Tiny Tokelau to be world's first solar-powered country

14 hrs.

Devin Coldewey

A project to convert the tiny island nation of Tokelau to all solar power is nearing fruition, as workers finish the first of three major panel arrays. Once activated, the installations should provide more than 90 percent of the power used by the islands' 1,711 residents.

Tokelau is a remote nation northeast of New Zealand?comprising three atolls, to which goods and passengers can only travel by boat. Their electricity needs, though modest, are met by burning diesel fuel in generators. The transportation of the nearly 2,000 barrels of fuel consumed each year costs the population around a million dollars ? a heavy toll.

The three solar arrays will generate about a megawatt in total, and batteries will keep the lights on at times when Tokelau's citizens previously could not afford to run generators. They are designed to withstand the humid and windy tropical environment, and actually produce a surplus of power, meaning the population can expand without taxing the system.

"We would expect this system to repay itself in five years, and?have?a 20-year project life before it needs any sort of significant maintenance," the director of Powersmart, the company that built the arrays, told 3 News in New Zealand.

The roughly nine million New Zealand dollars (around $7.3 million US) needed to plan and?build the installations was taken out in loans from the New Zealand government and contributed by the U.N. Development Programme.

When the installations are switched on in September, fossil fuels will only be necessary?for the three cars maintained by the country. Other countries and territories in the area, motivated by high fuel costs, plentiful sun, and relatively small populations, are also working on going all-renewable. Tuvalu, Samoa, and the Cook Islands may soon be the second, third, and fourth countries to rely almost entirely on solar power.

Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for NBC News Digital. His personal website is coldewey.cc.

Source: http://www.futureoftech.msnbc.msn.com/technology/futureoftech/tiny-tokelau-be-worlds-first-solar-powered-country-916814

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A Review Of Aromatherapy Oils | Submit For Publishing

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Syrian regime troops claim to have retaken parts of Aleppo, rebels maintain the fight goes on

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Source: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/world/Activists+Shelling+clashes+Aleppo+Syrian+regime+vows+purge/7007591/story.html

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Japan's Future -- Fossil or Nuclear?

How will Japan meet its energy demands in the next two decades? There are two short-term choices: 1) decommission all nuclear plants and replace them with new fossil fuel plants, or 2) restart the nuclear fleet and upgrade their capacity to replace the lost capacity of the Fukushima plants. There are some variations on these two, e.g., shut down only the oldest plants (twelve pre-date 1980), build a few new gas plants, or adjust the particular mix of coal versus gas, but the economic and environmental costs of these two paths are vastly different.

Japan's Hamaoka, Unit 5, an Advanced Boiling Water Reactor, built in 2005, has no need to be shut down prematurely. ?Units 1 and 2, old reactors from the 1970s, were shut down in 2009, as planned. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Japan had planned to increase renewables, increase energy efficiency and replace old nuclear plants with new ones, but this is now shelved in the aftermath of the tsunami. The problem is that Japan has no significant energy resources. Except for a little coal, they have almost no fossil fuel, poor wind and solar potential, and little biomass potential.? This is why they were ramping up nuclear in the first place.? The tsunami did not change this.

Economically, the U.S. would benefit from Japan replacing its nuclear fleet with fossil plants. Abundant U.S. coal and gas can be exported to Japan at a nice profit. But the environmental hypocrisy of that future is not lost on the global community (Coal?s Not Dying ? it?s just getting shipped abroad).

However, ramping up natural gas has its problems. It is cheap to build gas plants but expensive to fuel them. Japan imports liquid natural gas (LNG) at five times the price of natural gas in the U.S. (LNG Commodities). As Christopher Joyce from NPR recently reported, the fuel costs of replacing their nuclear fleet with natural gas would be ?staggering?requiring almost 20 percent of the world?s supply of LNG? (Nuclear Woes Push Japan Into A New Energy Future). Japan?s increased use of LNG has already pushed global market prices up to near-record highs and will likely break records this year (LNG Commodities).

So gearing up fossil fuel plants in Japan will most likely be a combination of natural gas and coal, while maintaining their existing oil-fired power plants.? Oil was to be phased out, along with much of their coal, as part of their low-carbon plan, but that plan is now on hold indefinitely, and their carbon emissions are rising fast.

Materials and fuel are more costly in Japan relative to the U.S., and labor is slightly cheaper. So in $US, replacing Japan?s approximate 300 billion kWhrs/yr of nuclear with a mix of a third coal (twenty-one 750 MW plants with a capcity factor of 71% @ $2.5 billion each) and two-thirds gas (thirty-three 880 MW plants with a capacity factor of 80% @ $820 million each) will cost about $80 billion in construction. But the additional fuel costs for these plants will be about $4 billion/yr @ 4?/kWhr for coal and $40 billion/yr @ 18?/kWhr for gas, or about $44 billion/yr. Operating costs for these new plants would total about $15?billion/yr @ 0.5?/kWhr for each fuel type. So over the next two decades, the cost of replacing nuclear with fossil fuel generation will be about $1.2?trillion, most of it in the cost of natural gas. This cost does not include financing, insurance or other non-operating or non-construction costs. It will take about ten years to fully implement this new mix.

On the other hand, the cost of restarting for the existing nuclear fleet, minus the Fukushima reactors, is $1.8 billion/yr in fuel @ 0.6?/kWhr, and $3.9 billion/yr in operating costs @ 1.3?/kWhr, or $5.7 billion/yr total. Upgrading the capacity of the existing fleet to achieve 300 billion kWhrs/yr will cost about $25 billion, extending the life-span of a dozen will cost about $6 billion, and building a dozen new ones to replace older ones will cost about $80 billion. So over the next two decades, the costs of keeping the nuclear fleet afloat is about $225 billion, much less than the fossil fuel alternative. This cost does not include insurance, financing or other non-operating or non-construction costs. Different assumptions can change the details but the difference will still be about five times. And restarting the nuclear fleet can be done now when the country needs it most. Japan must learn from the disaster and restart their remaining nuclear fleet by incorporating the changes in safety and corporate culture suggested by the international community, but it must restart them.

With respect to carbon and global warming, the choice facing Japan is even clearer. ?Bill McKibben?s recent article about climate change in?Rolling Stone?(Global Warming?s Terrifying New Math) paints a dire picture of the continuing increase in fossil fuel use occurring worldwide. As a geologist, I have to agree. But it is strange that nuclear, the energy source best suited to lower emissions, gets no discussion. As bad as the human health effects of Chernobyl were, the environmental effects of a thousand Chernobyl?s are nothing compared to a global temperature rise of just 2??C. We need stronger global regulatory control of nuclear, as well as all other power plants, but it will very, very bad to allow fossil fuels to be the dominant energy source in this century. Present unemployment rates won?t matter in that future.

Satellites See Unprecedented Greenland Ice Sheet Surface Melt (Photo credit: NASA Goddard Photo and Video)

The world has too much fossil fuel to let market forces decide our future. It will take committed leadership of the global community to implement a reasonable energy mix that meets the economic and environmental needs of the planet. The significant rise in carbon emissions from Japan and Germany, two nations previously committed to emission reductions, is ominous. Japan still has a choice, but Chancellor Merkel chose politics over science. Just the health care effects of increasing coal use in Germany will erase any perceived benefit of shutting down their nuclear reactors (How Deadly Is Your Kilowatt?).

The question is: what do you care about most? The planet?s survival, economic survival, or the fear of radiation? Japan has a choice to make.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2012/07/29/japans-future-fossil-or-nuclear/

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Outsourcing and Offshore Business Solutions | Mitsa.org

Regardless of the size of your business, you may be able to cut expenses by utilizing offshore opportunities. Many businesses find that turning to Offshore Company Experts can dramatically cut the cost of doing business. Below you will find the basics about going offshore for outsourcing portions of your company?s projects.

What Countries Do Most US Businesses Outsource From?

Many US companies outsource their business to English speaking countries with very educated populations. These countries include but are not limited to:

? India

? Pakistan

? Philippines

? China

? Romania

? Thailand

? Canada

? The United Kingdom

? Bangladesh

? Ukraine

? Nigeria

? Turkey

What Types of Services Do Businesses Outsource For?

Some of the businesses mistakenly assume that production is the only service that US businesses use for outsourcing. Some of the services that businesses outsource for include:

? Business Processing? Customer Service? Programming ? Software Management? Database Creation and Management? Engineering? Graphic Design? Web Design? Architecture? CAD Design? Presentations and Multimedia Creation? Sales and Marketing? Writing and Editing? Translating? Business Consulting? Legal Document Processing and Research? Finance? Accounting? Production? Product Design and Updates

What Are The Cost Savings of Outsourcing?

Many companies find that they can cut their costs up to 2/3 by utilizing outsourcing. Depending on your specific needs, outsourcing can improve your profit margins dramatically. Many customer service and production facilities are already set-up for outsourcing operations . You literally only need to provide them with your project specifications to begin saving money.

How Do I Find Companies To Outsource With?

The fact is that you don?t have to find companies to outsource with. There are many great Offshore Company Experts that are located stateside. All you have to do is contact them with your project and specific needs. They already have established contacts and they will connect you with the companies and the countries that best meet your needs. Depending on the experts is a smart way to get to started and an even smarter way to reduce the risks of seeking outsourcing businesses through trial and error.

Regardless of what direction you decide to use to outsource your projects, you may be surprised by just how much money you can save while still providing your customers with excellent customer service and products. Outsourcing doesn?t mean sacrificing quality. You can maintain your businesses high standards and dramatically cut your costs at the same time.

Source: http://mitsa.org/outsourcing-and-offshore-business-solutions/

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Officials: Ebola breaks out in Uganda

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) ? The deadly Ebola virus has killed 14 people in western Uganda this month, Ugandan health officials said on Saturday, ending weeks of speculation about the cause of a strange disease that had many people fleeing their homes.

The officials and a World Health Organization representative told a news conference in Kampala Saturday that there is "an outbreak of Ebola" in Uganda.

"Laboratory investigations done at the Uganda Virus Research Institute...have confirmed that the strange disease reported in Kibaale is indeed Ebola hemorrhagic fever," the Ugandan government and WHO said in joint statement.

Kibaale is a district in midwestern Uganda, where people in recent weeks have been troubled by a mysterious illness that seemed to have come from nowhere. Ugandan health officials had been stumped as well, and spent weeks conducting laboratory tests that were at first inconclusive.

On Friday, Joaquim Saweka, the WHO representative in Uganda, told The Associated Press that investigators were "not so sure" it was Ebola, and a Ugandan health official dismissed the possibility of Ebola as merely a rumor. It appears firm evidence of Ebola was clinched overnight.

Health officials told reporters in Kampala that the 14 dead were among 20 reported with the disease. Two of the infected have been isolated for examination by researchers and health officials. A clinical officer and, days later, her 4-month-old baby died from the disease caused by the Ebola virus, officials said.

Officials urged Ugandans to be calm, saying a national emergency taskforce had been set up to stop the disease from spreading far and wide.

There is no cure or vaccine for Ebola, and in Uganda, where in 2000 the disease killed 224 people and left hundreds more traumatized, it resurrects terrible memories. There have been isolated cases since, such as in 2007 when an outbreak of a new strain of Ebola killed at least 37 people in Bundibugyo, a remote district close to the Congolese border, but none as deadly as in 2000.

Ebola, which manifests itself as a hemorrhagic fever, is highly infectious and kills quickly. It was first reported in 1976 in Congo and is named for the river where it was recognized, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A CDC factsheet on Ebola says the disease is "characterized by fever, headache, joint and muscle aches, sore throat, and weakness, followed by diarrhea, vomiting, and stomach pain. A rash, red eyes, hiccups and internal and external bleeding may be seen in some patients."

Scientists don't know the natural reservoir of the virus, but they suspect the first victim in an Ebola outbreak gets infected through contact with an infected animal, such as a monkey.

The virus can be transmitted through direct contact with the blood or secretions of an infected person, or objects that have been contaminated with infected secretions. During communal funerals, for example, when the bereaved come into contact with an Ebola victim, the virus can be contracted, officials said, warning against unnecessary contact with suspected cases of Ebola.

In Kibaale, some villagers had started abandoning their homes in recent weeks to escape what they thought was an illness that had something to do with bad luck, because people were quickly falling ill and dying, and there was no immediate explanation, officials said.

Officials said now that they've verified Ebola in the area they can concentrate on controlling the disease. Ebola patients were being treated at the only major hospital in Kibaale, said Stephen Byaruhanga, the district's health secretary.

"Being a strange disease, we were shocked to learn that it was Ebola," Byaruhanga said. "Our only hope is that in the past when Ebola broke out in other parts of Uganda it was controlled."

The challenge, he said, was retaining the services of all the nurses and doctors who are being asked to risk their lives in order to look after the sick.

"Their lives are at stake," he said.

Officials also worry that other villagers suffering from other diseases might be afraid to visit the hospital for fear of catching Ebola, he said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/officials-ebola-breaks-uganda-123309607.html

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App of the Week: Song Pop

App Name: Song Pop

Price: Free

Available Platforms: iOS, Android, and Facebook

What does this app do? This "Free Fallin" app lets users listen to a clip of a song from a number of genres - and then guess what the song title is. But be careful, you are competing against other song lovers who will demand "R-E-S-P-E-C-T."

The game is timed to see who can choose the song title the fastest; the one who guesses the fastest wins that round. (You don't have to guess simultaneously, your opponent can guess on their own time.) The more you beat your opponent the more coins you receive, the more coins you receive the more unlocks you will get. So "Don't Stop Believing" until you play this "Beautiful Game." Okay, we're done with the song jokes now!

Is it easy to set up? You can start a game using your Facebook account or by creating an account using your email. Then you can start a game by using Facebook, email address, username or by selecting random.

Worth it? Absolutely. But beware, like Draw Something or Words With Friends you'll be hooked in no time (2 million people already are!) - you'll be checking your phone more than you should to see if your opponent guessed the song faster than you. The only issue is that the free version is limited on song choice.

Let us know if you have any app of the week suggestions on Twitter at @TechThisOutABC.

Also Read

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/app-week-song-pop-142459920--abc-news-tech.html

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Thomson Reuters on the Front Foot - David Worlock | Developing ...

Jul

28

Filed Under B2B, Big Data, Blog, Financial services, Industry Analysis, internet, news media, Publishing, Reed Elsevier, Thomson, Workflow | Leave a Comment

It has been a month of contrasts . Good solid results at Reed Elsevier have the market analysts demanding the sale of Lexis Legal : the chief break-up irritant at Bernstein can forecast a 20% increase in value as soon as it is done . Reed Elsevier now trades at a discount to last year?s valuation as well as to the wider quoted marketplace . And how does this come about ? Simply by representing the company to analysts as a diversified investment portfolio , and then? disappointing them with the results , which always prompts a demand for the sale of the weakest bit and the purchase of something stronger .

Meanwhile , over at Thomson Reuters , it has been a dynamic July in terms of forward progress . You can measure that in terms of acquisitions if you like , but to me the key element is the strategic positioning of these purchases and what they do to pursue the goal of market leadership in services and solutions for corporate finance , tax and regulatory , from banking and equity trading , law and tax/accountancy in practitioner terms right across to the desktop of the corporate finance? ,tax and legal department at the other . If the Thomson Reuters vision works out , it will connect up all of these functions and activities into a series of solutions which will compel big and then medium and small corporates into easier methods of information handling, and methods that get easier the more reliant they become on inter-related services and solutions from Thomson Reuters . This is about integration in the face of user need , about recognizing the primacy of the network , and about? bringing one huge company with many specializations into focus on the issues of service and solution . This is not a diverse portfolio of disparate elements : it buys the bits it needs and sells the bits that do not fit , but? the definition of acquisition has to do with whether these global aims are satisfied as well as whether the purchase makes financial sense and the required return .

Lets take a few July examples . The headline purchase was the acquisition of FX Alliance for $625 m . Here , then , are Thomson Reuters , a leading player in the sell-side interbank foreign exchange market? , one of its traditional strengths , pulling in a major player from the bank-focused? currency trading business for corporates , asset managers and hedge funds . Foreign exchange is a huge diversified marketplace , involving some $5 trillions of transactions per day , and this deal gives Thomson Reuters the ability to work in both the internal institutional markets and the corporate -facing? external market , using electronic platforms and high speed trading techniques all the while .

By comparison , my next two examples are smaller in scale , but demonstrate other aspects of the process that is going on . Having written extensively about the launch of the Thomson Reuters GRC division ? bringing legal and tax into focus with financial services in the areas of Governance , Regulation and Compliance , I want to mark the arrival of ? Eikon for Compliance Management ? with a special commendation . It seems to me that this now closes a huge loop , and provides a service environment which was never more urgently needed . It is said that there are now 60 new regulatory announcements a day? from some 230 regulators and exchanges in financial markets , yet less than a third of traders report having any compliance? training or update in the last 3 months . But to join up solutions for your customers you need to start with a joined-up company yourself .

My last example dates back to the experience of some 25 years as an external director on the international side of the Bureau of National Affairs , which has now disappeared into Bloomberg . An issue that intrigued me there , which attracted a great deal of attention and was crying out for a service solution , was Transfer Pricing . Boring ? More likely stupifying ! Here was an area that always demanded a software -based solution , since most tax lawyers and finance specialists were deeply reluctant to get entrapped in its intricacies , and access to someone who knew what they were talking about was rare and expensive . BNA produced great books on the subject , and so did WK and others . But Thomson Reuters has produced ONESOURCE Transfer Pricing , with an Analyser to get update on the compliance requirement for corporates who trade across borders and a Documenter and Benchmarking solution , ensuring that users have the right forms , and , vitally , ensuring that they are benchmarking against corporations whose solutions have already been accepted by the authorities . Here then is a vital but expensively neglected field of corporate activity , which reflects on much that Thomson Reuters is now about .

The final reflection is upon ?platform ? . At all levels Thomson Reuters is on a multiplicity of platforms , and while content integration and re-use has led to access being eased and common metadata standards evolved , this still clearly has a good way to go . And there is strength in this multiplicity ? no one wants to interrupt the steady absorption of Eikon , now beginning to fulfill expectations , or damage the market primacy of WestlawNext . I expect , however , in the age of data , to see the continuing back-end integration of this very large? player?s systems to be a continuing theme . At the moment its greatest rival is a company , Bloomberg , who is swaddled in the limitations of a Victorian corset ? the Terminal . That too will have to go , as Bloomberg limit their own future through an inability to get its new plays in law and government to sell to end users who do not want even a flat-priced , all you can eat deal on a? box originally built for traders . There is a midpoint , and Thomson Reuter?s migration looks like getting them there first .

Source: http://www.davidworlock.com/2012/07/thomson-reuters-on-the-front-foot-2/

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Cavendish hails 'dream team' as hosts look for first gold

Tour de France sprint king Mark Cavendish believes a 'dream' British cycling team can notch what could be the hosts' first gold medal of the Games at the Olympic men's road race on Saturday.

Only six days after Cavendish played a role in Bradley Wiggins' historic yellow jersey triumph, the race's 23-times stage winner starts as the favourite for the 250 km men's road race on the opening day of competition.

A host of challengers like Germany's Andre Greipel and Slovakian Peter Sagan stand in his way, but Cavendish believes Britain's five-man team have the edge.

"It's the dream team," said the 27-year-old from the Isle of Man. "If we wanted to win this bike race we couldn't be in a better situation team-wise."

Britain will line up with a five-man team notably including Wiggins and Scot David Millar armed with a plan to deliver Cavendish to the home straight in the perfect position for a bunch sprint.

If the plan comes together, the 'Manx Missile' -- going on his recent form -- will be hard to beat.

Crowned the world champion in 2011, when he beat Australian Matt Goss to the rainbow jersey in Copenhagen, Cavendish put some doubts over his form early in the Tour de France to bed with two, stunning late wins in the race.

Wiggins affirmed that any concerns Cavendish may ultimately pay for completing both the Giro d'Italia and the Tour in the last two months are well wide of the mark.

"We've got the fastest man in the world and I guess it's for other people to combat that," said Wiggins.

When it comes to tactics, the road race, however, will be hard to predict.

It starts and finishes on the flat of The Mall within sight of Buckingham Palace, but with a circuit which featuring the climb of Box Hill and will be raced nine times Britain will have to be tactically astute.

Australia said they won't just be looking to put Goss in a bunch sprint.

"Most of the traditional cycling nations don't want a sprint because they've got very limited chances of a medal, I expect the race to be aggressive early; otherwise it just plays into the hands of the Poms (British)," said Australia boss Matt White.

"We've got a team that can afford to be aggressive. If it doesn't work out then we've always got Gossy for the sprint, we can work both ways."

Like Britain with Wiggins, Australia's team of Goss, Simon Gerrans, Stuart O'Grady, Cadel Evans and Michael Rogers has been labelled the "best" ever by O'Grady, who is competing in his sixth Olympics.

"This is the best team Australia has ever had going into an Olympic road race," said O'Grady.

Milan-SanRemo champion Gerrans, meanwhile believes believes one of their potential advantages is the pressure factor on the hosts.

"Yeah, definitely, and the fact they are going in with the current world champion (Cavendish) and Tour de France champion (Wiggins) as well, that's obviously attracting a lot of attention," said Gerrans.

"In the past they have seemed to handle the pressure fairly well, but I don't think they have ever had pressure like this before."

As well as Cavendish and Goss there's Sagan, Greipel, and Belgian pair Tom Boonen and Philippe Gilbert.

Sagan, who won three stages at the Tour de France including the sprinters' green jersey, stands out because he will not to have the full five-man team at his disposal given Slovakia's comparatively lower ranking

And while he has been given a positive appraisal from world cycling chief Pat McQuaid, the Irishman said a Cavendish win would not go amiss.

"I want to see the best win, whoever it might be," said McQuaid, the International Cycling Union (UCI) president.

" ... But I have to show a certain bias. Mark Cavendish coming up that finishing straight would just be the icing on the cake for the first gold medal of the Olympics."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cavendish-hails-dream-team-hosts-look-first-gold-023148410--oly.html

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Syrian rebels say gain ground as grip of army weakens

REYHANLI, Turkey (Reuters) - Since he joined a poorly armed, ragtag rebel group, Syrian fighter Radwan al-Saaour has been mostly on the run, hiding in the woods of Idlib province near Turkey as loyalist forces overran town after town killing people at will.

But his fortunes, and those of the armed resistance movement against President Bashar al-Assad's rule, have changed dramatically in the last few weeks. Last month, Saaour celebrated repelling an army attack on the town of Kafr Karmin by setting a Russian-made army tank on fire.

"We took their anti-aircraft guns, the booty and left a dozen of their men dead," said Saaour, 26, a former laborer who once earned a living in the port of Latakia.

Sixteen months after the uprising against Assad began, the battle between lightly armed rebels and the awesome firepower of the Syrian military - one of the largest standing armies in the Middle East - has become a war of attrition as defections weaken Assad's forces and the rebels' combat skills improve.

Saaour's successes have been matched by broader rebel gains across the country in the last two weeks, as fighters seized several border posts and took the fight against Assad to the capital, Damascus, and to Aleppo, Syria's biggest city.

It hasn't all gone the rebels' way though - government troops have since regained control over most of Damascus and were poised on Friday to launch a counter-attack in Aleppo after bringing in reinforcements from nearby provinces.

But while intense army shelling in the last few weeks has forced hundreds of Saaour's comrades to retreat from towns within Idlib province and rural areas north of Aleppo, most of the countryside in northwest Syria is now outside the control of the overstretched military.

"We are now in control of most of the countryside around Idlib and the countryside north of Aleppo," Saaour, one of hundreds of fighters who go back and forth across the border, told Reuters in a flat in the Turkish border city of Reyhanli.

Almost 70 percent of the large countryside towns in northwestern Syria that border Turkey - towns such as Maarat al-Nuaman, Sarmada, Maarat Nisreen, Kafar Takharim, Teftanaz and Binish - are in rebel hands, several Free Army commanders say.

In northern and western rural areas near Aleppo, the country's largest city and commercial hub, the larger towns of Atareb, Darat Azeh, Anadan, Tel Rifat and scores of smaller villages have also fallen under rebel control.

That has left only the southern and eastern rural outskirts of the city of Aleppo still under the control of Assad's forces.

"If it had not been for the shelling he would have no control at all over the countryside. The more losses on the ground, the more defections that weaken the army," said Abu Omar, a young fighter from Idlib.

ARMY ON BACKFOOT

Only Harem, a pro-Assad Sunni Muslim border town, and the Shi'ite Muslim villages of Foua and Kfrya, 25 km (15 miles) from the border with Turkey, as well as parts of Jisr Shughur, now remain as isolated pro-army territory in the predominantly Sunni-populated Idlib province that borders Turkey, rebels say.

Subjected to more frequent attacks and roadside bombs, Assad's battalions in the northwest have been increasingly confined to several large bases, including the main Mastuma army base, 4 km (2 miles) south of Idlib city.

The headquarters of the feared 46th battalion of the Republican Guard south of the restive town of Atareb, 15 km (10 miles) west of the Turkish border post of Reyhanli, has been the source of some of the heaviest artillery barrages, rebels say.

In the last two months, the army has even deserted checkpoints that used to seal off one county town from another after suffering losses from ambushes and landmines targeting army convoys on supply routes to Aleppo, Idlib and Homs.

One sophisticated operation last month saw the rebels briefly capture the strategic air base of Ghanto near the restive town of Rastan where they destroyed surface-to-air missiles.

Around the same time, a daring raid on the Jebel Sheikh Barakat mountain, almost 20 km (12 miles) northeast of Aleppo, saw rebels overrun a radar station, loot its contents, and kill its defenders. Last week, rebels also overran the main Bab al-Hawa crossing with Turkey, and two other border posts.

"The state's authority has almost disappeared on the main international highway, all the way from Turkey to Homs," said one Syrian business traveler who entered the crossing from Aleppo and gave his name as Barakat.

In the town of Anadan, 20 km (12 miles) north of Aleppo, fighters say they return at night to engage the army in hit-and-run attacks on checkpoints and nearby security compounds, even after the army forced them to retreat to nearby mountains.

"They don't have control during the night and even during the day they cannot stay too long," said Ibrahim Maatouk, 35, a local rebel commander, brought by rebels to a Turkish ambulance at the border and rushed to surgery for bullet wounds in the chest and left leg.

"They are shelling rebel-held countryside towns randomly as far as 30 km (20 miles) away from their bases. Their aim is to terrify locals and make people hate us and turn them against us but the effect is the opposite. The more they bombard us the more people get closer together and hate them," he added.

BOLDER ATTACKS

Young fighters, many suffering shrapnel wounds and broken limbs, say months of gun battles have honed their combat skills.

"We did not have experience to lay explosives, or any coherent leadership ... but this is now changing," said Khaldoun al-Omar who arrived from Sarmada, 5 km (3 miles) from the Turkish border.

"The battles are looking more like warfare between two armies, even though they far outgun us," he added.

Higher ranking officers who joined the rebels in June with rocket-propelled launchers looted from army depots in the village of Khan Sobol and Jabal al-Zawya helped bring much needed expertise to the poorly equipped force.

"Two months ago we would not be able to confront a tank. Now, we are able to and the captured ones have been hidden in the mountains for when the time comes to use them," said Omar, who underwent six hours of surgery in Turkey for a leg wound.

Omar said hundreds of youths, many of whom already had military training as conscripts, were now getting more rigorous training in woodland areas along the long porous border in makeshift camps.

Young rebels were now also using more sophisticated improvised explosive devices against armored vehicles that the Syrian army has used in battle against them.

Syrian official media have shown munitions they say have been confiscated from "armed terrorists", in displays which officials say are further proof that foreign financed weapons are getting into the hands of rebels.

Although they are becoming bolder and more effective across large swathes of the countryside, fighters say a lack of anti-tank weapons, bullets and rocket-propelled grenades puts them at a disadvantage when attacking heavily fortified army bases.

Several months ago, rebels retreated from the city of Idlib, where attacks against the army by youths shouldering AK-47 rifles did little damage and resulted in massive tank and artillery retaliation, rebels say.

"We ran out of ammunition and we had to pull back, even though we could have held them back for weeks if we had had more," said Abdul Rahman al-Sheikh, a brigade commander now operating in the plantations near Taftanaz, a restive town in Idlib province.

The army's use of sophisticated transceivers in helicopters to track rebel communications has also helped pinpoint many rebel hideouts for aerial bombardment, said Anas Haj Hassan, a rebel fighter.

"They are getting the location from mobiles and walkie talkies we use to communicate to hit the building we are taking cover in," said Hassan, who only survived an attack that killed five of his group by leaving the location half an hour before.

A young wounded fighter, who goes by the name of Abu Abdullah, 27, who had just arrived from the town of Saraqib, said lack of sufficient anti-tank weapons and RPGs was hindering further gains.

"Our weapons are still weak, we need much more, at least RPGs and anti-tank missiles that we are now mostly using. The Russian AK-47 no longer has a role in the fiercest battles we are now waging against Assad's forces," said Abu Abdullah, lying in a Turkish hospital bed a few kilometers away from the battleground inside Syria.

(Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-rebels-gain-ground-grip-army-weakens-140300797.html

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Richard (RJ) Eskow: The Nakedness Of Their Greed

It's truly unbelievable: At no time in modern memory has the privileged class been richer, the middle class more endangered, or the number of people in poverty been so high. And yet the Republican Party, whose leaders are overwhelmingly wealthy themselves, is openly and shamelessly proposing to give more tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires - including heirs and heiresses who have done nothing to earn their riches - while actually raising taxes on millions of poor and middle class people.

There will be a time to engage in argument. But first let's take a moment to gaze in wonder at the nakedness of their greed.

Okay, moment's up. Now it's time for the argument.

In Plain Sight

Yesterday the Senate voted on a Democratic proposal to extend the Bush-era tax breaks for all income below $250,000 per year. Everybody would get that tax break, even billionaires. Taxes would go up for anything earned above that amount, and for some kinds of investment income. The bill would also preserve a number of tax breaks for middle class and lower-income working people.

Forty-eight Senators voted against the Democratic bill. Forty-four of them then promptly voted for the Republican proposal, which would keep the Bush tax cut for earnings above $250,000 - a cut which provides greater and greater tax breaks as you climb the earnings scale toward "millionaire" status and eventually ascend to the rarefied atmosphere of the billionaires' club.

They didn't even try to hide what they were doing. They didn't bury it in loopholes, or under pages of indecipherable legal language. They just ... put it all out there.

This is a stick-up.

The GOP bill would actually increase the average tax bill for 25 million households who earn less than $250,000. The Republican proposal would also end the Tuition Tax Credit, raise the "marriage penalty" (hey, welcome to our world, gay newlyweds!), and increase the tax burden for working families with kids.

Put up your hands, Mr. and Ms. America. This is a stick-up.

Bill Scher notes that the Senators who voted to raise taxes on the poor and the middle class while cutting them for the wealthy, then rejected the bill that extends tax cuts for the middle class alone, were now on record as believing that "the rich pay too much and the poor pay too little in taxes."

For his part, Senator Joe Lieberman voted neither nor against the Democratic bill, officially placing himself on record as believing that "nonpartisanship" consists of standing for absolutely nothing.

Class Warfare Against Our Children

The Republicans want to impose these new tax burdens on the struggling middle class while giving an average cut of $160,000 in income and estate tax cuts for households that earn a million dollars or more. And if those households earn a billion or more, the breaks could run into tens of millions annually.

But tax deductions so a working family can send their kids to college, which is already all but impossible? No can do. Perhaps they feel that parents who want a better life for their kids should "know their place" instead.

The Republican proposal for taxable estates doesn't change life for ordinary households but, as the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities documents, rich kids inheriting their parents' money would receive an average $1.1 million in tax breaks - while parents working to support their children or put them through college would pay more.

The GOP proposal is nothing less than an all-out assault on any but the wealthiest children, closing the door to every struggling generation's dream of a better life. It's enough to leave a guy speechless.

Embarrassment of for Riches

Sure, they try to justify their actions, but it can't be done. It's actually embarrassing to watch them struggle to cover the nakedness of their greed with rhetorical fig leaves. "Only [our plan] is aimed at helping the economy," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said. "Only ours is meant to help struggling Americans in the midst of an historic jobs crisis."

Dear Sen. McConnell:

As the young people reportedly say nowadays: Please, girlfriend.

Sincerely yours,

A Concerned Citizen

But the truly cynical hack du jour is Sen. Orrin Hatch. His ploy is a bill called the "Tax Hike Prevention Act of 2013," which (get this) doesn't prevent tax hikes - unless you're rich, that is. Instead it ends the payroll tax "holiday" which (although it was a bad way to get tax relief for non-millionaires) is a "tax hike" according to every other Republican use of the term.

Ezra Klein points us to this language:

"The increased spending through the tax code from the partisan 2009 stimulus law (ARRA) is not included in the amendment."

What that means in plain English is that the Hatch "Tax Hike Prevention Act" takes away the Tuition Tax Credit, marriage-penalty relief, and other badly needed breaks for working families and individuals.

War is Peace. Love is Hate. Spending is ... oh, forget it.

That language in Hatch's bill employs some Orwellian phraseology you'll be hearing a lot in the next few months - mostly from the GOP, but also from right-leaning Democrats. In their Craven New World, tax deductions selectively become "increased spending" - or even more scabrously, "increased stimulus spending."

Hatch's spokesperson compacted all of this doublespeak into a single phrase, saying that the middle-class and lower-income deductions they tried to kill today were really "expanded stimulus spending through the tax code." That's supposed to sound really, really bad.

What about their reasoning? What logic could Hatch, McConnell, and the rest of the GOP possibly be using to justify this expansion of the historically low levels of taxes paid by the wealthy - now that they're collectively wealthier than they've been in many generations and while the nation's struggling through such hard times?

In the interests of fairness, let's hear 'em out: Hatch objects to tax hikes on the wealthy because, he says, "you hit about 800,000 small businesses where the jobs are created" while only collecting an additional $36 billion in revenue. McConnell said that "raising taxes (on the wealthy) would stall the rebound we all claim to want."

So they're defending their tax cuts for the wealthy by saying they will a) create jobs, and b) foster economic recovery. You know what that makes them? Right: By their own definition, what the Republicans are proposing is "expanded stimulus spending through the tax code."

Despite their rhetoric, Republicans aren't always against a stimulus. It all depends on who you're, ahem, "stimulating."

Case Closed

Okay. So we know that the entire "stimulus spending through the tax code" argument is a phony, a fake, a rhetorical dodge that's an insult to voters' intelligence. We also know that justification for it has repeatedly been disproven, in the most ruthless and accurate court of economic judgment known to humanity: reality.

You don't neede a lot of econometric modeling to prove it, either All it takes is one simple question: We've had these cuts for ten years, so where are the jobs?

Joshua Picker notes that "during the economic cycle that began in March 2001 and ended in December of 2007 --which almost exactly coincides with the Bush presidency and the implementation of the Bush tax cuts ... registered the weakest jobs and income growth in the post-war period."

Tax cuts on the wealthy didn't create any jobs - not before the financial crisis brought on by deregulation, and certainly not since. The Republicans, like the Democrats, are proposing "stimulus spending through the tax code." They're just proposing the kind that doesn't work.

A Novel Way to Give People Jobs

That leads us to what would be the next logical question - that is, if we really were engaged in logical debate rather than shameless pandering: Accepting Hatch's figure of $36 billion in revenue, how might we spend that money in a way that would create jobs? There's one approach that's worked every time: We could use it to create jobs.

That's right: One sure way to increase employment is by hiring people. And in a happy coincidence, the kinds of jobs which government can provide are exactly the kinds of jobs we need right now: Teachers. Cops. Firefighters. Construction workers to rebuild our crumbling public infrastructure.

For all the needless misery we're experiencing, the solution is beautiful in its simplicity. And that solution isn't just obvious - it's proven. It worked after the Great Depression, it worked after World War II - in fact, it's always worked.

We Are the 0.99 Percent

Instead, the GOP's proposing a plan that would benefit our 2,100,000 highest earning households, while shafting about 25 million others. The American Prospect tells us who loses under their proposal, and it isn't pretty.

On the flip side, the GOP deal gets better and better as you look at households that are higher and higher up the income ladder. A family earning $251,000 in taxable income probably wouldn't even break even, while one earning $350,000 might save a few hundred dollars.

But a household earning a billion dollars a year could save tens of millions under the GOP plan.

Which gets us to another under recognized fact: Even the 1 percent suffer from income inequality. As the CBPP also notes, the GOP's estate tax breaks are targeted to the top 0.3 percent of inheritances - while many working or poor families leave no estate at all. The Republicans know who really greases their wheels, and it ain't the local neurosurgeon pulling down a few hundred thousand.

When you're talking about pay-to-play politics, the real money is with ... the real money.

F For Effort

Everybody, including billionaires, gets a tax break under the Democratic proposal. Maybe the Republicans don't like the fact that that a billionaire's break isn't any larger than that of someone who makes $250,000. Maybe the fairness irritates them. Or maybe they don't want the hoi polloi to get uppity. Nah, that's not it: You'll find the explanation for their behavior under "real money," above.

As we were saying: They're not even trying to hide it anymore.

I miss the old days, when hack politicians at least felt the need to give voters a decent cover story for their chicanery. After all, if they're going to stick it to us, the least they can do is put a little effort into misleading us. C'mon, guys, show a little more courtesy! You're not even trying to fake it.

There used to be a saying: "If you can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, baffle 'em with bullish*t." But apparently even that's too much effort nowadays. In this post-Citizens United world you can just have Sheldon Adelson write another check instead.

For Whom the Bell Tolls

What do you call a political party that doesn't hide its own corruption - the "Marie Antoinette Party," for "let them eat cake"? Apparently Marie Antoinette never said those words, so that's out. The "Butlers and Valets Party," since they're acting as footservants and toadies to the ultra-wealthy? Do you reassign the "GOP" acronym so that it stands for "Greed On Parade"?

I admit it: I'm almost at a loss for words. And since words are a big part of how I make my living, that would be an occupational disability. Oh, and that reminds me: They want to cut disability payments too. It's part of their plan to cut Social Security, whose benefits go to children and the disabled as well as seniors. And while we're at it, let's not forget that they want to slash away at Medicare with a flim-flam voucher plan.

Sorry, Gramps, say the Republicans, but we've gotta find the money for the rich kids's tax break somewhere. Try not to cough on the carpet as you find your way out. I'd see you to the door myself, but Master's in the study ringing his bell.

GOP to America: Suck it up, small fry, while we serve our lords and lieges their afternoon tea and biscuits tax cuts.

Minority Leader McConnell refrained from his typical obstructionist filibustering this week and allowed a floor vote on the Democratic tax proposal. "The American people should know where we stand," said McConnell. "Today they will."

Congratulations, Senator: Mission accomplished. Now it's the House's turn.

Do you hear that sound, Mr. Boehner? Somewhere deep within in a stately mansion a person of great wealth and privilege is ringing a bell. Don't even bother asking that ancient question, because in this case we already know the answer:

It tolls for thee.

?

Follow Richard (RJ) Eskow on Twitter: www.twitter.com/rjeskow

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/-the-nakedness-of-their-g_b_1708459.html

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Genomic study of Africa's hunter-gatherers elucidates human variation and ancient interbreeding

Genomic study of Africa's hunter-gatherers elucidates human variation and ancient interbreeding

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Human diversity in Africa is greater than any place else on Earth. Differing food sources, geographies, diseases and climates offered many targets for natural selection to exert powerful forces on Africans to change and adapt to their local environments. The individuals who adapted best were the most likely to reproduce and pass on their genomes to the generations who followed.

That history of inheritance is written in the DNA of modern Africans, but it takes some investigative work to interpret. In a report to be featured on the cover of the Aug. 3 issue of the journal Cell, University of Pennsylvania geneticists and their colleagues analyze the fully sequenced genomes of 15 Africans belonging to three different hunter-gatherer groups and decipher some of what these genetic codes have to say about human diversity and evolution.

The study, led by Sarah Tishkoff, a Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor with appointments in the School of Arts and Sciences' biology department and the Perelman School of Medicine's genetics department, tells several stories.

It identifies several million previously unknown genetic mutations in humans. It finds evidence that the direct ancestors of modern humans may have interbred with members of an unknown ancestral group of hominins. It suggests that different groups evolved distinctly in order to reap nutrition from local foods and defend against infectious disease. And it identifies new candidate genes that likely play a major role in making Pygmies short in stature.

"Our analysis sheds light on human evolution, because the individuals we sampled are descended from groups that may have been ancestral to all other modern humans," Tishkoff said. "A message we're seeing is that even though all the individuals we sampled are hunter-gatherers, natural selection has acted differently in these different groups."

Joining Tishkoff in the work from Penn was first author Joseph Lachance as well as Clara Elbers, Bart Ferwerda and Timothy Rebbeck. Their collaborators include Benjamin Vernot, Wenqing Fu and Joshua Akey of the University of Washington; Alain Froment of France's Mus?e de L'Homme; Jean-Marie Bodo of Cameroon's Minist?re de la Recherche Scientifique et de l'Innovation; Godfrey Lema and Thomas B. Nyambo of Tanzania's Muhimbili University College of Health Sciences; and Kun Zhang of the University of California at San Diego.

The researchers sequenced the genomes of five men from each of three hunter-gatherer groups: the Hadza and the Sandawe of Tanzania and the Western Pygmies of Cameroon. The three differ greatly from one another in appearance, in language, in the environments they occupy and in cultural practices, though the Hadza and the Sandawe live just 200 kilometers apart.

"We purposefully picked three of the most diverse hunter-gatherer groups," Tishkoff said, "because they have not been very well represented in other genome sequencing projects, which tend to focus on majority populations in Africa. This is a unique and important dataset."

The researchers used a method that involves sequencing each strand of DNA more than 60 times on average. This redundancy makes the sequencing highly accurate, giving the geneticists confidence that any mutations they identify are real and not errors. Scanning these sequences, the researchers found 13.4 million genetic variants, or locations in the genome where a single nucleotide differed from other human sequences; at the time they were discovered, 5 million were new to science.

"It was awe-inspiring," Lachance, a postdoctoral researcher, said, "to find millions of new variants that we never knew existed in our species. It's humbling but invigorating to think about how to make sense of all this diversity."

Only about 72,000 of these variants were in regions of the DNA that code for genes. The rest were in non-coding regions, which may influence how and whether genes are expressed.

"Our study underscores the importance of noncoding regions of the genome, particularly for regulating gene expression," Tishkoff said. "That has important implications for anyone doing biomedical research because, if they're only looking at the coding regions, they're missing information that may be critically important for normal human variation as well as disease susceptibility."

The researchers also used the genomes to investigate ancient human interbreeding.

Using a statistical method, the team detected partial sequences in all three populations that appear to have derived from a hominin different from Homo sapiens. Much as recent studies have found evidence that modern humans interbred with Neanderthals, these new findings suggest that the ancestors of modern humans in Africa mated with individuals from another hominin lineage. This archaic lineage appears to have diverged from the modern human lineage several hundred thousand years ago, around the same time that Neanderthals diverged from Homo sapiens.

"Fossils degrade fast in Africa so we don't have a reference genome for this ancestral lineage," Akey said, "but one of the things we're thinking is it could have been a sibling species to Neanderthals."

Evidence of interbreeding with an archaic lineage, known as introgression, was found in all three groups tested.

"Given that introgression is present in these very diverse groups," Vernot said, "I think we can now say that this seems to be a pretty universal aspect of human history."

In an additional analysis, the researchers looked for major differences among the genomes of the three groups, signs that the populations evolved differently to adapt to their specific environments. Among the variations that stood out were genes related to immune-system function, smell and taste. These findings suggest that adaptations to local diseases and local foods were important in how the groups evolved.

Finally, building on previous research from Tishkoff and colleagues that sought an explanation for why Pygmies are all short ? men standing only 4'11" on average ? the researchers looked for variants that were common in the Pygmies of Cameroon but rare or absent in the other groups. They found several genes located near these mutations that act on the pituitary gland, a "master regulator" responsible for metabolism, growth, sexual development and immunity.

"We would have never found these strong candidate genes for short stature," Lachance said, "if we hadn't looked at multiple genomic sequences from these isolated populations. It hints at the power of what you can do when you sample multiple genomes and compare them at a population scale."

Tishkoff's group plans to sequence the genomes from more Africans ? a task that new technology has made faster and cheaper than ever before ? to increase their sample size. With more genomic data, scientists will better their understanding of how evolution acted on humans throughout the last several hundred thousand years and even how certain mutations may predispose certain people to disease.

"Our study emphasizes the critically important role of next-generation genome sequencing for elucidating the genetic basis of both normal variable traits in humans as well as identifying the genetic basis of human disease risk," Tishkoff said.

###

University of Pennsylvania: http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews

Thanks to University of Pennsylvania for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/122075/Genomic_study_of_Africa_s_hunter_gatherers_elucidates_human_variation_and_ancient_interbreeding

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Building Moxie talks wth Mark & Theresa about family and remodeling

Building Moxie?s JB talks family projects, remodeler scholarship contest, fixing up houses

JB Bartkowiak from Building Moxie

Theresa: And you are inside MyFixitUpLIfe with my husband Mark.

Mark: And my wife Theresa. And your hair looks wonderful today I have to add.

Theresa: Oh well, thank you darling. Your hair looks pretty good, too.

Mark: Thanks. I cut it the exact same way that I always cut it.

Theresa: You don?t cut your own hair.

Mark: Oh no. I don?t cut my own hair.

Theresa: But I do cut our son?s hair and it is kind of an adventure.

Mark: That is a wrestling match.

Theresa: It?s an athletic adventure actually. It?s the most athletic haircut I?ve ever experienced before.

Mark: Yes if you?re into judo as part of your hair cutting. But as much as we?re into cosmetic improvements, we?re also into home improvements. And we are joined by the editor, chief blogger, chief DIY guy of buildingmoxie.com, and I hope I get it right ? JB Bartkowiak. JB are you still listening?

JB: That?s about right. I?m having difficulty hearing you guys.

Theresa: You are?

Mark: How can that be?

JB: I am, you?re breaking up a little bit.

Mark: When you hear a pause in the questions just say anything.

JB: Say anything. Alright, I?ll go with that. That?ll be my stock answer.

Theresa: Stock answers include: Yes, I?d love to do that, and that was awesome.

JB: Okay. Yes, I?d love to do that, and that was awesome.

Theresa: Perfect. We?ll use that in all kinds of things. You?ll love it. It?s great. Now I?m excited to talk to you because I know you?re on vacation right now and you?re taking time out for us.

JB: Well anything for you guys, no doubt. Big fans.

Mark: Awesome.

Theresa: That?s another really good stock answer?add it to the list.

Mark: Good answer. Where in the country are you vacationing so I can be either jealous or really jealous?

Barry Morgan and JB Bartkowiak from Building Moxie

JB: Well Delaware Beach, Delaware Shore right down the road from you guys. Right near my partner, Barry Morgan, who is unavailable today, he?s out on a jobsite. But we get to have our annual summit when I?m on vacation.

Theresa: An annual summit. Now do you guys wear special outfits?

JB: We don?t have special outfits yet.

Theresa: Okay. I can make some suggestions if you guys need some advice.

Mark: I?m thinking, considering that we?re at buildingmoxie.com, some kind of late 70?s James Bond villain uniform.

Theresa: Why?

Mark: Just because.

JB: We?re good guys.

Mark: Well JB what are you working on? Besides your tan?

JB: Well I think we?re here to talk today a little bit about the 106 Yard Fund which is sort of a fundraiser we?re doing this year to raise money, thankfully we?ve gotten sponsors for it too, to bring a remodeler to the Remodeling Show in Baltimore, Maryland in October this year.

Theresa: That is really exciting because last year you guys raised $2,200 so that you guys could go to Chicago to the Remodeling Show and that?s a pretty cool kind of thing.

JB: Well I had the opportunity to meet you guys briefly before you went on the air, and got a sweet shirt by the way ? you may remember.

Theresa: Are you wearing it right now?

JB: Yes. No I?m not wearing it.

Theresa: Oh, you framed it. That?s fine. That?s totally cool, I understand.

Mark: It?s up there with the rest of your celebrity memorabilia.

JB: Well, yes.

Mark: Brad Pitt?s handkerchief.

Theresa: Seriously? That?s where you go with that? So that 106 Yard Fund, you have sponsors right now and they include American Standard and is it DAP too? Who else?

JB: DAP too and we recently got Houzz ? the online marketing presence, and Wilsonart.

2012 Remodeling Show will be held in Baltimore, MD

Theresa: Oh wow.

JB: They are a high-end laminate line.

Theresa: That?s fantastic. So you?re going to send a remodeler to the Remodeling Show in Baltimore?

Mark: And what does that include? Travel? Hotel? Food? Stuff like that?

JB: Well we?re going to try to pack it with a little bit of spending money, but basically budgeted for travel from L.A. to Baltimore round trip, and then also a show approved housing room. So yes ? lodging, travel, and a little bit of spending money, access to the show and that?s about it.

Theresa: So how can someone find out information about this if they?re listening and they are like ?I totally want to go to the Remodeling Show. How can I apply or find out when you can apply to be considered??

JB: I plan to launch the contest, or sort of contest ? my partner Barry will call it a scholarship fund ? but a sort of contest probably with a blog post, around the first week of August. I?d say about August 9th. I?ll be doing incremental updates up until August 9th about the contest and what I have. It will probably be a simple blog post where either someone can nominate themselves or we can have someone else nominate a remodeler to come and then we will have a group of judges, and I was hoping that you Mark and Theresa, would help us judge the contestants that we have.

Theresa: We would love to do that.

Mark: Oh, yes we would. Let me get out my red pen.

Theresa: Now can there be a sort of a way that they have a do a creative use for one of the sponsor?s products or something like that? You know some kind of ? can I complexify it? Because that?s what I do, I complexify things.

Mark: I?m going to have to take a nap. JB hold on.

Theresa: That?s my role as the wife and the woman in this whole thing is that I have to make things a little bit tricky.

JB: Complexify. I love to do that. I think that was a stock answer, no? I love doing that.

Barry and JB at 2011 Remodeling Show in Chicago

Mark: I love doing that, yeah.

Theresa: I love doing that, I?m a big fan, I?ll do anything.

JB: I don?t want to complexify. I want to make it real simple, and I do think it should be based a little bit on need, you know a growing business, someone that needs the show. If you?ve had a chance to do the conference portion of the show there?s tons of educational and networking opportunities, and we?ll go from there I guess.

Theresa: Well I think that?s wonderful, and I don?t think remodelers will want to complexify it because everyone is so busy trying to make a living and trying to do what?s right for their customers. But if you do want to make something else that?s really complicated, come to me. I?ve got lots of ideas. I ideate all day long, that?s my whole thing: I ideate.

Mark: I ideate, and JB I?d like to add, I don?t know what that means. So whatever she just said sounds terrific and I support her because she?s my wife and I love her, but honestly I don?t know what happens most of the day.

Theresa: That?s another stock answer ? I support her and I love her.

JB: I?ll have to use that on my wife later.

Mark: Yes, nice play.

Theresa: So other things that are going on at Building Moxie too, if you?re not a remodeler and you?re listening to this, what can people find out if they go to your website right now, or if they ? you know we follow you on Twitter and Google Plus and Mark?s phone is constantly beeping with your updates.

JB: Well, we pretty much just follow the stream with whatever comes our way. We try not to pass up any opportunities; we have tons of guest posters from all over the place. Different fields, different studies if you will, and we just go. Unfortunately we?re not posting this week simply because the editor is on vacation, but we pretty much cover it all ? anything to do with home-related stuff.

Theresa: Well, I kind of liked too that you and your wife are actually really involved in fixing up houses and you?ve moved like five times right?

JB: That?s pretty close. I think we?ve moved three times. We got the bug, I mean I got the bug when we bought our first house in Baltimore, and really haven?t given it up yet. It?s become a part of life that the misses did a flip. Has a flip on the market, her first as a real estate agent. So she just did one on her own, and of course I?m busy with our own house, which is not yet finished five, six, seven years into it. But working on houses is part of our life you know, it?s a fix it up life if you will.

Theresa: Well you know that?s exactly how we are and so we always like to hear about other people that are doing the same thing as us because we?re not all alone. There are so many people like us out there who we?re fixing up our houses and we?re trying to raise our family and trying to juggle all the different things, and we learn so much from sharing.

JB: The juggling is the ticket here you know. The girls, I?d like to have them more involved, we have a seven year old and a nine year old. Maybe they?ll get it, maybe they won?t, we?ll see.

Theresa: Oh, they can totally get involved. I?ll give them a list of projects.

Mark: I think he means the bug.

Theresa: They?ll get the bug.

JB: The bug, yes the bug.

Mark: The bug.

Theresa: It?s like a little disease.

Mark: The bug picks you sometimes.

Theresa: I guess, but there?s is always something about your home ? like everybody needs to have certain kinds of skills to be able to do simple fix ups around their house. Especially girls. You don?t want to have to wait for your husband or boyfriend, or your dad to come over to your home to help you do simple repairs, so you know it?s good to have a little bit of the bug, even if you?re a little princessy, too.

Mark: Absolutely. And is one of your skills, JB, to climb down off the ladder with a paintbrush or finish nailer or whatever then jump in your car and immediately go get them at an activity and bring them somewhere?

JB: When you have kids you have to fit it in when you can, right Mark?

Mark: It?s true.

Theresa: That?s so true.

2011 Remodeling Show in Chicago

Mark: Now how is the flip house actually progressing for your wife? She?s got it, is it on the market did you say?

JB: It is on the market. They finished up about two weeks ago and it was listed about two weeks ago. They?ve gotten a hand full of showings, some interest as far as phone calls etcetera, but no offers yet. It?s her first one so she?s still trying to get the lay of the land. We?re very optimistic, I feel like she?s got it priced right, and it looks great, so it?s just a matter of time I think.

Mark: Well I?m pessimistic at the moment because we have to jump into a break.

Theresa: So go to buildingmoxie.com and follow them on Twitter and find out about the contest you remodelers because somebody is going to get to go to Baltimore for the show.

Mark: And we?re going to go into a break. We?ll be back with more MyFixitUpLife.

Check out the MyFixitUpLife talk show that features this interview with JB from Building Moxie (interview starts at 31:39.

Source: http://myfixituplife.com/DIY/2012/07/building-moxie-talks-wth-mark-theresa-about-family-and-remodeling/

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US new-home sales fall to 350K, 5-month low

FILE-This June 13, 2012, file photo, shows a house for sale in San Diego. Americans bought fewer homes in June than May, indicating the weak economy could make a modest housing recovery choppy. The National Association of Realtors said Thursday, July 19, 2012, that sales of previously occupied homes fell 5.4 percent in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.37 million homes. That's the fewest since October. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)

FILE-This June 13, 2012, file photo, shows a house for sale in San Diego. Americans bought fewer homes in June than May, indicating the weak economy could make a modest housing recovery choppy. The National Association of Realtors said Thursday, July 19, 2012, that sales of previously occupied homes fell 5.4 percent in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.37 million homes. That's the fewest since October. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Americans bought fewer new homes in June after sales jumped to a two-year high in May. The steep decline suggests a weaker job market and slower growth could make the housing recovery uneven.

The Commerce Department said Wednesday that sales of new homes fell 8.4 percent last month from May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 350,000. That's the biggest drop since February 2011.

Sales in the Northeast plunged 60 percent in June to the lowest level since November.'

Nationwide, sales in May and April were revised much higher. June's sales pace is 15.1 percent higher than the same month last year. But sales remain well below the 700,000 annual rate that economists equate with healthy markets.

"While a housing recovery is under way ... fits and starts are to be expected and clearly this summer is one of the 'fits,'" Dan Greenhaus, chief economic strategist at BTIG LLC, said in a note to clients.

Home builder stocks fell sharply after the report came out. Hovnanian Enterprises fell 5 cents to $2.41, Beazer Homes fell 10 cents to $2.38 and Toll Brothers fell 60 cents to $29.84.

The housing market has started to show signs of recovery this year.

Builders are more confident and breaking ground on more homes. Mortgage rates are at record lows. And home prices nationwide have stabilized after losing a third of their value in the past six years. Sales of new and previously occupied homes have risen, although the increases have been choppy.

Sales of previously occupied homes fell in June to their lowest level since October. But sales were up 4.5 percent from a year ago, evidence that a modest recovery is still under way.

One trend that is holding back sales has been low inventories. There were 144,000 new homes for sale in June, just above May's 143,000 ? the lowest on records dating back to 1963. At the current sales pace, it would take 4.9 months to exhaust the June supply. A six-month supply is generally considered healthy by economists.

The reduced inventory is pushing up overall home prices, which have turned up in recent months. The median price of a new home, however, fell 1.9 percent in June from May to $232,600.

Low inventories are also spurring more building. Builders broke ground last month on the most new homes and apartments in nearly four years. And permits to build single-family homes rose to the highest level since March 2010. Surveys also show that builders are more confident in the market, partly because they are seeing more interest from potential buyers.

However, many people are still having difficulty qualifying for home loans or can't afford the larger down payments that are being required by banks. That's likely holding back sales.

Ryan Glover learned that when he and his wife went to buy a new home near Raleigh, N.C. The couple had trouble getting a mortgage, even though they were able to make a 20-percent down payment on the $260,000 home.

Glover, who is a salesman, had switched jobs in May and the bank wouldn't count his sales commissions from either his old or his new job. And his wife was on maternity leave and the bank wanted to postpone the closing until Katie returned to work. The bank eventually allowed the mortgage to proceed but only after the couple paid off two car loans.

Glover said the process was in stark contrast to 2005, when he obtained a mortgage in one day based on his sales commissions from a part-time job.

"It's very stressful now to buy a house," he said.

Though new homes represent less than 20 percent of the housing market, they have an outsize impact on the economy. Each home built creates an average of three jobs for a year and generates about $90,000 in tax revenue, according to statistics compiled by the National Association of Home Builders.

Economists expect housing will add to economic growth this year for the first time since 2005. But home construction and remodeling have become such a small part of the economy that the increase will likely have only a modest impact.

But the job growth has slumped since March, Americans have cut their spending at retail stores for three straight months and manufacturing has weakened.

On Friday, the government will issue its first estimate for economic growth in the April-June quarter. Economists expect growth at an annual rate of only 1.5 percent, below the 1.9 percent pace in the first three months of the year.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-07-25-New%20Home%20Sales/id-8b9a277ca0004330abd8f1a4b06c1ea4

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App Developers Tilt Toward iOS

A survey of more than 3,600 Appcelerator Titanium developers has revealed that they would rather develop mobile apps for iOS than for Android. iOS led Android by 16 percent in the Appcelerator/IDC Q2 2012 Mobile Developer Report. Fifty-three percent of the respondents believed that iOS was winning in enterprise app development, whereas only 37 percent believed Android was.

Source: http://ectnews.com.feedsportal.com/c/34520/f/632000/s/21b4e4a9/l/0L0Stechnewsworld0N0Crsstory0C757290Bhtml/story01.htm

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Source: http://www.submitatonce.com/blog/affiliate-marketing/excellent-reasons-to-decide-on-search-engine-optimization-web-marketing-for-genuine/

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