Sunday, March 31, 2013

Home Improvements That You Can Do Yourself

Home improvement are some things where a consumer may suffer aggravation. Hiring a bad individuals, malfunction to plot as well as improbable goals are some of the reasons this occurs. This post goes over some ideas to help you locate good results instead of failure home based improvement project is successful. Read on for more information info.

A new countertop made out of the corian slab cost in the thousands. If you opt for flooring, you will end up investing close to $300.

Do-it-yourself can mean many different tasks that you can do in just about any size price range. If the price range won?t permit a big construction undertaking, then you can definitely effortlessly improve the price of your property through scaled-down, cheaper projects like dwelling and also repainting your home.

Tire out supporters must be put in the washing area, bathroom, along with earlier mentioned your stove.This will help prevent mold along with removing unsafe gases from your home which can be associated with food preparation. This also stops get rotten, way too.

A few jackets of paint will surely improve your home. A whole area can entirely customize the search of your area. It is best to decide on some gentle hues which go while using design of your home.

You could be able to detect a problem with the loss of h2o strain. Start with checking out with neighborhood friends to determine if they are having related troubles. If they are not necessarily, you are aware that pressure to succeed dilemma lives as part of your own house?s domestic plumbing. Check the water force at all your own shoes to ascertain whether it is a comprehensive home problem. You could possibly simply need to alter a good aerator, or else clever, an appointment to some specialist could be as a way.

Take into consideration what place you would like to work with very first. Plan out your current strategy watching for discounts along with discount rates about development supplies as well as furnishings. Preparing in advance is a wise way to lower your expenses if you are giving you better wallet.

Do that if you?re suffering from calcium in the water. There are several kinds of normal water softeners.Discover the the one which great for your current type of normal water plus your house.

Take into account adding a baby shower throughout at least one bathroom in case not one of one?s existing lavatories actually have a single.A shower is way better when you?ve got young children and is also considerably more accessible compared to a bath tub. A five-minute bathtub that can take five minutes makes use of less than a quarter in the normal water required to load a new tub.

Don?t forget to take proper your own home?s septic system. There are chemical substances you can buy that assist squander break down and stop this via stocked full.

Even modest home improvement jobs may surge in the house?s worth. If you?re going to read your property accessible in the near future, make some tiny changes. One thing you can do is to paint an individual home within and also exterior. This straightforward and will improve the price of your house.

Make your spending budget involves anything that is necessary.

In case you hire a professional, ensure that the work is guaranteed. If you omit reading anything, you may overlook deficiencies in security which will ensure that any troubles are amended when they?re discovered. It is vital that you know that the work will be confirmed work.

These kind of fantastic products could take in any quart involving Water. Location these types of at your house . via flood damage.

It?s really a huge outlay to get new home furniture. You are able to add spice to your living space by simply purchasing neighborhood cd merchants along with rummage sales. You could uncover a number of correct gems one of the rubbish. Some may need to end up being worked on, nevertheless through investment time, you may get a loved item in your house.

An excellent diy suggestion is always to take community circumstances into mind when coming up with a new restoration. For example, if your region is actually gusting, you might avoid a deck.

A new entrance patio is really a beneficial location to invest your house advancement task to focus on could be the patio. The patio helps make the very first impact about virtually any guest who?s visiting your property. This will increase the home worth of the home?s charm of the entrance.

You might want to repaint your porch. Make use of paint that?s quality.

Clogged rain gutters can bring about significant waterflow and drainage issues during a residence. Clogged gutters can lead to leaking within cellars and garages . you do on account of rainwater. Make a habit of cleaning your current rain gutters you need to comes about.

Make sure you possess a sound plan before starting virtually any home improvements. Decisions concerning various parts of the actual reconstruction really should be done before you start any project.

When generating home restorations, a fantastic tip is to apply the initial many months of the year to price range as this is the time period you will probably have the least amount of money mainly because it comes after christmas.

Help to make affordable and easy improvements for the exterior of your home is accounted for whenever remodeling. It?s also possible to place several well-placed shrubbery.Energy wash your home. Clear your own glass windows until that they twinkle as well as glow. Many of these make for a fantastic effect since visitors get to your home.

Upgrading jobs could be messed up otherwise done right. This article has reviewed some great tips to help program and also carry out your current future do it yourself tasks. Your setup on this suggestions can certainly produce a massive difference in your improvements for your home.

Source: http://www.remodeling24hours.com/home-improvements-that-you-can-do-yourself.html

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Tottenham beats Swansea 2-1 in Premier League

Associated Press Sports

updated 3:37 p.m. ET March 30, 2013

SWANSEA, Wales (AP) -Gareth Bale scored another stunning goal Saturday to give Tottenham a 2-1 win over Swansea that lifted it above Chelsea into third place in the Premier League.

Bale set up Jan Vertonghen for the first goal in the seventh minute and then curled home a brilliant effort in the 21st to double the lead.

Michu pulled Swansea back into the game with his 20th goal of the season in the 71st, but Tottenham held out over a frantic final 20 minutes to bounce back from consecutive losses against Liverpool and Fulham.

With Chelsea losing 2-1 to Southampton, Tottenham is now two points ahead of the London club in third place, but with a game more played.

"When there are so many things that go well for the team it is hard to single out individuals but Gareth is a world class player offensively and defensively," Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas said. "But the whole team deserve credit because coming here after two league defeats and playing the way we did is never easy."

Swansea has now lost its last three games since reaching the 40-point mark with victory over Newcastle.

Bale, who scored here for his country in midweek, produced a sublime lofted pass to catch Dwight Tiendalli out of position and play in Vertonghen.

The Belgium international brilliantly brought the ball down and slotted beyond the advancing Michel Vorm to give the visitors the lead.

Swansea should have been two goals down just six minutes later. Moussa Dembele put Emmanuel Adebayor through for the Togo striker to comfortably outpace Ashley Williams, only to fire tamely at Vorm.

But the lead was doubled in the 21st minute courtesy of a supreme finish from Bale.

Vertonghen found the forward on the edge of the Swansea box, where he took one touch before dispatching an unstoppable strike past a statuesque Vorm.

"They had a very good start but both goals showed a player of Gareth Bale's quality can make the difference," Swansea manager Michael Laudrup said. "If you take Bale out, without him the teams were at the same level."

Swansea had a spell of pressure after that, and Brad Friedel had to be alert to deny Michu after Wayne Routledge had fed him from a quick free kick after the break.

?Michu then wasted another excellent opportunity as he headed wide from the sort of chance he has made a habit of taking during his first season in English football.

But he gave the Swans hope as he found the net for the first time since the League Cup final. Substitute Ki Sung-yueng delivered a superb corner, and Michu made no mistake as he directed a header in off the far post.

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Saturday, March 30, 2013

Obama to pitch investing in public works in Miami

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama will press Congress to pass new tax incentives and other flexibility measures aimed at attracting more private sector investment in infrastructure projects around the country, a senior administration official said.

The president will flesh out the details of his proposals during a speech Friday at a Miami port that is undergoing $2 billion in upgrades, funded by public and private money. In his quick trip to South Florida, Obama will try to show the public that the economy remains his top priority in the midst of high-profile campaigns on immigration reform and gun control.

Among the proposals Obama will call for Friday:

? Higher caps on "private activity bonds" to encourage the private sector to spend more on highway projects and other infrastructure needs. State and local governments use the bonds to attract investment.

? Giving foreign pension funds tax-exempt status when selling U.S. infrastructure, property or real estate assets. U.S. pension funds are generally tax exempt under such circumstances. The administration says some international pension funds cite the tax burden as a reason for not investing in American infrastructure.

? $4 billion in new spending on two infrastructure programs that award loans and grants.

? A renewed call for a $10 billion national "infrastructure bank" ? a proposal from his first term that gained little traction.

The administration official requested anonymity because the proposals were not being announced publicly until Friday's event.

The president made private sector infrastructure investment a key part of the economic agenda he rolled out in his State of the Union address last month. He also called in the national address for a "Fix-It-First" program that would spend $40 billion in taxpayer funds on urgent repairs.

Obama's focus on generating more private sector investment underscores the tough road new spending faces on Capitol Hill, where Republican lawmakers often threaten to block additional spending unless it is offset through tax cuts or other measures.

The official said any increased spending associated with the proposals Obama was outlining Friday would not add to the deficit. But the official did not detail how the costs would be offset, saying only that more information would be included in the president's budget.

Obama will release his budget April 10.

___

Follow Julie Pace on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-pitch-investing-public-works-miami-111059473--finance.html

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Is this man America's worst economics writer? | The Daily Caller

At National Review Online, Kevin D. Williamson plucks the laurel wreath from the woolly head of New York Times columnist Paul Krugman and crowns Associated Press chief economics writer Martin Crutsinger our country?s worst economics writer.

Crutsinger is a destructive force in our public discourse, Williamson writes, for a number of reasons, among them ?shallowness,? ?unbearable prose? and ?parroting conventional wisdom.? An example of this last is his repetition of the truism ?Consumer spending drives 70 percent of economic activity.?

Most importantly, unlike Nobel laureate Krugman, who is merely popular, AP prose is ubiquitous and usually unacknowledged. Williamson notes that AP?s ?endless sludge of dreary grey copy ? is not, in the minds of most readers, tendentious commentary ? it is simply ?the news.??

The AP?s?pro-inflationary Keynesian consensus is especially striking today, when most of the media posit?a strengthening economy based on news that consumer spending is becoming more profligate and that real estate prices are being re-inflated. Very few news sites are willing to note, for example, the troubling news that the rate of personal savings is close to its all-time low.

But there?s something even stranger about the strengthening-economy story?that dominates?the news today. How can we be recovering when just a month ago the Obama administration and the mainstream media were predicting sequestration would hurl the United States back into a recession? (Congressional Budget Office Director Doug Elmendorf is now trying to disambiguate the impact of government spending slowdowns on the economy.)?Williamson gives one good reason for that anomaly ??the built-in mismeasure of government spending and its effects on economic growth:

You will be hard-pressed to find an Associated Press report acknowledging the fact that government spending is accounted for at cost when calculating GDP. What that means is that $1 spent by the government on purchases, salaries, services, and the like (but excluding entitlement transfer payments) shows up at $1 in GDP, regardless of whether that $1 was put to some productive use.

?

For example, if the federal government should spend $200 billion on old newspapers, and then pay me $100 billion to set them on fire on the National Mall, that would add $300 billion to GDP, equivalent to adding the entire economic output of Venezuela to the U.S. economy in exchange for a lot of charred AP copy. So writing that an increase in government spending boosts GDP is the equivalent of writing that an increase in government spending boosts government spending. That this is a tautology ? if we increase the things we measure, the things we measure will increase ? seems never to have occurred to the ladies and gentlemen of the Associated Press economics desk, even though criticism of conventional GDP measurement is common both among conservatives and among more progressive economists, such as Joseph Stiglitz.

How does that differ from the way private spending is measured? Robert Higgs, the Independent Institute?s senior fellow in political economy, explained in an interview with The Daily Caller: ?If you have a private firm and you spend a ton of money to pay employees, but what you produce is a flop, there will be no value to GDP. But government spending all gets counted as contributing to economic growth. That?s why in the early days of creating these measurements, some people didn?t want to count government spending.?

In economics, the real danger isn?t the things people don?t know, but the things they know that ain?t so. Krugman has a gift for obfuscation and a relationship to plain dealing that can most charitably be described as ?arm?s length,??but his overt opinion-making and clear (if misguided) point of view do less harm than the osmosis of bad economics Williamson describes here.

Tim Cavanaugh is The Daily Caller?s executive editor.

Source: http://dailycaller.com/2013/03/29/is-this-man-americas-worst-economics-writer/

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8 Considerations When Naming Your Business | The Next Women ...

Sally Tomkotowicz shares her advice on choosing a company name that will set you up for great online business success.

It?s been playing on your brain all day. One of the biggest decisions you?ll make as an entrepreneur. And it?s 3am. You can?t get to sleep. You have to make a key decision that will shape your business every single day, influencing your online strategy or perhaps your sign on the high street, or the branding on the side of your car.

Yes, very quickly,?you?ve got to come up with your company name ? and it?s a hard process.

Naming your business is one of the most important steps any new entrepreneur has to take. Suddenly your idea on the back of a napkin or perhaps typed into your laptop becomes a reality.?Once you?ve thought of a good name you or your accountants or solicitors will register the name at Companies House for you and, in a very legal sense, that name will become the identity of your business for years to come.

Even the biggest, most creative, companies struggled with thinking up their company name at first.

Famously Steve Jobs asked everyone in the company if they could come up with a better name than Apple Computers over the weekend. No-one could, so the name stuck and was registered.

However the company overlooked the conflict with The Beatle?s famous Apple Records. Down the track as Apple moved into music with iTunes this decision led to a lengthy court case with The Beatles over the use of the Apple name, resulting in over $500m in speculated costs for Apple, Inc.

Thinking up a company name is really not as easy as it first appears and making sure it is searchable on Google and eligible for trademark makes this process even harder, however there are a few tips that I think will help make this decision a little easier.

?1.? Think about your target market

Have a good think about the type of customers you want to target.? These are very different for each business - from a plumber to a solicitor. Consumers have different expectations for an online retailer than a high street store. What type of customer do you want to attract? Do you want a highly fashionable and savvy customer? If so you may want a name that is very ?now? and reflects that audience ? while being mindful that your company name will last for a long time.

?2.?? Have your name reflect what it is you do

Some of the best company names are connected to what that company actually does. Coca-Cola describes the exact elements in their product and most people would assume that Match.com is a dating service, without having seen any advertising around the company. So the more your name communicates to consumers about your business, the less effort you must exert to explain it.

If you want to stand out in a crowded market you can take a more surreal name such as Apple, Egg and Orange, but you may have to invest a lot in marketing spend for people to associate you with the industry you work in.

3.? Do you want to brand yourself?

While it is less fashionable these days to name your company after yourself, this still works well for some businesses, especially those that follow strong personal leadership like Dyson, Disney and Ogilvy. The warning is that if the business ever sells, or the founder dies, these businesses can be perceived as losing their direction and worth. Even Disney pictures struggled at the box office for a decade after Walt Disney?s death.

?4.? Keep it short and simple

It is definitely a 21st century phenomena for names to be short and sweet. With the rise in importance of having a short email address, it is no wonder that companies spend huge amounts of money rebranding themselves with shorter names. Norwich Union is now Aviva, National Westminister Bank is Natwest and even Facebook has registered www.fb.com to make life easier.

5.? Owning your online name considerations

In reality your name at Companies House can be one of much permeation. You can own Worcester Plumbers Today Ltd. or Worcester Plumbers 24 Hours Ltd. But you can still ?brand? your company as Worcester Plumbers. It doesn?t matter for filing your books, where as owning your domain name will shape every email you send and every visitor to your website.

So once you?ve built a list of names using the above guidelines you can very quickly refine that list by checking which relevant domain names are available online, crossing off the names that are already taken.? You don?t want people to mistype your website address and land on your competitor?s site, so try to avoid using a similar address to your competitors.

You can search for your potential name using domain name search tools, a quick Google search for ?domain names search tools? will bring up lots of options for you to try. It is also worth checking the availability of the appropriate twitter handles, facebook and other relevant social channels too at this point.

6. Test Your Name

After you've narrowed your list you need to do some human testing.? Asking friends, family members (although these can be more biased) which ones they prefer.

7.? Trademark

?? Once you have complete your human testing phase you should have about 5 names to choose from at this point. It is worth you considering hiring a trademark attorney or at least a trademark search firm before you officially register your name to make sure your new name doesn't infringe on another business's trademark.

8.?? Registering online names

A fifth of small businesses admit they have lost out on registering their natural, first choice company name online and had to make do with second best because they failed to check availability and register their domain at the same time as setting up their business at companies house, don?t let this happen to you, try to register your domain, twitter and other social identities as quickly as possible.

There are a few things to consider when registering a domain name

  • Be defensive ? purchase multiple versions of your website address, and consider purchasing misspellings of it too.
  • Protect- Register your website addresses for as long as possible, you can register domains for up to 10 years.
  • Extensions- The nature of your business will affect this. If you are a national company in the UK a co.uk would be ideal for your target audience, whereas an international company would ideally require a .com extension. If you have a blog, you could consider a .me.

There are naming experts out there that you can enlist to help you pick the right name. They have complex systems for determining names and know their way around trademark laws.? The downside is that they can cost up to $80 000 and take anywhere from six weeks to six months to complete the naming process. You probably won't have that much time or money to spend, but plan to spend at least a few weeks on selecting a name and if you follow these 8 key steps you won?t go too far wrong.

Sally Tomkotowicz is a strategic marketing manager specialising in digital marketing, with over 9 years experience working in online and offline marketing and has spent the last 3 years in the domain name & hosting industry at Names.co.uk.

Source: http://www.thenextwomen.com/2013/03/29/8-considerations-when-naming-your-business

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Georgia girl killed in backyard mauling by dogs

By Jason Szep SIT KWIN, Myanmar (Reuters) - The Muslims of Sit Kwin were always a small group who numbered no more than 100 of the village's 2,000 people. But as sectarian violence led by Buddhist mobs spreads across central Myanmar, they and many other Muslims are disappearing. Their homes, shops and mosques destroyed, some end up in refugee camps or hide in the homes of friends or relatives. Dozens have been killed. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/georgia-girl-killed-backyard-mauling-dogs-134113903.html

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Friday, March 29, 2013

Facebook expected to introduce themed Android OS, HTC handset next week

HTC's Status may not have been a tremendous hit, but it looks like Facebook hasn't severed its ties with the smartphone maker just yet. According to TechCrunch and New York Times sources, April 4th's "Come See Our New Home on Android" event is set to feature an HTC smartphone with a custom, Facebook-centric OS. It's perhaps the next best thing to a phone designed and manufactured by Facebook, but instead, HTC will be tasked with creating the hardware. The integration is expected to run deep, however -- when you power on the device, a Facebook home screen is what you'll see first. Additionally, the device's camera and messaging apps will default to Facebook, according to the New York Times report. Hardware specifications have yet to be revealed, but software will clearly be the focus here. Tune in at 1PM EST next Thursday for our liveblog, direct from Facebook HQ.

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Source: The New York Times, TechCrunch

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Risk and reward at the dawn of civilian drone age

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The dawn of the age of aerial civilian drones is rich with possibilities for people far from the war zones where they made their devastating mark as a weapon of choice against terrorists.

The unmanned, generally small aircraft can steer water and pesticides to crops with precision, saving farmers money while reducing environmental risk. They can inspect distant bridges, pipelines and power lines, and find hurricane victims stranded on rooftops.

Drones ? some as tiny as a hummingbird ? promise everyday benefits as broad as the sky is wide. But the drone industry and those eager to tap its potential are running headlong into fears the peeping-eye, go-anywhere technology will be misused.

Since January, drone-related legislation has been introduced in more than 30 states, largely in response to privacy concerns. Many of the bills would prevent police from using drones for broad public surveillance or to watch individuals without sufficient grounds to believe they were involved in crimes.

Stephen Ingley, executive director of the Airborne Law Enforcement Association, says resistance to the technology is frustrating. Drones "clearly have so much potential for saving lives, and it's a darn shame we're having to go through this right now," he said.

But privacy advocates say now is the time to debate the proper use of civilian drones and set rules, before they become ubiquitous. Sentiment for curbing domestic drone use has brought the left and right together perhaps more than any other recent issue.

"The thought of government drones buzzing overhead and constantly monitoring the activities of law-abiding citizens runs contrary to the notion of what it means to live in a free society," Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said at a recent hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

With military budgets shrinking, drone makers have been counting on the civilian market to spur the industry's growth. Some companies that make drones or supply support equipment and services say the uncertainty has caused them to put U.S. expansion plans on hold, and they are looking overseas for new markets.

"Our lack of success in educating the public about unmanned aircraft is coming back to bite us," said Robert Fitzgerald, CEO of the BOSH Group of Newport News, Va., which provides support services to drone users.

"The U.S. has been at the lead of this technology a long time," he said. "If our government holds back this technology, there's the freedom to move elsewhere ... and all of a sudden these things will be flying everywhere else and competing with us."

Law enforcement is expected to be one of the bigger initial markets for civilian drones. Last month, the FBI used drones to maintain continuous surveillance of a bunker in Alabama where a 5-year-old boy was being held hostage.

In Virginia, the state General Assembly passed a bill that would place a two-year moratorium on the use of drones by state and local law enforcement. The measure is supported by groups as varied as the American Civil Liberties Union on the left and the Virginia Tea Party Patriots Federation on the right.

Gov. Bob McDonnell is proposing amendments that would retain the broad ban on spy drones but allow specific exemptions when lives are in danger, such as for search-and rescue operations. The legislature reconvenes on April 3 to consider the matter.

Seattle abandoned its drone program after community protests in February. The city's police department had purchased two drones through a federal grant without consulting the city council.

In Congress, Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., co-chairman of the House's privacy caucus, has introduced a bill that prohibits the Federal Aviation Administration from issuing drone licenses unless the applicant provides a statement explaining who will operate the drone, where it will be flown, what kind of data will be collected, how the data will be used, whether the information will be sold to third parties and the period for which the information will be retained.

Privacy advocates acknowledge the many benign uses of drones. In Mesa County, Colo., for example, an annual landfill survey using manned aircraft cost about $10,000. The county recently performed the same survey using a drone for about $200.

Drones can help police departments find missing people, reconstruct traffic accidents and act as lookouts for SWAT teams. Real estate agents can have them film videos of properties and surrounding neighborhoods, offering clients a better-than-bird's-eye view though one that neighbors may not wish to have shared.

"Any legislation that restricts the use of this kind of capability to serve the public is putting the public at risk," said Steve Gitlin, vice president of AeroVironment, a leading maker of smaller drones.

Yet the virtues of drones can also make them dangerous, privacy advocates say. The low cost and ease of use may encourage police and others to conduct the kind of continuous or intrusive surveillance that might otherwise be impractical.

Drones can be equipped with high-powered cameras and listening devices, and infrared cameras that can see people in the dark.

"High-rise buildings, security fences or even the walls of a building are not barriers to increasingly common drone technology," Amie Stepanovich, director of the Electronic Privacy Information Council's surveillance project, told the Senate panel.

Civilian drone use is limited to government agencies and public universities that have received a few hundred permits from the FAA. A law passed by Congress last year requires the FAA to open U.S. skies to widespread drone flights by 2015, but the agency is behind schedule and it's doubtful it will meet that deadline. Lawmakers and industry officials have complained for years about the FAA's slow progress.

The FAA estimates that within five years of gaining broader access about 7,500 civilian drones will be in use.

Although the Supreme Court has not dealt directly with drones, it has OK'd aerial surveillance without warrants in drug cases in which officers in a plane or helicopter spotted marijuana plants growing on a suspect's property.

But in a case involving the use of ground-based equipment, the court said police generally need a warrant before using a thermal imaging device to detect hot spots in a home that might indicate that marijuana plants are being grown there.

In some states economic concerns have trumped public unease. In Oklahoma, an anti-drone bill was shelved at the request of Republican Gov. Mary Fallin, who was concerned it might hinder growth of the state's drone industry. The North Dakota state Senate killed a drone bill in part because it might impede the state's chances of being selected by the Federal Aviation Administration as one of six national drone test sites, which could generate local jobs.

A bill that would have limited the ability of state and local governments to use drones died in the Washington legislature. The measure was opposed by the Boeing Co., which employs more than 80,000 workers in the state and which has a subsidiary, Insitu, that's a leading military drone manufacturer.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., recently drew attention to the domestic use of drones when he staged a Senate filibuster, demanding to know whether the president has authority to use weaponized drones to kill Americans on American soil. The White House said no, if the person isn't engaged in combat. Industry officials worry that the episode could temporarily set back civilian drone use.

"The opposition has become very loud," said Gitlin of AeroVironment, "but we are confident that over time the benefits of these solutions are going to far outweigh the concerns, and they'll become part of normal life in the future."

___

Associated Press writer Michael Felberbaum in Richmond, Va., contributed to this report.

___

Follow Joan Lowy on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/AP_Joan_Lowy

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-03-29-Everyday%20Drones/id-2898ef918ddb4166839776f7d86a1295

Video: Umenyiora thrilled to be in Atlanta

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Samsung Exynos Octa now rocking LTE, destined for Korean market

Samsung Exynos Octa now rocking LTE, destined to Korean market

When Samsung's Exynos 5 Octa was announced, it was believed to be compatible with 3G networks only. As such, the HSPA+ (global) version of the Galaxy S 4 was the only handset to feature the company's eight-core SoC -- the LTE model shipping with Qualcomm's 4G-capable, quad-core Snapdragon 600 instead. That's apparently changed, with the Korean giant tweeting that the Exynos 5 Octa now supports LTE on 20 bands. So why even make a Snapdragon 600 version of the Galaxy S 4, then? Perhaps Samsung can't produce as many chips as Qualcomm to meet the upcoming worldwide demand for its new flagship. This appears likely, with inews24 and new-samsunggalaxys4 reporting that the Exynos 5 Octa with LTE is currently reserved for Korean models only (SHV-E300S, SHV-E300K and SHV-E300L, to be exact). So, anyone fancy a trip to Seoul in the near future?

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Via: GSMArena

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Top 10 Traffic Accident Legal Questions and Their ... - hertz-law.com

Top 10 Traffic Accident Legal Questions and Their Answers If you?ve been injured in a traffic accident and you want to seek compensation, you probably have a number of questions at the moment. As a result, attorney Eric J. Hertz, of the Hertz Law Firm, has compiled the following list of the top 10 questions and answers for people in your situation:

1.) Can I Sue If I Was Found At-Fault?

Even if you have been found to be at-fault for the traffic accident in a criminal court, this does not necessarily mean that you are barred from seeking compensation. Civil and criminal cases are handled differently, so you may still be able to seek compensation in a civil court after being found guilty in a criminal court.

2.) What Damages Can I Sue For?

You can seek compensation for a number of injuries, and not just physical ones. Mental and emotional trauma causes very real effects, and missing time from work should also be considered. Your attorney can give you more information after listening to your story.

3.) What If I Can?t Make It to Court?

If you aren?t able to make it to court, your attorney will be able to represent your interests for you. If you are going to be required to show up in court, your attorney will let you know ahead of time and help you make arrangements.

4.) Do I Pay Any Upfront Fees?

The vast majority of personal injury attorneys, including Eric J. Hertz, do not charge upfront fees for representation.

5.) Do I Need Documentation?

While it?s always a good idea to have as much documentation as possible regarding your accident, your attorney will be able to seek out the necessary documentation relating to your case.

6.) How Long Will My Case Take?

Depending upon the case, you may be able to get compensation within a week or longer. Some cases, can take up to a year or more to be successfully concluded. Your attorney can give you a better estimate upon hearing your situation.

7.) How Do I Handle Problems With an Insurance Company?

Once you have partnered with an attorney, all contact with any insurance companies involved in your case should be directed to your attorney directly.

8.) When Will My Case Be Heard?

When your attorney files your lawsuit, you will be given a court date. This date may change depending upon a number of factors. Your attorney will be able to give you more information.

9.) Who Should I Sue?

You should sue anyone or any entity responsible for your injuries. This may include another driver, a vehicle manufacturer, any agencies responsible for maintaining roads and more.

10.) How Much Compensation Do I Deserve?

The amount of compensation you deserve is based upon how much you have suffered. Together, you and your attorney can discuss the specifics of your case to arrive at a definitive figure.

If you have further questions regarding an injury accident that you have been involved in, please contact the Hertz Law Firm today by dialing 404-577-8111.

Source: http://www.hertz-law.com/compensation-law/top-10-traffic-accident-legal-questions-and-their-answers.html

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Thursday, March 28, 2013

Sun block for the 'Big Dog': Astronomers detect titanium oxide and titanium dioxide around the giant star VY Canis Majoris

Mar. 27, 2013 ? An international team of astronomers, including researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy and from the University of Cologne, successfully identified two titanium oxides in the extended atmosphere around a giant star. The object VY Canis Major is one of the largest stars in the known universe and close to the end of its life. The detection was made using telescope arrays in the USA and in France.

The discovery was made in the course of a study of a spectacular star, VY Canis Majoris or VY CMa for short, which is a variable star located in the constellation Canis Major (Greater Dog). "VY CMa is not an ordinary star, it is one of the largest stars known, and it is close the end of its life," says Tomasz Kami?ski from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR). In fact, with a size of about one to two thousand times that of the Sun, it could extend out to the orbit of Saturn if it were placed in the centre of our Solar System.

The star ejects large quantities of material which forms a dusty nebula. It becomes visible because of the small dust particles that form around it which reflect light from the central star. The complexity of this nebula has been puzzling astronomers for decades. It has been formed as a result of stellar wind, but it is not understood well why it is so far from having a spherical shape.

Neither is known what physical process blows the wind, i.e. what lifts the material up from the stellar surface and makes it expand. "The fate of VY CMa is to explode as a supernova, but it is not known exactly when it will happen," adds Karl Menten, head of the "Millimetre and Submillimetre Astronomy" Department at MPIfR.

Observations at different wavelengths provide different pieces of information which is characteristic for atomic and molecular gas and from which physical properties of an astronomical object can be derived. Each molecule has a characteristic set of lines, something like a 'bar code', that allows to identify what molecules exist in the nebula.

"Emission at short radio wavelengths, in so-called submillimetre waves, is particularly useful for such studies of molecules," says Sandra Br?nken from the University of Cologne. "The identification of molecules is easier and usually a larger abundance of molecules can be observed than at other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum."

The research team observed TiO and TiO2 for the first time at radio wavelengths. In fact, titanium dioxide has been seen in space unambiguously for the first time. It is known from every-day life as the main component of the commercially most important white pigment (known by painters as "titanium white") or as an ingredient in sunscreens. It is also quite possible that the reader consumed some amounts of it as it is used to colour food (coded as E171 in the labels).

However, stars, especially the coolest of them, are expected to eject large quantities of titanium oxides, which, according to theory, form at relatively high temperatures close to the star. "They tend to cluster together to form dust particles visible in the optical or in the infrared," says Nimesh Patel from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. "And the catalytic properties of TiO2 may influence the chemical processes taking place on these dust particles, which are very important for forming larger molecules in space," adds Holger M?ller from the University of Cologne.

Absorption features of TiO have been known from spectra in the visible region for more than a hundred years. In fact, these features are used in part to classify some types of stars with low surface temperatures (M- and S-type stars). The pulsation of Mira stars, one specific class of variable stars, is thought to be caused by titanium oxide. Mira stars, supergiant variable stars in a late stage of their evolution, are named after their prototype star "Mira" (the wonderful) in the constellation of Cetus (the 'sea monster' or the 'whale').

The observations of TiO and TiO2 show that the two molecules are easily formed around VY CMa at a location that is more or less as predicted by theory. It seems, however, that some portion of those molecules avoid forming dust and are observable as gas phase species. Another possibility is that the dust is destroyed in the nebula and releases fresh TiO molecules back to the gas. The latter scenario is quite likely as parts of the wind in VY CMa seem to collide with each other.

The new detections at submillimetre wavelengths are particularly important because they allow studying the process of dust formation. Also, at optical wavelengths, the radiation emitted by the molecules is scattered by dust present in the extended nebula which blurs the picture, while this effect is negligible at radio wavelengths allowing for more precise measurements.

The discoveries of TiO and TiO2 in the spectrum of VY CMa have been made with the Submillimetre Array (SMA), a radio interferometer located at Hawaii, USA. Because the instrument combines eight antennas which worked together as one big telescope 226-meters in size, astronomers were able to make observations at unprecedented sensitivity and angular resolution. A confirmation of the new detections was successively made later with the IRAM Plateau de Bure Interferometer (PdBI) located in the French Alps.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Max-Planck-Gesellschaft.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. T. Kami?ski, C. A. Gottlieb, K. M. Menten, N. A. Patel, K. H. Young, S. Br?nken, H. S. P. M?ller, M. C. McCarthy, J. M. Winters, L. Decin. Pure rotational spectra of TiO and TiO2in VY Canis Majoris. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 2013; 551: A113 DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201220290

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/2TrLzq1N3xU/130327143841.htm

WideAngle: Finally, All Your Photos in One Place

You take more photos than ever these days. So do all of your friends. But where are all of those photos? You never look at them because they're scattered across the Internet abyss. WideAngle can help. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/gnVjE5LtAfQ/wideangle-finally-all-your-photos-in-one-place

Deal of the Day ? 23? Dell U2312HM UltraSharp 1080p IPS-panel LCD monitor

LogicBUY’s Deal for Thursday is the?23″ Dell U2312HM UltraSharp 1080p IPS-panel LCD monitor for?$219.99. ?Features: Anti-glare screen with hard-coat 3H surface LED backlit 8ms response time, 2,000,000:1 typical dynamic contrast ratio, 300nit brightness 4-port USB 2.0 hub, DVI and VGA connections EPEAT Gold rated Height-Adjustable stand with tilt and swivel adjustments and built-in cable management [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2013/03/28/deal-of-the-day-23-dell-u2312hm-ultrasharp-1080p-ips-panel-lcd-monitor/

Watch Pepper Potts Finally Suit Up in This Kickass Iron Man 3 Teaser

As May 3 gets closer and closer Marvel is starting to flood the airwaves with 30 second Iron Man 3 commercials, including this spot which reveals something fans have speculated since the first trailer: Pepper Potts gets to don the Iron Man armor. It doesn't look like Stark has created her her own custom suit—yet—but she looks right at home in his armor. Talk about a power couple. [YouTube via Laughing Squid] More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/VmIdKbv0MDI/watch-pepper-potts-finally-suit-up-in-this-kickass-iron-man-3-teaser

Manufacturing: Plasma treatments on a roll

Mar. 27, 2013 ? A revolutionary atmospheric-pressure plasma boosts adhesion of polymer films for roll-to-roll solar-cell production.

Mass manufacture of photovoltaic materials is often achieved inexpensively by screen printing organic solar cells onto plastic sheets. The polymer known as poly(ethylene terephthalate), or PET, is a key part of the technology. Well known as the inexpensive plastic used to make soda bottles, PET has garnered increasing use as an optoelectronic substrate because of its strength and flexibility. But printing conductive solar-cell coatings onto PET is a challenge: it has a non-reactive surface and is frequently contaminated with static electric charges, which makes adhesion to other materials difficult.

Linda Wu from the A*STAR Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology and co-workers have now devised an innovative plasma treatment to 'activate' PET surfaces for improved bonding during roll-to-roll processing1. The team's experiments with 'diffuse coplanar surface barrier discharge' (DCSBD) technology show that large-area PET sheets can be microscopically abraded and chemically modified to increase surface adhesion nearly instantaneously, thanks to plasma ions generated under open-air conditions.

Plasma treatments can quickly clean the surfaces of PET and other plastics2 without affecting their underlying properties or appearance. Normally, this technology requires clean rooms and vacuum chambers to turn noble gases into polymer-scrubbing plasma ions. The DCSBD technique, on the other hand, operates at atmospheric pressure and generates its plasma from ordinary air molecules. It achieves this through an inventive system of parallel, strip-like electrodes embedded inside an alumina ceramic plate. Applying a high-frequency, high-voltage electric field to these strips produces a thin and very uniform plasma field from ambient gases close to the ceramic plate (see image). The planar arrangement of this device makes it simple to treat only the top of the substrate using DCSBD in roll-to-roll lines.

When the researchers treated a PET substrate with a DCSBD plasma source, they saw immediate changes to the polymer surface: single-second plasma exposure times were sufficient to transform it from a water-repellent to a water-attractive surface. These modifications occurred uniformly over the entire PET substrate and provided improved adhesion power that lasted for more than 300 hours. X-ray and atomic force microscopy revealed that the short plasma bursts increased the proportion of surface polar groups and significantly enhanced microscale roughness.

Wu notes that the DCSBD technology is safe to touch, easy to operate, and can be deployed in humid and dusty industrial environments. The team is currently investigating if the high power densities present in these atmospheric plasmas can be exploited for future nanomaterial deposition applications.

The A*STAR-affiliated researchers contributing to this research are from the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR).

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


Journal References:

  1. Tom?? Homola, Jind?ich Matou?ek, Be?ta Hergelov?, Martin Kormunda, Linda Y.L. Wu, Mirko ?ern?k. Activation of poly(ethylene terephthalate) surfaces by atmospheric pressure plasma. Polymer Degradation and Stability, 2012; 97 (11): 2249 DOI: 10.1016/j.polymdegradstab.2012.08.001
  2. Tom?? Homola, Jind?ich Matou?ek, Be?ta Hergelov?, Martin Kormunda, Linda Y.L. Wu, Mirko ?ern?k. Activation of poly(methyl methacrylate) surfaces by atmospheric pressure plasma. Polymer Degradation and Stability, 2012; 97 (6): 886 DOI: 10.1016/j.polymdegradstab.2012.03.029

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/D6rocBPnsgc/130327162408.htm

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Mesothelioma The three Main Types - Professur Gestaltung ...

In general, asbestos is just a unusual kind of cancer. Several types of mesothelioma are distinguished between by where in actuality the cancer is growing. Pleural mesothelioma, the most frequent, accounting for 75% of mesothelioma cases, is where cancerous cells develop on the lining of the lungs. The next most frequent form of mesothelioma is peritoneal mesothelioma and this is where cancerous cells grow on the peritoneum which can be the filling of the stomach. Pericardial mesothelioma, minimal common significant type of mesothelioma, makes up roughly 5% of all mesothelioma cases. That is where malignant cancer cells grow on the liner of one?s heart.

All three of these kinds of mesothelioma are caused by asbestos. Asbestos is a naturally occurring fibrous mineral that was discovered round the 1860s. Due to its extremely of use property of being fireproof, asbestos was used greatly in building in the 1940s, 1930s and 1920s. It had been not until the early 1960s when the severe health hazards that asbestos causes were discovered, that asbestos stopped getting used. When subjected to asbestos with inadequate protection an individual can breathe small asbestos fibers which are suspended in the air. Until they become set in the coating of the lungs these fibers pass in to the breathing. As time passes, a build up of these asbestos fibers in the lungs could cause pleural mesothelioma. Asbestos fibres may also go into the lymphatic system and be transferred to both the coating of the abdomen or the tissue surrounding the heart. This can cause either peritoneal mesothelioma or pericardial mesothelioma.

In terms of symptoms, the three main types of mesothelioma have some symptoms in common together. These signs are typical of most three types: chest suffering, shortness of breath, coughing, coughing up blood, vomiting, sickness, weight loss and loss of appetite. Yet another sign of pericardial asbestos is shivers.

There are a few solutions for many kinds of mesothelioma but none of those have a high success rate. The effectiveness of the treatment depends upon how early and how strongly the cancer is treated. If the malignant cells are treated when they have fully matured and developed then it?s unlikely that treatment options will undoubtedly be effective. Treatment options include chemotherapy which is the use of drugs to kill the cancer, radiation therapy which uses a radiation dosage to kill off malignant cells and surgery which attempts to achieve long term control within the cancer by eliminating a sizable portion of malignant cells. These treatments may be combined in the shape of combined therapy. click

Source: http://www.damm-net.org/blog/2013/03/mesothelioma-the-three-main-types/

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Marriage Equality Backed By Obama, Ben Affleck On Twitter

Evan Rachel Wood, Seth MacFarlane, Ricky Martin and more celebs also offer their support through social media.
By Gil Kaufman


Equal rights supporters demonstrate in front of the Supreme Court in Washington, DC on Tuesday
Photo: Win McNamee/ Getty Images

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1704369/marriage-equality-supreme-court-obama.jhtml

British teenage whiz strikes deal with Yahoo

FILE - In this Jan. 4, 2012 file photo, the company logo is displayed at Yahoo headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif. One of Britain's youngest Internet entrepreneurs has hit the jackpot after selling his top-selling mobile application Summly to search giant Yahoo the company announced Monday March 25, 2012. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 4, 2012 file photo, the company logo is displayed at Yahoo headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif. One of Britain's youngest Internet entrepreneurs has hit the jackpot after selling his top-selling mobile application Summly to search giant Yahoo the company announced Monday March 25, 2012. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

(AP) ? One of Britain's youngest Internet entrepreneurs has hit the jackpot after selling his top-selling mobile application Summly to search giant Yahoo.

Seventeen-year-old Nick d'Aloisio, who dreamed up the idea for the content-shortening program when he was studying for his exams, said he was surprised by the deal. As with its other recent acquisitions, Yahoo didn't disclose how much it is paying for Summly, although British newspapers suggested the deal's value at several million dollars.

"I would have never imagined being in this position so suddenly," he wrote on his website, before thanking his family, his school ? and his venture capitalist backer Li Ka-Shing ? for supporting him.

Summly works by condensing content so readers can scroll through more information more quickly ? useful for the small screens of smartphones.

The deal announced Monday is Yahoo's fifth small acquisition in the past five months. All of them have been part of CEO Marissa Mayer's effort to attract more engineers with expertise in building services for smartphones and tablet computers, an increasingly important area of technology that she believes the Internet company had been neglecting.

Although the Yahoo acquisition won't close until later this spring, D'Aloisio said the Summly will no longer be available. Summly's technology will return in other Yahoo products, he said.

D'Aloisio will work for Yahoo in its London office ? in part so that he can complete his high school exams. Two other Summly workers will join Yahoo at its Sunnyvale, California, headquarters.

D'Aloisio is younger than Yahoo, which was incorporated in March 1995.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-03-26-US-Yahoo-Acquisition/id-67c3d466d49c4a5cb34ea097106942f0

BEV BUTULA: Criminal justice reference site a worthwhile stop ...

The National Criminal Justice Reference Service ?is a federally funded resource offering justice and drug-related information to support research, policy, and program development worldwide.?

The website includes a wide variety of publications, library abstracts, topical summaries, and a list of related links/websites.

To browse the site?s various topics, the researcher can select the ?A-Z topics? link. Choosing an area of interest will produce a list of questions and answers specific to that topic. The webpage will also include links to relevant free and fee based publications. As an added service, the webpage includes a ?Find in a library link? providing possible alternative methods for obtaining the article.

The researcher may also choose one of the broader subject-based menu options, including corrections, courts, crime, crime prevention, drugs, justice system, juvenile justice, law enforcement, and victims. From there, the user can conduct a keyword search or review the various subcategories to locate information.

The website contains a wealth of data and general information related to the various areas of criminal justice and is a worthwhile stop when conducting this type of research. If the material is of particular interest, users can also register to receive various newsletters and notifications.

Source: http://wislawjournal.com/2013/03/25/bev-butula-criminal-justice-reference-site-a-worthwhile-stop/

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Apple Facing European Investigation Over iPhone Pricing

Published on:

?European regulators are investigating whether Apple has broken anti-trust regulations in how it sets contracts with local mobile network operators.

Citing a person briefed on the issue, the NY Times reported that regulators have requested submissions from each of the European networks to see if Apple is behaving in an anti-competitive manner.

The accusations are currently focused on Apple's contracts with French networks, though other countries may also be involved.

The European Commission has confirmed that it is carrying out a preliminary investigation, but does not usually act until it receives a formal complaint.

The lack of variability in the retail prices of Apple products sold by different retailers and mobile networks has raised concerns in the past about how Apple appears to be controlling how its products are sold. That could be seen as anti-competitive if the company can be shown to have pressured retailers to adhere to fixed prices and promotions.

An Apple spokeswoman, Natalie Kerris, said, "Our contracts fully comply with local laws wherever we do business, including the E.U."

On the web: NY Times

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Tags: [apple]?

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cellular-news/LmiX/~3/wGzAF97YE_Y/59183.php

Nokia accuses Google of 'forcing' VP8 video codec on the world, uses patent system to resist it

Nokia accuses of 'forcing' VP8 video codec on the world, uses patent system to resist it

Just when Google thought everything was going swell with its open source VP8 video standard for the web, up pops one last hurdle. And it's a big one: Nokia has suddenly decided to use the patent system to try to prevent VP8 from being adopted as a free (or at least free-er) alternative to the license-laden H.264. Why would it do such a thing? Because, according to a statement given to FOSS Patents, the Finnish manufacturer believes VP8 isn't truly open. It describes the codec as a "proprietary technology" that offers "no advantages" over H.264 and that Google is "attempting to force" on others as part of its WebM project. What's more, Nokia claims VP8 infringes on its own intellectual property and says it isn't prepared to license any patents that may be required to let VP8 flourish. Oh dear. This problem may now need even more money thrown at it.

Filed under: , , , ,

Comments

Via: The Register

Source: FOSS Patents

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/25/nokia-attacks-google-over-vp8-codec/

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Fiscally Responsible Conservatives (Balloon Juice)

Share With Friends: Share on FacebookTweet ThisPost to Google-BuzzSend on GmailPost to Linked-InSubscribe to This Feed | Rss To Twitter | Politics - Top Stories Stories, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/294286241?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Anxiety, hope as high court ponders gay marriage

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear two cases concerning marriage rights for same-sex couples. In one, United States v. Windsor, the court could determine whether the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) violates the constitutional rights of same-sex couples. The other, Hollingsworth v. Perry, tackles Proposition 8, California?s ban on gay marriage that voters narrowly passed in 2008.

Yahoo News asked Americans who will be affected by these cases to share their stories and perspectives. Here's a sampling of what they said.

'I can't help but hold on to a thread of hope'

In 2010, Jacob Z. Flores had two weddings. He and his husband got married first in Provincetown, Mass., and three weeks later they had a ceremony in their hometown of Victoria, Texas.

Their marriage was legal in Massachusetts. But, Flores writes, they held the second ceremony ?to demonstrate to our friends and family that we were just like the other married couples they knew, whether it was legal in Texas or not."

?Yet, when both weddings were over, I couldn't help but feel cheated," he continued. "In each other's eyes and in the eyes of our friends, we were husbands, but to the federal government we were not.?

So for Flores, this week?s arguments over same-sex marriage in the nation?s highest court are a reason to be hopeful. He sees the cases on DOMA and Proposition 8 as similar to bans on interracial marriage and notes that the Supreme Court struck down such laws.

?I can't help but hold on to a thread of hope,? Flores writes. ?My marriage might be recognized on a federal level soon.?

'I could not perform a gay wedding'

D.L. Teamor, 39, a pastor in Michigan, says she ?cannot and will not judge another person,? but that she feels gay marriage violates the tenets of her faith.

?I believe that marriage is the union of one man and one woman as illustrated in the Bible, the nucleus of my faith,? Teamor writes. ?The laws and lessons contained therein do not change according to modern times or popular outlooks.?

She adds that performing a gay wedding ?would completely oppose my Christian beliefs."

?Sacrilege?

Another clergy member, Gerald Watt, has the same worries as Teamor. Watt says he supports civil unions but is opposed to same-sex marriage. ?To attempt to join two same sex individuals in the sacrament of marriage would be a sacrilege for me,? Watt writes.

He lives in Illinois, which is debating legalizing gay marriage. He notes that the proposed law allows for clergy to be exempt from performing same-sex weddings, but he fears that provision might not last.

?I can see a time when test cases will eventually force the government to withdraw credentials from clergy like me,? he writes. ?I might even be sued for violation of someone's civil rights.?

?Anxiety and anticipation?

Kate Coenen has been engaged since July, but she hasn?t made any solid wedding plans. Her fianc?e is finishing her degree at the University of Michigan, and they don?t know where they?ll live after graduation.

?Because each state has its own approach to same-sex marriage, we may end up in a state that won't recognize our relationship,? Coenen, 26, writes. Regardless of where they wind up, Coenen says she and her fianc?e ?plan on building our lives together whether or not we end up living in a state where we can marry legally.?

To her, the potential for broader recognition of gay marriage is more than just a symbol. She, too, wants to take advantage of ?tangible benefits that many people in straight couples take for granted.?

The end of DOMA ?would give our lives a greater degree of stability and certainty,? she writes.

But no matter how the Supreme Court cases turn out, Coenen, who was a student at the University of Iowa when the state?s Supreme Court legalized gay marriage there in 2009, is optimistic about the prospects for gay marriage.

?I look forward to sharing that future with my wife-to-be,? she writes.

?DOMA is a slap in the face?

A.R. Treadway lives with her partner of seven years in DeLand, Fla., where they are raising her son from, as she puts it, her ?former life.?

She believes ?DOMA is a slap in the face??one with practical implications for her family.

?I want to be able to have the same rights and protections my parents have,? Treadway writes. ?When my father passes away, my mother is eligible to collect his benefits [and] make arrangements for his burial. ... If I died tomorrow, my fianc? couldn't make funeral arrangements for me or claim my son as her son, which would mean a nasty court battle between my family and his birth father.?

She also hopes to one day see gay marriage recognized in all 50 states. But, as she awaits the outcome of the DOMA and Proposition 8 cases, she is seeing some advances for LGBT rights in Florida and is ?enjoying the little victories.?

Worry at church and at work

Matt Bianco, 36, of Southern Pines, N.C., works at a Christian company and is an elder in his church. He fears that broad legalization of gay marriage could force both institutions to violate their conscience.

?In both cases, they have the right, and possibly the duty, to oppose gay marriage, including the funding of health and benefits coverage for the gay spouse,? Bianco writes.

For him, the root of the problem is the government?s involvement in marriage in the first place. He writes that ?the government has usurped authority it does not have? by giving benefits to married couples. And now, with the Supreme Court cases looming, he sees moral conflicts on the horizon over the granting of those benefits.

?This is not simply a matter of gays wanting equal access to marriage; this is a case of the government imposing acceptance of and financial support of gay marriage upon individuals and employers who are morally opposed to gay marriage,? he writes.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/anxiety-hope-ahead-supreme-court-hearings-gay-marriage-170513043--politics.html

Enterprising Lindener helping deportees reintegrate into society ...

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?We were treated as aliens in the countries that deported us here, and now we are in the country of our birth and we are further alienated. We are still being treated as aliens, and it is hard- we have to go that extra mile just to be accepted!?
This is the lament of Paul Nurse, an ?involuntary re-migrant? (deportee) who currently resides at Wisroc, but has a property at Victory Valley, Wismar, where he is very active in community developmental activities.
Nurse was sent back to Guyana three years ago after spending time in a New York penitentiary for conspiracy charges. He had spent almost 30 years of his life in the US. His departure from the US meant separation from his relatives there, including his eighteen children.
But Nurse is a survivor and has the founded the Guyanese Association for Involuntary Remigrants (GAFIR), which is an organization that was established to assist deportees to reintegrate into society.
According to Nurse, there are about one hundred deportees in Linden alone, and some of them have returned as recent as two months ago.
Nurse noted that the greatest challenge facing deportees is the stigma associated with their status, and the general negative perception of locals, who often attribute anything bad happening in a community, to them.
?For anything bad that happens in the community, fingers are pointed to the remigrant. Now I?m not saying that a few of them don?t get involved in negative activities, but this is not true for everybody.
?Many of us still try to live as decent law abiding citizens, but the negativity can sometimes get to you. It?s like we were aliens in the countries we were deported from, and when we come here we are still aliens, in the country of our birth.?
But despite the negativity, Nurse is determined to make something of his life, and in the process assist those in a similar position like him.
His mission, however, is not just about assisting deportees, as many persons could attest to.
Presently operating a variety business off the One Mile main road, Nurse has employed a number of persons over the few years that he has been back here.
But his greatest challenge is garnering enough money to launch into business in a big way, which would afford him the opportunity of employing even more people.
? Now, I?m a person that always thinks big and want to do things on a large scale- for instance back in the United States, I had my own night club and car dealership. I?m accustomed to doing business at the corporate level, but here it?s hard even getting started.
You know I would often sit here and look at all the vehicles coming out of the interior, knowing that all of that money is just passing through this town, when we ought to be looking at ways to capitalize on these things.
Right now I?m looking to do business on a twenty four hour basis, to cater to these people who make these long commute, and would require certain basic things?.

Poultry rearing and cooking!
Nurse is the holder of an associate degree in the culinary arts, and loves to cook. One of his very first business ventures was rearing and selling chickens, and of course barbequing them.
But he realized that he was not ?even ready? when he travelled to Mahdia to take some orders.
?The quantity of chicken these people wanted on a weekly basis, I was barely producing in a month- so it clearly showed that I had to plug more money into the business.?
Nurse said that when he came back to Guyana he was given some money, which he used to establish himself in business, and subsequently employed a number of persons.
He noted that most of them were single parents, and so were in dire need of some kind of financial support.
But today his main focus is no longer just on money-making projects, but rather more community oriented. He often takes time away from his business to assist in some community project or other, and to sit with his fellow deportees and talk.

Challenges
Nurse said that deportees face huge challenges, including a lack of housing and unemployment opportunities.
Added to that, he noted, is the fact that they are sometimes taken advantage of, and he cited the case of one of his colleagues who had entered the country with a bullet in his head and a US$5000 treasury cheque, which he never saw again after presenting it to customs.
?That money was supposed to be support for him from the US, as he was shot by the federal government, and as such was entitled to continued support from them. He had felt that presenting the cheque to customs was the right thing to do, as they were the authority, and would probably mail the cheque to him. I mean in the US these kinds of things don?t happen like that, or go unaccounted for.
He made several attempts to try to retrieve it, but all were futile, I guess the cheque was cashed and mis-appropriated.?

Halfway Home.
Nurse is suggesting that some type of halfway home be established here for deportees, who often come back and have no home, and most times lack adequate resources to acquire their own lodgings.
Many of them would have left all their relatives in the US and other countries, so there is no one here that they could depend on.
With no jobs they are ?hard put? to pay a rent.
He is also advocating for a process whereby deportees could acquire lands that they could cultivate, and so contribute to the agricultural development of the country, in a community where there is a dearth of jobs.
(Enid Joaquin)

Source: http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2013/03/25/enterprising-lindener-helping-deportees-reintegrate-into-society/

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