kind is a training app, not for your own stuff but purely for training.
I only tested them quickly and unions talked the non-interesting. But they aren?t quite what I?m looking for. Maybe I should write one myself for training and guided reading.
This entry was posted in Other and tagged Android, Self Improvement, Speed Reading. Bookmark the permalink.
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) ? Iran is planning naval maneuvers in international waters near strategic Strait of Hormuz, where one-fifth of world oil supply passes, the official IRNA news agency reported Tuesday.
The report quoted Iran's navy chief, Adm. Habibollah Sayyari, as saying the maneuvers will begin Friday from the Strait of Hormuz to the northern part of Indian Ocean in an area of about 1 million square kilometers (400,000 square miles).
Iran in the past threatened to close the strait over Western sanctions aimed at its suspect nuclear program but has not repeated the threat lately.
Sayyari said Iran will test-fire missiles and deploy vessels and submarines during the six-day war games.
The semi-official Fars news agency reported that navy of the powerful Revolutionary Guards began a limited naval drill Tuesday in central part of the Persian Gulf.
It said the four-day maneuver is meant to test and assess its forces and includes missile firing, the report said.
Iran regularly holds military exercises to test and upgrade its military equipment as well as to boost its regional military standing.
The latest drills come as the West increases its pressure over Iran's nuclear program. The West suspects Iran may be aiming to produce nuclear weapons.
Iran denies the charge, insisting its nuclear activities have peaceful purposes like power generation and cancer treatment.
[unable to retrieve full-text content]As geneticists plan to study the DNA of a mass killer in hopes of eventually preventing rampages, some researchers question what good could come of the findings.
Two days before Thanksgiving the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission released a Safety Alert pithily titled ?Single-Load Liquid Laundry Packets: Harmful to Children." Well, maybe not so pithy. This relatively new-on-the-U.S.-market product is better known as ?detergent pods.?
?Single-load liquid packet? sounds like some kind of weapon. Then again, that inference might not be misdirected. Of course, it could be argued that pods conjures up the image of a sinister alien species, which also has a ring of truth given that laundry pods come to us after already having invaded the U.K. More on that experience later.
Ironically, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) seems to have come up with its convoluted pod-free phraseology bending over backwards to avoid any reference to one of the main products out there on supermarket shelves. Here?s a slogan that gives a hint: Tide?s reinventing the way you do laundry!
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) was not so circumspect in titling the lead Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report article for its October 19 issue: ?Health Hazards Associated with Laundry Detergent Pods ? United States, May-June 2012? (http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6141a1.htm). Limiting itself two just two months of data and only two regional Poison Control Centers, the CDC detailed four cases of severe illness in very young children (aged 10, 15, 17, and 20 months) who had ingested or bitten into pods containing concentrated detergent. All were hospitalized; three of the four required intubation. In addition to gut irritation, vomiting, and respiratory tract compromise, another notable complication (and an uncommon one for detergents) was central nervous system toxicity. The CDC delved deeper into Poison Control Center data nationally, finding that over a one month period from mid-May to mid-June, 485 pod detergent exposures had been reported. Even before the CDC report, the Consumers Union had written to CPSC calling for action on this problem (http://www.consumersunion.org/pub/core_product_safety/018481.html).
It was nearly two months before the CPSC responded with its November 20th Safety Alert (http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/390.pdf) . The one page flyer is seasonably colored red and green (the latter coming from a small green pod picture in the upper right; a larger pod illustration is almost completely obscured by a large print balloon summarizing the CPSC?s take-home message). The CPSC cogently highlights why toddlers might get in trouble with pods: ?Liquid laundry packets are attractive to children as play items because they are soft and colorful and they resemble familiar items like candy, toys, and teething products.? The alert contains no mandate for any change to product packaging (nor, heaven forbid, any recall threat) and does not even a suggest relabeling, however modest. Rather, the CPSC instructs, ?Do NOT let Children Handle; Keep Locked Up & Out of a Child?s Sight and Reach.? If single-load detergents can be a weapon, then this is the equivalent of arguing for armed guards as the solution to the problem.
Six days after it released its alert, the CPSC received a consumer injury report forwarded on from a manufacturer (http://www.saferproducts.gov/ViewIncident/1280239): ?I use Tide Pods to do my laundry. My 3-year-old got a hold of one of the Pods, squeezed it, and it went directly into her eye?.Her eye suffered a severe corneal abrasion. She basically burned off the top layer of her cornea and the Doctor said it was similar to a chemical burn. With some treatment and a weeks worth of pain, she will be fine. However, people should be aware, and the labeling which states "May cause some eye irritation" should be changed to seek medical attention immediately. These pods are fairly new, and even Doctors are not aware of the damage they can cause.?
The CPSC website also includes the official response from the Procter & Gamble Company, which reads in part, ?We?re very sorry about your daughter?s experience and glad to hear she is feeling better. As a company, we?re deeply committed to the health and well being of our consumers. We understand you want safe products to use in your home; we want the same for our families, too. Nothing is more important to us than the safety of those who use our products and we take reports of accidental contacts with household cleaners seriously.? Proctor and Gamble goes on to delineate a few changes it will make, including changing the latch on the pods dispenser from single to double release to require more dexterity to open it (a kind of safety trigger). They end their comments, ?Again, we?re really sorry to hear of your daughter?s experience and we?re appreciative of your efforts to help us gain a better understanding. If we can be of additional assistance, please let us know.? One can learn further about P&G?s concerns by tuning into their 1.12 minute instructional video Clean Routine to learn better that ?A Safe Home is a Happy Home!? (http://www.tide.com/en-US/article/Quick-and-easy-steps-to-a-safe-...)
Arguably, it does take time to make post-marketing adjustments. The particular problem of eye injury should not have come as a surprise, however. As early as 2005, the British Medical Journal published a letter highlighting six cases of eye injury from such products in young children. Nor has the problem gone away. In 2010, a similar report appeared in the Lancet. It?s hard to argue obscurity here ? this is the equivalent of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and the New England Journal of Medicine both publicizing the same hazard.
In the 1978 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Dr. Bennell, re-invented as a public health physician, at one point warns (with a premonitory wink at the audience), ?You don't have any secrets from the Department of Health.? We might all benefit from a little Invasion of the Body Snatchers-style paranoia at the CPSC. Or at least maybe they could just stay awake.
I asked the question contained in the title of this post in a community I moderate on Google+ (Consultant Exchange- join us if you are a coach or consultant)
Somewhat predictably answers fell into two camps ? those with a book said yes it was very helpful and meaningful to their business. Those without a book said no they didn?t think it was necessary and that a well written blog might be more important.
In my business having a book (and now three) made a significant difference in terms of creating more speaking, branding and consulting opportunities. Now, a key measure in the equation is that these books are well regarded and sold well enough to stand on their own ? but there?s no question my books have led to a bigger brand for Duct Tape Marketing.
I posed the same question to my friend Guy Kawasaki and his take was a little more reserved ? ?Writing a book to open other opportunities is the wrong reason to write a book. You should write a book because you have something to say or are passionate about promoting a cause or idea.?
Kawasaki has written twelve books, including the just released APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur ? How to Publish a Book. Kawasaki wrote the book to reveal everything he?s learned along the way as an author and entrepreneur with the added lessons gained from publishing his last two books without the aid of the traditional publishing machine.
APE is meant to introduce the concept of ?artisinal publishing? as a powerful avenue for anyone wishing to get their message heard in the form of a book much like an artist practicing and promoting their craft might do.
As someone that?s written several books I can tell you that if you have a desire to write a book, but have no desire to publish on your own, the section on writing a book is worth the money. If you do plan to write and publish your own work the guidance on the very specific elements of editing, formatting and submitting digital books is a gold mine.
I do believe that we have come to a point where honing and communicating a specific point of view is an essential practice in the worlds of coaching, consulting and marketing and a book is one format to do so.
More importantly perhaps is that you practice your craft in a way that allows you to gain the experience and insight needed to construct a point of view worth sharing ? do that and you?re on your way to writing that book.
Cybercrime Inc.: The Business Of The Digital Black Market In a world where services from botnet rentals to black hat search engine optimization (SEO) are all for sale, the money criminals stand to make can be significant. For example, for $ 80, the report notes, a cyber-ring can get 20,000 backlinks for ? Read more on Dark Reading
Student Startup 8: Creating a Global Community of Students with York ? His areas of expertise include social media optimization, search engine optimization and web based income generation techniques. ? He was among the first few hires at CubTuc and brings 30 years of experience in the software development industry. Read more on Techvibes (blog)
SixTwo Interactive, LLC to Host Free Monthly Marketing Education Sessions The sessions are one hour long and are designed to introduce and improve marketers and business owners to the ins and outs of different software programs, marketing techniques, search engine optimization, social media marketing. They will also serve as ? Read more on SBWire (press release)
Do Registry Cleaners Make Your Slow Computer Run Any Faster? - Fobble Up! - All Technology Topics, Tips, Tricks and News
Do Registry Cleaners Make Your Slow Computer Run Any Faster?
Registry cleaning software like CCleaner, RegCleanXP claim to delete the junk of your Windows Registry databases. But?does that make your computer work any faster ? One of the MVP recently wrote that Registry Cleaners are useless, as Windows XP *never* reads the whole registry, but only the necessary keys when needed. Each and every unnecessary key will just be ignored.
Another one said that some registry entries might be obsolete but are still accessed by some program and could effect the performance of that program (which could be part of the system).? Most of the members are of the view that regular disk defragmentation is better than a registry cleaner ? not the one that ship with XP but a third-party disk defragment like Acronis Disk Director, Raxco Perfect Disk or Disk Keeper. What your take on that ?
Web content management, this title may seem to be an easy thing to define. In today?s modern world, the internet has proven to be one of the lifeline of the world. Be it business, home use, government, military, health services and other applications where a computer and communications are needed. By definition, web content management (WCM) or web content management system ( WCMS) is a bundled or in some cases, a stand alone program or application which is used to create, store, manage and deploy any content on webpages or websites. This is also a system software that provides, collaboration, website authoring and administration tools to let users with limited knowledge of programming language for websites to manage website contents. The contents can be graphics, text, video, photos or audio. It can index and catalog content and deliver it to any visitor. The contents can be delivered in a more personalized way and in different languages. The WCNS needs a systems admin and a web developer to set it up, but the system itself is a website maintenance tool for non-technical people.
What Are The Types Of WCMS?
There are three types of WCMS in use in the IT community.
Online processing ? this type applies to templates on demand. When a user visits the page or pulled from a web cache, an HTML may be generated or produced. This type has the ability to support add ons which in turn give extended capabilities including, blogs, forums, photo galleries, web stores etc. these add ons can be a paid license app or can be based on an open source. These add on are commonly? called as widgets, extensions and modules.
Off-line processing ? these types of systems pre process all contents intended for web publication. It applies templates before any publication to generate web pages. This type does not require a server to apply the templates at any request time.
Hybrid systems ? these types of systems combine the online and offline approaches in web publications.
Some of the popular? web content management systems are WordPress, Blogger, Joomla! And Drupal. WordPress and Blogger are the most popular WCMS. These two originally are blogging CMS and later on evolved into a full fledged CMS. Joomla is more complex than the first 2. Drupal is the most difficult but it?s the more secure. This CMS is used in the White House. With numerous WCMS available, ?any individual can post create their own websites either for an online diary, to sell merchandise, do business ?and share files.
What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of WCMS?
If applied to a business, it will reduce customer dissatisfaction because of incorrect information, there is a high probability that a customer will re-visit the website, most search engines will rank the website with a higher user traffic. Most of the available WCMS is free, others have paid subscription which does not exceed $10.00/year. It can be customized easily, many cms tools utilize drag and drop capabilities for its design modes. It also has the ability to control the content to be published, when, how and who will publish the content.? Content creators will be able to take ownership for the information being published. And lastly and the most important thing is that it is made and designed where non technical people can use it with ease.
A demonstrator from CodePink holds up a banner as National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre delivers remarks during a news conference at the Willard Hotel on Friday in Washington, D.C.
Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Read more coverage about gun control in Slate.
So this is what Wayne LaPierre came up with, with a week to reflect on the news that a law-abiding gun owner's legally purchased rifle, in the hands of her firearm-trained son, had been used to slaughter 20 kids: more guns, more law-abiding gun owners, more more more lead-spraying death machinery, more killing to stop the killers until all the killers have been killed. Only when we have eliminated the threat of "gun-free school zones," the danger and horror of children going through a school day unsurrounded by the implements of death, will we all feel safe. ???? People who live in the world of causes and effects and verifiable truths, the world the NRA has long since abandoned, had no trouble pointing out the flaws in LaPierre's analysis?the fact, for instance, that there had been an armed deputy sheriff on duty at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999. Around the time LaPierre was speaking, someone in Pennsylvania was shooting another batch of people, including armed state troopers.
Guns kill people. More guns kill more people. What the NRA gets wrong?intentionally or delusionally or, in the psychologically and financially profitable zone where intention and delusion overlap?is its bedrock premise: that gun killings are the work of Bad Guys, predators whose drive to hurt and steal and kill cannot be stopped by anything but a brave Good Guy armed with a powerful firearm and, not at all incidentally, trained through an NRA-backed firearms-training program. ???? And the NRA insists that these people?"the monsters and the predators," as LaPierre put it?will not be thwarted by gun control, except in the funny T-shirt both-hands-on-my-weapon sense. The next Adam Lanza is already picking out his target, LaPierre said.
That's because the next Adam Lanza is almost certainly able to get his hands on a weapon to point at that target. The original Adam Lanza was apparently too confused and low-functioning to navigate Connecticut's simple waiting period and buy one for himself. But his mother, a gun enthusiast in good standing, had a stock of her own. She reportedly had wanted to feel safe.
So Wayne LaPierre wants to talk about "evil," because evil is elemental and intractable. Evil is part of the human condition. You cannot legislate away evil.
Let's leave the darkest recesses of the soul for a second. Two days before the Connecticut massacre, this happened:
This is not unknowable wickedness. It's banal teenage rage and stupidity, amplified by a gun. That's what everyday gun crime is?fleeting moments of thoughtless viciousness, made permanent with the wiggle of a finger. The Jovan Belcher murder-suicide was an ugly domestic argument; Belcher's gun collection turned it lethal. Maybe, as the gun enthusiasts argue, he might have resorted to using a knife or a club. But that's a less likely result. And even if it did happen, it would be less likely to be fatal.
In Australia, gun violence decreased markedly after the implementation of strict gun control measures. In Bogota, the number of deaths by firearm is reportedly down 58 percent, after the mayor banned public possession of guns. Take away instant, easy death-dealing, and the death rate drops.
LaPierre does not live in the realm of probabilities and harm reduction. He lives in a sick, paranoid universe where guns substitute for law, custom, and morality. Here he is, describing the country as he sees it, a place that teeters on the brink of collapse because of our national softness on crime: "Add another hurricane, terrorist attack, or some other natural or manmade disaster, and you?ve got a recipe for a national nightmare of violence and victimization."
Violence and victimization. Now is a good time to remember what really happened after Hurricane Katrina: brutal cops and bands of racist civilians went around shooting and killing unarmed people. Why? Because they believed in the NRA message, that predators were waiting to attack law-abiding citizens. And they were right about that. They were just confused as to who the predators were.
Dec. 21, 2012 ? Researchers at Oregon State University have announced the discovery of an underlying genetic cause of atopic dermatitis, a type of eczema most common in infancy that also affects millions of adults around the world with dry, itchy and inflamed skin lesions.
The findings were just published in PLoS ONE, a professional journal, and may set the stage for new therapeutic approaches to this frustrating syndrome, which is difficult to treat and has no known cure. Eczema is also related to, and can sometimes cause asthma, a potentially deadly immune dysfunction.
Pharmaceutical scientists at OSU found in laboratory studies that eczema can be triggered by inadequate Ctip2, a protein and master regulator that affects other genetic functions. They have identified two ways in which improper function of Ctip2 can lead to eczema.
In a recent publication, they found that Ctip2 controls lipid biosynthesis in the skin, the fats that are needed to help keep skin healthy and hydrated. In the new study, they discovered that Ctip2 suppresses TSLP, a cytokine protein produced by skin cells that can trigger inflammation.
Levels of this inflammatory TSLP, which is ordinarily undetectable in human skin, were found to be 1,000 times higher in laboratory animals that had been genetically modified to have no Ctip2 production in their skin.
"In these studies, we've basically shown that inadequate Ctip2 is reducing the lipids in skin that it needs to stay healthy, protect itself and perform its function," said Arup Indra, an associate professor in the OSU College of Pharmacy. "At the same time this can allow unwanted formation of proteins that trigger inflammation. The skin's ability to resist inflammation is going down just as the amount of inflammation is going up, and the underlying reason is that Ctip2 is not doing its job."
"Either or both of these problems can lead to eczema," Indra said.
Atopic dermatitis is associated with a dysfunctional immune response, but researchers have never understood the underlying cause. Existing treatments use moisturizers to try to protect skin, and in difficult cases powerful steroid drugs can help, but they often have significant unwanted side effects, especially in long-term use.
"With a better understanding of just what is causing eczema on a genetic basis, we should be able to personalize treatments, determine exactly what each person needs, and develop new therapies," Indra said. "This might be with topical compounds that increase Ctip2 expression in skin cells, or customized treatments to restore an individual person's lipid profile. In the future, systemic epigenetic modification might even be possible."
The creation at OSU of the laboratory model to study this issue is also of considerable importance, Indra said. There's evidence it could be used to screen for drugs with potent anti-inflammatory activities.
Eczema is a persistent skin rash that can be fairly common in infants or youth, which some research indicates may be linked to food or pollen allergens. Most people outgrow it as they reach adulthood, but some suffer from the debilitating condition their entire life.
"Our skin is the largest organ in the human body and one of the most important," Indra said. "It's our first barrier of defense, is in a constant battle against external insults, is influenced by both genetics and the environment, and has to be finely tuned to do many jobs. In eczema, this process begins to break down."
Eczema allows significant loss of fluids through the skin, allows allergens to penetrate, and in severe cases can cause a systemic inflammatory response.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Oregon State University.
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Journal Reference:
Zhixing Wang, Ling-juan Zhang, Gunjan Guha, Shan Li, Kateryna Kyrylkova, Chrissa Kioussi, Mark Leid, Gitali Ganguli-Indra, Arup K. Indra. Selective Ablation of Ctip2/Bcl11b in Epidermal Keratinocytes Triggers Atopic Dermatitis-Like Skin Inflammatory Responses in Adult Mice. PLoS ONE, 2012; 7 (12): e51262 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0051262
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.
The National Rifle Association executive vice president Wayne LaPierre pauses as he makes a statement during a news conference in response to the Connecticut school shooting, on Friday, Dec. 21, 2012 in Washington. The National Rifle Association broke its silence Friday on last week's shooting rampage at a Connecticut elementary school that left 26 children and staff dead. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)
The National Rifle Association executive vice president Wayne LaPierre pauses as he makes a statement during a news conference in response to the Connecticut school shooting, on Friday, Dec. 21, 2012 in Washington. The National Rifle Association broke its silence Friday on last week's shooting rampage at a Connecticut elementary school that left 26 children and staff dead. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)
The National Rifle Association executive vice president Wayne LaPierre gestures as he speaks about the violent online video game "Kindergarten Killers", left, during a news conference in response to the Connecticut school shooting on Friday, Dec. 21, 2012 in Washington. The National Rifle Association broke its silence Friday on last week's shooting rampage at a Connecticut elementary school that left 26 children and staff dead. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The nation's largest gun-rights lobby called Friday for armed police officers to be posted in every American school to stop the next killer "waiting in the wings."
The National Rifle Association broke its silence on last week's shooting rampage at a Connecticut elementary school that left 26 children and staff dead.
"The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," the group's top lobbyist, Wayne LaPierre, said at a Washington news conference.
LaPierre said "the next Adam Lanza," the man responsible for last week's mayhem, is planning an attack on another school.
"How many more copycats are waiting in the wings for their moment of fame from a national media machine that rewards them with wall-to-wall attention and a sense of identity that they crave, while provoking others to try to make their mark," LaPierre said. "A dozen more killers, a hundred more? How can we possibly even guess how many, given our nation's refusal to create an active national database of the mentally ill?"
He blamed video games, movies and music videos for exposing children to a violent culture day in and day out. "In a race to the bottom, many conglomerates compete with one another to shock, violate, and offend every standard of civilized society, by bringing an even more toxic mix of reckless behavior and criminal cruelty right into our homes," LaPierre said.
He refused to take any questions after speaking. Though security was tight, two protesters were able to interrupt LaPierre's speech, holding up signs that blamed the NRA for killing children. Both were escorted out, shouting that guns in schools are not the answer.
LaPierre announced that former Rep. Asa Hutchison, R-Ark., will lead an NRA program that will develop a model security plan for schools that relies on armed volunteers.
The 4.3 million-member NRA largely disappeared from public debate after the shootings in Newtown, Conn., choosing atypical silence as a strategy as the nation sought answers after the rampage. The NRA temporarily took down its Facebook page and kept quiet on Twitter.
Since the slayings, President Barack Obama has demanded "real action, right now" against U.S. gun violence and called on the NRA to join the effort. Moving quickly after several congressional gun-rights supporters said they would consider new legislation to control firearms, the president said this week he wants proposals to reduce gun violence that he can take to Congress by January.
Obama has already asked Congress to reinstate an assault weapons ban that expired in 2004 and pass legislation that would stop people from purchasing firearms from private sellers without a background check. Obama also has indicated he wants Congress to pursue the possibility of limiting high-capacity magazines.
The parents of Noah Pozner, 6, who was killed in the tragic shooting ?at Sandy Hook Elementary School, had just laid their son to rest this week, when Noah's uncle says a scammer took to the web, posing as Noah's aunt and requesting donations to her personal Paypal account. NBC's Jeff Rossen reports.
By Jeff Rossen and Avni Patel, NBC News
The families in the Connecticut school shooting are grieving the worst possible loss... their children. Now the family of 6-year-old Noah Pozner says scammers are trying to make money off their son's death, collecting donations online while posing as relatives.
The parents of Noah Pozner laid their son to rest this week. The grief was still raw when, Noah's uncle said, a scammer victimized them again.
"I'm disgusted by it," Alexis Haller said. "I think it's disgusting behavior."
Have an idea for Rossen Reports? Email us by clicking here!
Within an hour of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, a woman posing as Noah's aunt took to Facebook:?"All we know is 18 kids have been killed...still no word on my nephew."
Then, days later, she went after money. "We've set up a funeral fund for my brother...." she posted.?"Anyone willing to make a donation can make one...."
Through her personal PayPal account, that is. She even gave out her bank account information and routing number.
Rossen Reports: Extreme identity thieves live as you
As analysts piece together the psychological profile of recent mass murderers, some warn about copycat killers. "This shooter, as far as grade schools are concerned, has set a new bar," an expert said. "How do we stop that?" TODAY's Jeff Rossen reports.
"Is this person related to you?" we asked Alexis Haller.
"No."
"Do you know who this person is?"
"No."
"Have you seen a single dime from any money raised?"
"No, absolutely not."
"What do you make of that?"
"It's trying to turn a profit on a horrible tragedy, on?the death of kids, 6-year-old kids, 7-year-old kids. And?to me, that's just a horrible thing to be doing."
We tracked those bogus postings to the Facebook account of Nouel Alba in the Bronx. We paid her a visit. She wouldn't allow our cameras?inside, but allowed me to record her audio.
Read more investigative journalism from Rossen Reports
"Did you send this message over Facebook?"
There will be a moment of silence in Newtown and across the country to mark exactly one week since a gunman opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, killing 20 children and six adults. NBC's David Gregory has more.
"No, I never sent any message on Facebook."
"Then why is your account number on it, your bank routing number, your email, and your PayPal information?"
"Because I sell things online," Nouel told us.
"Because you sell things online? But then why were you posing to be a member of the Pozner family? They say they've never met you before."
"I never did that."
Rossen Reports: New device lets crooks crack many hotel locks
Nouel claims someone else posted it using her account, even though Nouel got the donation money -- which, she says, she refunded.
Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen called it a warning for all of us. "It sickens me," he said.?"They're despicable."
"A lot of people do want?to donate to these families," we said. "What red flags should they be looking out for?"
"They should avoid telephone solicitations, email?solicitations, because you can't really trace where it comes from."
Rossen Reports video: Inside the mind of a mass murderer
"Facebook?" we asked.
"Facebook solicitations," Jepsen agreed. "And you should check out the charity."
Noah Pozner's family learned another lesson too. After the shooting, someone snatched up the domain name NoahPozner.com. It is not clear what the intent was. Noah's family has since gotten it back and set up their own official website; all donations will go to Noah's surviving sisters.
"What's your message to the people who've done this?" we asked Alexis Haller.
Source: Adam Lanza had cut off ties with his father
"My message is that you've really hurt the family of a little boy who died in this tragedy," he said.
Officials say it happens after every big tragedy and disaster: Columbine, Hurricane Sandy, the Colorado movie theater shooting, and now this. In fact, the fraud is such a problem that the federal government has set up a special agency to track complaints and investigate.
The bottom line: Donating to the victims' families is a wonderful gesture -- but make sure to take time and check out who you're really giving money to.
Have an idea for a future edition of Rossen Reports? We want to hear from you! To send us your ideas,?click here.
More:
Video: Moment of silence to mark one week since shooting
Video: Newtown's way of honoring its fallen angels
Video: First responders in Newtown speak out
Video: Emotional return to class for Newtown students
Michelle Obama's letter to Newtown: 'My heart aches for you'
Kid who fled Sandy Hook told man: 'Our teacher is gone'
Victims in shooting: Daring principal, fun-loving teacher, 6-year-old twin brother
Video: Sandy Hook teacher told students 'they were loved'
So, you are finally ready to try Website marketing for yourself. Isn?t that an exciting idea? At the same time, you may be feeling overwhelmed by the volume of information you must analyze and process to begin. However, you have come to the right place for internet marketing advice. Some of the tips you need to get organized to be a successful marketer on the Internet are listed below.
Give something away. You could for instance let people download an e-book or watch a video related to the products or services they are interested in. For example, if you are a general contractor, you might have a good article of home repair tips for your customers to download. This tells customers that you care about what is important to them.
Title your products as ?limited? in advertising. A lot of people do their shopping online because their stores don?t offer the variety that they can find on the Internet. Your customers are looking for something meaningful and different from the regular old products that are easy to find and commonly bought. When the item is limited, people want to get it before it finishes.
TIP! It is important that you handle all customer service complaints on your own. Hiring others to deal with complaints can be tempting, but they?re always best handled internally.
Receiving and sustaining your customer?s trust is imperative. As you develop your marketing plan, you should only consider facts and statistics that are easily proven and valid. Use testimonials, expert endorsements, and results on your site to promote your products.
Nearly every cell phone company will permit you to have an additional dedicated work number on your phone. Get a number specifically for your business.
If you want to build trust and to sell products, you need to offer a warranty or some type of guarantee. This provides your company with credibility and your customers with confidence. When you give reassurance to your customers, they will be that much more likely to give you business.
TIP! Having a user-friendly 500 error page is a very helpful tool. When this page appears, some of the code has stopped working.
Email marketing is an important, beneficial tool. Your ideas should be well guarded. Try to use a service that saves all of your old emails so that you can keep dialogues with your customers. Think about making e-mail archive arrangements of your own, this is even more important if you have sensitive communication e-mails with customers or consultants.
To attract more customers to your site, create a game. Visitors like to play free online games, and usually this will draw a lot of people to your site where they hopefully keep coming back. Try to carefully and subtly incorporate advertising of your products within the game design. This gives you an opportunity to promote your products in a subtle way.
Assess the overall effectiveness of your online marketing efforts by using tech tools to measure the conversion of site visitors to paying customers. Most companies have add-ons and tools that will help you track all of your activity.
TIP! If you are interested in having a trusted site, write a FAQ. This gives quick answers to most questions pertaining to your site and business, while simplifying the process of your customers getting the help they are looking for.
Video marketing is an excellent way to get the word out about your business and really get noticed. Adding a video to your website or blog is the best way to attract and hold a customer?s interest in your product. An interesting title and a unique picture will grab the attention of potential clients and possibly produce sales.
Internet marketers that are successful show a sense of enthusiasm about their products and radiate positivity about their company. Enthusiasm of your product is essential to the success of your business. If you are believable, you will get them as excited as you are. Enthusiastic customers are likely to be paying customers.
When you are developing your website, fill it with content that is comprehensive and highly relevant. Your chief focus must be to instill knowledge in your customer base in a short period of time, so they know what they are purchasing. Don?t be wordy about your product descriptions. Get down to business and focus on what is absolutely necessary for the customer to know to make a gooe judgement call on whether or not they want to buy your product.
TIP! Use a variety of marketing techniques when you are first beginning to build your business to discover which methods work best for your company. You can impart information regarding promotions and services to your customers via phone, email and fax.
A smart tip for Website marketing is adjusting your content and delivering it in a way that your customers always feel they are controlling what happens. This is essential to today?s online world of unwanted opinions and spam. Always make it easy to allow customers to opt out of emails so that they don?t feel bombarded or stuck with no easy way out.
The advice above will give you some Web marketing confidence to get started today. There was quite a bit of information there, but you will now have the ability to begin your Internet marketing campaign correctly. Print out this article so you can refresh yourself, when necessary, about the proper steps to take.
Steering stem cells to become 2 different building blocks for new blood vesselsPublic release date: 20-Dec-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Phil Sneiderman prs@jhu.edu 443-287-9960 Johns Hopkins University
Growing new blood vessels in the lab is a tough challenge, but a Johns Hopkins engineering team has solved a major stumbling block: how to prod stem cells to become two different types of tissue that are needed to build tiny networks of veins and arteries.
The team's solution is detailed in an article appearing in the January 2013 print edition of the journal Cardiovascular Research. The article also was published recently in the journal's online edition. The work is important because networks of new blood vessels, assembled in the lab for transplanting into patients, could be a boon to people whose circulatory systems have been damaged by heart disease, diabetes and other illnesses.
"That's our long-term goal: to give doctors a new tool to treat patients who have problems in the pipelines that carry blood through their bodies," said Sharon Gerecht, an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering who led the research team. "Finding out how to steer these stem cells into becoming critical building blocks to make these blood vessel networks is an important step."
In the new research paper, the Gerecht team focused on vascular smooth muscle cells, which are found within the walls of blood vessels. Two types have been identified: synthetic smooth muscle cells, which migrate through the surrounding tissue, continue to divide and help support the newly formed blood vessels; and contractile smooth muscles cells, which remain in place, stabilize the growth of new blood vessels and help them maintain proper blood pressure.
To produce these smooth muscle cells, Gerecht's lab has been experimenting with both National Institutes of Health-approved human embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells. The induced pluripotent stem cells are adult cells that have been genetically reprogrammed to act like embryonic stem cells. Stem cells are used in this research because they possess the potential to transform into specific types of cells needed by particular organs within the body.
In an earlier study supervised by Gerecht, her team was able to coax stem cells to become a type of tissue that resembled smooth muscle cells but didn't quite behave properly. In the new experiments, the researchers tried adding various concentrations of growth factor and serum to the previous cells. Growth factor is the "food' that the cells consume; serum is a liquid component that contains blood cells.
"When we added more of the growth factor and serum, the stem cells turned into synthetic smooth muscle cells," Gerecht said. "When we provided a much smaller amount of these materials, they became contractile smooth muscles cells."
This ability to control the type of smooth muscle cells formed in the lab could be critical in developing new blood vessel networks, she said. "When we're building a pipeline to carry blood, you need the contractile cells to provide structure and stability," she added. "But in working with very small blood vessels, the migrating synthetic cells can be more useful."
In cancer, small blood vessels are formed to nourish the growing tumor. The current work could also help researchers understand how blood vessels are stabilized in tumors, which could be useful in the treatment of cancer.
"We still have a lot more research to do before we can build complete new blood vessel networks in the lab," Gerecht said, "but our progress in controlling the fate of these stem cells appears to be a big step in the right direction."
###
In addition to her faculty appointment with Johns Hopkins' Whiting School of Engineering, Gerecht is affiliated with the university's Institute for NanoBioTechnolgy (INBT) and the Johns Hopkins Engineering in Oncology Center.
The lead author of the new Cardiovascular Research paper is Maureen Wanjare, a doctoral student in Gerecht's lab who is supported both by the INBT, through a National Science Foundation Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship, and by the NIH. Coauthors of the study are Gerecht and Frederick Kuo, who participated in the research as an undergraduate majoring in chemical and biomolecular engineering. The human induced pluripotent stem cells used in the study were provided by Linzhao Cheng, a hematology professor in the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
This research was supported by an American Heart Association Scientist Development Grant and NIH grant R01HL107938.
Color illustration of blood vessel cells available; contact Phil Sneiderman.
Phil Sneiderman
Office: 443-287-9960; Cell: 410-299-7462; prs@jhu.edu or
Mary Spiro
Office: 410- 516-4802; Cell: 443-204-7159; mspiro@jhu.edu
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Steering stem cells to become 2 different building blocks for new blood vesselsPublic release date: 20-Dec-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Phil Sneiderman prs@jhu.edu 443-287-9960 Johns Hopkins University
Growing new blood vessels in the lab is a tough challenge, but a Johns Hopkins engineering team has solved a major stumbling block: how to prod stem cells to become two different types of tissue that are needed to build tiny networks of veins and arteries.
The team's solution is detailed in an article appearing in the January 2013 print edition of the journal Cardiovascular Research. The article also was published recently in the journal's online edition. The work is important because networks of new blood vessels, assembled in the lab for transplanting into patients, could be a boon to people whose circulatory systems have been damaged by heart disease, diabetes and other illnesses.
"That's our long-term goal: to give doctors a new tool to treat patients who have problems in the pipelines that carry blood through their bodies," said Sharon Gerecht, an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering who led the research team. "Finding out how to steer these stem cells into becoming critical building blocks to make these blood vessel networks is an important step."
In the new research paper, the Gerecht team focused on vascular smooth muscle cells, which are found within the walls of blood vessels. Two types have been identified: synthetic smooth muscle cells, which migrate through the surrounding tissue, continue to divide and help support the newly formed blood vessels; and contractile smooth muscles cells, which remain in place, stabilize the growth of new blood vessels and help them maintain proper blood pressure.
To produce these smooth muscle cells, Gerecht's lab has been experimenting with both National Institutes of Health-approved human embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells. The induced pluripotent stem cells are adult cells that have been genetically reprogrammed to act like embryonic stem cells. Stem cells are used in this research because they possess the potential to transform into specific types of cells needed by particular organs within the body.
In an earlier study supervised by Gerecht, her team was able to coax stem cells to become a type of tissue that resembled smooth muscle cells but didn't quite behave properly. In the new experiments, the researchers tried adding various concentrations of growth factor and serum to the previous cells. Growth factor is the "food' that the cells consume; serum is a liquid component that contains blood cells.
"When we added more of the growth factor and serum, the stem cells turned into synthetic smooth muscle cells," Gerecht said. "When we provided a much smaller amount of these materials, they became contractile smooth muscles cells."
This ability to control the type of smooth muscle cells formed in the lab could be critical in developing new blood vessel networks, she said. "When we're building a pipeline to carry blood, you need the contractile cells to provide structure and stability," she added. "But in working with very small blood vessels, the migrating synthetic cells can be more useful."
In cancer, small blood vessels are formed to nourish the growing tumor. The current work could also help researchers understand how blood vessels are stabilized in tumors, which could be useful in the treatment of cancer.
"We still have a lot more research to do before we can build complete new blood vessel networks in the lab," Gerecht said, "but our progress in controlling the fate of these stem cells appears to be a big step in the right direction."
###
In addition to her faculty appointment with Johns Hopkins' Whiting School of Engineering, Gerecht is affiliated with the university's Institute for NanoBioTechnolgy (INBT) and the Johns Hopkins Engineering in Oncology Center.
The lead author of the new Cardiovascular Research paper is Maureen Wanjare, a doctoral student in Gerecht's lab who is supported both by the INBT, through a National Science Foundation Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship, and by the NIH. Coauthors of the study are Gerecht and Frederick Kuo, who participated in the research as an undergraduate majoring in chemical and biomolecular engineering. The human induced pluripotent stem cells used in the study were provided by Linzhao Cheng, a hematology professor in the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
This research was supported by an American Heart Association Scientist Development Grant and NIH grant R01HL107938.
Color illustration of blood vessel cells available; contact Phil Sneiderman.
Phil Sneiderman
Office: 443-287-9960; Cell: 410-299-7462; prs@jhu.edu or
Mary Spiro
Office: 410- 516-4802; Cell: 443-204-7159; mspiro@jhu.edu
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Dec. 20, 2012 ? A new galactic game launches today that lets citizen scientists identify the glowing clouds where future stars will be born. The online experience, called Clouds, is a new addition to the Milky Way Project, where everyone can help astronomers to sort and measure our galaxy. Clouds features images and data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and the Herschel Space Observatory, a European Space Agency mission with important participation from NASA.
In the rapid-fire game, players gauge whether a targeted section of a presented image is a cloud, a "hole" -- an empty region of space -- or something in between. The cataloging of these snapshots of the local cosmos will help astronomers learn more about the architecture and character of our home galaxy, the Milky Way.
The organizers of Clouds encourage astronomy enthusiasts to start playing now because with enough participation, important insights into the Milky Way could come as soon as early next year.
"We're really excited to launch Clouds and see results back from our giant volunteer team of amateur scientists," said Robert Simpson, a postdoctoral researcher in astronomy at Oxford University, England and principal investigator of the Milky Way Project. "We think the community can blast through all these data fairly quickly. We may even be done by the spring and that would be an amazing result for citizen science."
Clouds joins its predecessor Milky Way Project game, Bubbles, as one of the many "crowdsourced" efforts underway at Zooniverse, home to the Internet's biggest and most popular online citizen science projects.
The crowdsourcing concept involves having a lot of people evaluate the same image or pieces of data. A consensus decision on some aspect of the image is then reached through the collective "wisdom of crowds." Crowdsourced citizen science becomes especially important when humans can do a better job at analyzing images or objects than a computer can. The Clouds game is an example of just such an exercise in which eyeballs and brains beat out cameras and computer algorithms.
The goal of Clouds is to tag the dense, cold cores of gas and dust known as infrared dark clouds. These clouds collapse under their own gravity and then burst forth as new stars. An empty region of space, however, can look rather like one of these dark clouds and deceive a computer accordingly. "Automated routines have tried to decide which of these objects are holes and which are true infrared dark clouds, but the task is often tricky and it takes a human eye to decide," said Simpson.
Clouds combines infrared observations from Herschel and Spitzer to reveal cool clouds and holes throughout the Milky Way's disk. The Herschel data, at a wavelength of 250 microns, appears in yellow throughout the game. The Spitzer data, at 8 microns, is rendered in blue.
Together with its companion Bubbles game, Clouds serves as another example of how Zooniverse makes cutting-edge scientific investigation freely available to the general public. "Citizen science through Zooniverse has been a real boon to research in fields ranging from astronomy to biology to history," noted Simpson. "We feel very fortunate to be able to send science work out to computer, tablet and smartphone screens and for people to collaborate with us in a quest to better understand our universe."
For those interested in looking for infrared clouds and contributing to the Milky Way Project, visit the following link: http://www.milkywayproject.org. To learn of other citizen science-based efforts, check out the Zooniverse: https://www.zooniverse.org.
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Knowledge grants power and each one knows that without it your are lost. You're going to have to invest your resources to finding out about the various penny shares to grasp when their market will change. * Penny Stocks And Shares are similar to any other stocks you need to be able to recognise the trends for satisfactory trading and profit. * Learning the language linked with penny stocks and shares is highly important.
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If you already have extensive business experience and are looking to bring it to the next level, consider checking out Florida International University?s Online Master of International Business program.
85% of U.S. health consumers say that emails, text messages, and voicemails are at least as helpful as in-person or phone conversations with health providers, according to the?TeleVoxHealthy World study,?Technology Beyond the Exam Room. The study was based on surveys conducted with over 2,200 health providers across specialties, and 1,015 U.S. adults over 18.
The chart illustrates various communications messaging that consumers value via various digital channels. The red bar represents email: clearly, email is a valued channel across nearly all message types surveyed, from patient care (49%) and health tips (68%) to seasonal reminders (55%, THINK: flu shots, illustrated in the second infographic from TeleVox) and payment reminders (56%).
A demonstrator from CodePink holds up a banner as National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre delivers remarks during a news conference at the Willard Hotel on Friday in Washington, D.C. ![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 20-Dec-2012
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