I should have asked Walt Buehring for help in identifying people in these photos, but I'll take a stab at it.? Many thanks to Walt for posting these photos on Flickr and letting me link to them.?
In this first photo Lawrence Elkins is presenting a diploma to Walt at his graduation from Dulles Junior High.? Louis Hans in the background on the right. I can see Herb Shelton and Kenneth Landin in the far background.? If my calculation is correct, this photo was taken in the spring of '68. ?
Walt, Cindy, and Bunnye appear with Dulles exchange student, Niglun Serdaroglu, who lived with the Buehrings in the 1969/70 school year.
???
I assume Bunnye is getting a birthday spanking from her friends.
This final photo shows Gary Buis with Ann Marie Sciba in the fall of '69, I think.?
It?s January and the temperatures across the country are arctic-like. What better time to settle down for the evening with a nice hot cup of cocoa and catch up on your reading of articles that will help you take your business to a new level in 2013!
First up, I want to point those of you who are at the beginning of your small business ownership journey to a great resource offered by the U.S. Small Business Administration. If you?re still in the stage of thinking about starting your own business, their Small Business Readiness Assessment will help you decide if you?re ready to take this big step. The assessment asks 25 questions about your personal characteristics, personal circumstances, and skills and experiences. It?s quick, painless and may provide you with some important insights as to whether this is the right time to pursue your entrepreneurial dream.
Next up is ?Dear CEO: Here Are Four Ways to Deliver Great Customer Service? by author and consultant Errol Allen from YFS Magazine (YSF stands for young, fabulous and self-employed). Allen writes about the four Cs of customer service: commitment, completeness, consistency and communication. I think this article is a great primer on customer service that all small business owners should refer to frequently and also share with employees.
Finally, from American Express Open Forum, I highly recommend ?How to Upsell Without Selling Your Soul,? by Julie Rains. Sales skills do not come naturally to many small business owners; they?re experts in their fields but have not necessarily had much ? or even any ? sales training. So they end up going about it the wrong way, especially when trying to move a customer from an average, moderately priced selection or an outstanding selection at a premium price. Some people don?t even try to upsell because they feel guilty about trying to get the customer to spend more. This article provides seven tips on how to successfully upsell and how to do it without feeling guilty.
I just finished reading a great new book by Michael Saylor entitled ?The Mobile Wave.?Lots of great background emerging technology as well as some astounding predictions about our near and distant future.?
One observation in Saylor?s book that really stuck with me was the absolute power ?of social networking. He suggests watching a group of teens hanging out at your local shopping mall. One will be talking, another one will be listening, still another will be texting, and the fourth will be using a smartphone to connect to the Internet.?
Yet, while they are differently engaged, each of them will be taking an active ?part in the same conversation. The talker and the listener are discussing which movie to see. The texter is communicating with distant friends about their plans. The one on the Internet is posting a summary of the conversation to her Facebook page, as well as simultaneously checking out the times of the movies at a local theatre. Their mobile technology is deeply embedded into their consciousness?an integral part of their lives and ?immediate social activities. Mobile software can be used in every moment of daily activity, whenever and wherever it needs to be available.
But for many of the older generations, it?s difficult to fathom what?s really going on here because it is not their world. Saylor suggests you watch a group of business people at a meeting. With the traditional model, each person will be talking or listening, and when a topic comes up that requires outside information, someone will say, ?I?ll get back to you on that,? or ?I?ll email him later and find out.?
The decision making slows down or grinds to a halt. With desktop computers, people get their information and communications only when they visit their desk. Even software on the laptop is not a replacement for mobile software since it requires participants to be seated, with Internet access and a fully booted-up computer, and it superimposes onto a screen in between all participants. Imagine what it would mean when decision-making information is always available during the course of any business conversation.
?
via CBC
Marketing experts and professors believe universities aren?t working fast enough to include social media in their business curriculum.
Using Facebook and Twitter is one thing but being an expert in it is another, said one University of Windsor marketing professor.
Vincent Georgie said businesses are hungry for social media marketing graduates. However, schools are struggling to work it into their curriculum.
?It?s definitely being worked in, it?s just not being worked in fast enough,? he said. ?By and large, it?s something that changes quickly. By the time you get a curriculum up, it?s already pass?.?
At its Odette Leadership Symposium later this month, the Odette School of Business at the University of Windsor will offer a session entitled ?Social Media: Implications of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn.?
The university also offers a new media studies course, which devotes some time to social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. A computer science course entitled social media and mobile technology for end users is also offered.
Katie Stokes, co-founder of Blab! Media in Windsor, Ont., can relate to the lack of educational options when it comes to social media.
?When I graduated, there were no courses on social media,? she said.
She and Jessica Apolloni started their company in 2010.
Every morning, they scour the internet for new and changing social media platforms they can provide to small- and medium-sized business clientele that are looking to use social media to market product and services.
?By and large, it?s something that changes quickly. By the time you get a curriculum up, it?s already pass?.?
Stokes said when she first started, there wasn?t much appetite for social media in business.
?They almost saw it as a fad, so they figured if they waited for long enough, it wouldn?t be important anymore,? Stokes said. ?Fast-forward, now we?re getting those same people coming back to us in panic mode saying we know this is important and we have to get into this.?
Since then the company and the business world?s acceptance of social media has grown. Social media is slowly becoming the vehicle of choice.
Ford to hire tech savvy workforce
Ford Motor Co. plans to hire 2,200 salaried workers in the U.S. this year, the largest increase in new salaried workers in more than a decade.
Of those new hires, approximately a third will be in product development, manufacturing and information technology.
To get the tech-savvy men and women they are looking for, Ford is focusing on using social media to make the hires.
?Interested candidates are encouraged to follow Ford recruitment on key networking sites, including Twitter and Facebook,? a media release read in part. ?Individuals who ?like? the Ford Careers Facebook page and follow Ford Careers on Twitter will receive regular updates about new career opportunities at Ford Motor Company.?
Ford?s Scott Monty said the company is simply changing with the times.
?Word of mouth is so important,? he said. ?When you look around at how people are getting info these day, they?re getting it digitally. Digital word of mouth is a turbo-charged version of that.?
Monty said it?s not just the company?s white-collar workforce that?s wired in.
?Digital and social [media] touch everyone. Your factory workers have smart phones and are using social media as much as the rest of us are,? he said.
So are the company?s customers.
?We?ve been very successful using social media as far as communications and marketing goes. We?re using it more now for customer service as our customers actually flag us [about issues] on social media sites,? Monty said. ?Now, we?re expecting to roll social [media] out to more areas of the company, like product development.
?What a great way to have a 24/7 focus group,to be able to interact with people who are giving you feedback on the products that you?re putting out there.?
Stokes applauds Ford?s move.
?I think it?s important that larger companies like Ford set the bar high like that,? she said. ?It?s something all businesses should look for in employees.?
?Respect your elders? is a common adage, and one which many cultures around the world adhere to; honoring older people for their knowledge, wisdom and experience.
But in Japan, a country known for its honor of the elderly, a senior government minister is being criticized for recently telling seniors to ?hurry up and die.?
As reported in the Globe and Mail newspaper, Taro Aso, Japan?s newly-appointed minister of finance, expressed his opinion at a recent meeting on the topic of social security, where he said he was frustrated that ? according to his perception ? many Japanese seniors are content to retire off government funds.
?I would wake up feeling increasingly bad knowing that[my retirement] was all being paid for by the government,? the 72 year-old wealthy official was quoted by the newspaper as saying at the meeting.
In Japan, Aso?s comments are likely to offend millions of people in the country?s assisted living communities.
Japan has one of the world?s lowest fertility rates, with only an average of 1.39 children per woman, and the shortage of children has created a demographic imbalance with a disproportionately large number of seniors in the country.
And although the country?s population has experienced a slight decline since 2010, the proportion of seniors has jumped to nearly one-fourth of the overall population.
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New additions increase number of records in USP food fraud database by 60 percentPublic release date: 23-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Francine Pierson fp@usp.org 301-816-8588 US Pharmacopeia
Seafood, clouding agents and lemon juice among foods vulnerable to fraud
Rockville, Md., January 23, 2013 Nearly 800 new records of "food fraud" added to the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention's (USP) Food Fraud Database present new information about foods that are vulnerable to fraudulent manipulation in today's food supply. The first iteration of the database compiled 1,300 records of food fraud published between 1980 and 2010. The update increases the total number of records by 60 percentand consists mostly of newer information published in 2011 and 2012 in both scholarly journals and general media.
Initial analyses of the database by USP food scientists was published in the April 5, 2012, Journal of Food Science. This research revealed that milk, vegetable oils and spices were among the top categories where food fraud occurred as documented in published reports. Analyses of new information by USP scientists show similar trends for 2011 and 2012, and add seafood (fish, shrimp), clouding agents and lemon juice as categories vulnerable to food fraud.
Food fraud is a collective term that encompasses the deliberate substitution, addition, tampering or misrepresentation of food, food ingredients or food packaging, or false or misleading statements made about a product for economic gain. A more specific type of fraud, intentional or economically motivated adulteration of food ingredients, has been defined by USP as the fraudulent addition of nonauthentic substances or removal or replacement of authentic substances without the purchaser's knowledge for economic gain to the seller.
"While food fraud has been around for centuries, with a handful of notorious cases well documented, we suspect that what we know about the topic is just the tip of the iceberg," said Dr. Jeffrey Moore, senior scientific liaison for USP and the database's creator and lead analyst. "The idea behind the database was to shed some light on this largely uncharacterized space by collecting and analyzing the fragmented information in the public domain reported by scholars, regulators and media. Ultimately, we hope the database can be used as a tool by food manufacturers, regulators, scientists and others worldwide to help achieve a safer food supplywhether by providing more complete knowledge of known and potential threats, spurring new research and development of more accurate detection methods for potential adulterants, increasing awareness on the part of consumers, lawmakers and others, or by any other means that makes it more difficult on a practical level for parties to engage in this unscrupulous and harmful activitywhich is both a public health and business threat."
USP is a nonprofit, scientific organization that publishes the Food Chemicals Codex (FCC), an international compendium of standards offering specifications for the identity, quality and purity of food ingredients used worldwide. FCC results from the decision-making of the USP Council of Experts' Food Ingredients Expert Committee (chaired by Dr. Andrew Ebert). USP staff scientists worked with scientific experts from this Expert Committee and others to advance the USP Food Fraud Database.
Fraudulent Food Products and Ingredients
Among the new scholarly records added to the database, the top ingredients represented are olive oil, milk, saffron, honey and coffee (all in the top seven in the analysis of 1980-2010 records), followed by tea, fish, clouding agents (commonly used in fruit juices/beverages to improve their visual appearance and make products look freshly squeezed) and black peppernone of which was in the top 25 for 1980-2010. Among the new media and other reports examined, the most-represented products in the database are milk, fish, turmeric, chili powder and cooking oil (all in the top 12 in 1980-2010), followed by shrimp, lemon juice and maple syrup (none of which was even in the top 25 in 1980-2010). Examples of fraud include:
Milk, Vegetable Oils and Spices: In three areas of ongoing concern, the database indicates watered-down and urea adulterated fluid milk in India, dilution of milk powder with fillers such as maltodextrin in South America and replacement of milk fat with vegetable oil in South America. In the category of oils, olive oil replaced with other, less-expensive vegetable oils was pervasive, and so-called "gutter oil" (waste oil repurposed as cooking oil) was documented in China. With regard to spices, the database shows examples of the dilution or replacement of spices with less-expensive spices or fillers.
Seafood: With $80 billion in seafood sold in the U.S. each year and more than 80 percent of fish in the country imported, seafood is big businessand fraud is a significant problem. Examples of seafood fraud documented in the database include sale of the fish escolar, often fraudulently mislabeled as white tuna or butterfish. Escolar is banned in Italy and Japan, and other countries have issued advisories on the trade and consumption of this fish. Escolar has high content of waxy esters that is likely to cause a special form of food poisoning called gempylotoxism or gempylid fish poisoning. Another example of seafood fraud included in the database involves puffer fish, with documented incidents in the U.S. of the fish being mislabeled as monkfish to evade import and other restrictions. Puffer fish has caused tetrodotoxin poisonings in the U.S. and elsewhere. "Seafood is an example where food safety controls are species-specific, making replacement of one fish with another especially troublesome," Moore stated.
Clouding Agents: Considered the 2011 equivalent to the melamine scandal involving Chinese milk products from a few years ago, numerous database records document the plasticizer Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) and other related phthalates as having been fraudulently added as clouding agents in place of the more expensive palm oil or other allowed food ingredients in fruit juices, jams and other products. The scope of this fraud was vast: 877 food products from 315 companies were involved; 206 products were exported to as many as 22 countries; and there were roughly 4,000 potential victims in Taiwan. Safety concerns surrounding DEHP include cancer and the improper reproductive organ development in children. DEHP may be used in food contact materials (e.g., seals, packaging), however the amount allowed to migrate into the food is tightly regulated as to not exceed approximately 1.5 ppm; levels in reported examples of food fraud were found from 2-34 and 8,700 ppm in food and supplement products, respectively. The fraudulent replacement of clouding agents may have been ongoing for years, but as with other food frauds, it is often difficult to detect fraud when no immediate illness occurs. However, as illustrated in this episode, severe health repercussions may still result from consumer consumption of an undetected harmful adulterant over an extended period.
###
USP is actively seeking outside additions to the database. To add to the database or to search this free resource, visit www.foodfraud.org. Media inquiries may be directed to mediarelations@usp.org.
USP Advancing Public Health Since 1820
The United States Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) is a scientific, nonprofit, standards-setting organization that advances public health through public standards and related programs that help ensure the quality, safety, and benefit of medicines and foods. USP's standards are relied upon and used worldwide. For more information about USP visit http://www.usp.org.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
New additions increase number of records in USP food fraud database by 60 percentPublic release date: 23-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Francine Pierson fp@usp.org 301-816-8588 US Pharmacopeia
Seafood, clouding agents and lemon juice among foods vulnerable to fraud
Rockville, Md., January 23, 2013 Nearly 800 new records of "food fraud" added to the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention's (USP) Food Fraud Database present new information about foods that are vulnerable to fraudulent manipulation in today's food supply. The first iteration of the database compiled 1,300 records of food fraud published between 1980 and 2010. The update increases the total number of records by 60 percentand consists mostly of newer information published in 2011 and 2012 in both scholarly journals and general media.
Initial analyses of the database by USP food scientists was published in the April 5, 2012, Journal of Food Science. This research revealed that milk, vegetable oils and spices were among the top categories where food fraud occurred as documented in published reports. Analyses of new information by USP scientists show similar trends for 2011 and 2012, and add seafood (fish, shrimp), clouding agents and lemon juice as categories vulnerable to food fraud.
Food fraud is a collective term that encompasses the deliberate substitution, addition, tampering or misrepresentation of food, food ingredients or food packaging, or false or misleading statements made about a product for economic gain. A more specific type of fraud, intentional or economically motivated adulteration of food ingredients, has been defined by USP as the fraudulent addition of nonauthentic substances or removal or replacement of authentic substances without the purchaser's knowledge for economic gain to the seller.
"While food fraud has been around for centuries, with a handful of notorious cases well documented, we suspect that what we know about the topic is just the tip of the iceberg," said Dr. Jeffrey Moore, senior scientific liaison for USP and the database's creator and lead analyst. "The idea behind the database was to shed some light on this largely uncharacterized space by collecting and analyzing the fragmented information in the public domain reported by scholars, regulators and media. Ultimately, we hope the database can be used as a tool by food manufacturers, regulators, scientists and others worldwide to help achieve a safer food supplywhether by providing more complete knowledge of known and potential threats, spurring new research and development of more accurate detection methods for potential adulterants, increasing awareness on the part of consumers, lawmakers and others, or by any other means that makes it more difficult on a practical level for parties to engage in this unscrupulous and harmful activitywhich is both a public health and business threat."
USP is a nonprofit, scientific organization that publishes the Food Chemicals Codex (FCC), an international compendium of standards offering specifications for the identity, quality and purity of food ingredients used worldwide. FCC results from the decision-making of the USP Council of Experts' Food Ingredients Expert Committee (chaired by Dr. Andrew Ebert). USP staff scientists worked with scientific experts from this Expert Committee and others to advance the USP Food Fraud Database.
Fraudulent Food Products and Ingredients
Among the new scholarly records added to the database, the top ingredients represented are olive oil, milk, saffron, honey and coffee (all in the top seven in the analysis of 1980-2010 records), followed by tea, fish, clouding agents (commonly used in fruit juices/beverages to improve their visual appearance and make products look freshly squeezed) and black peppernone of which was in the top 25 for 1980-2010. Among the new media and other reports examined, the most-represented products in the database are milk, fish, turmeric, chili powder and cooking oil (all in the top 12 in 1980-2010), followed by shrimp, lemon juice and maple syrup (none of which was even in the top 25 in 1980-2010). Examples of fraud include:
Milk, Vegetable Oils and Spices: In three areas of ongoing concern, the database indicates watered-down and urea adulterated fluid milk in India, dilution of milk powder with fillers such as maltodextrin in South America and replacement of milk fat with vegetable oil in South America. In the category of oils, olive oil replaced with other, less-expensive vegetable oils was pervasive, and so-called "gutter oil" (waste oil repurposed as cooking oil) was documented in China. With regard to spices, the database shows examples of the dilution or replacement of spices with less-expensive spices or fillers.
Seafood: With $80 billion in seafood sold in the U.S. each year and more than 80 percent of fish in the country imported, seafood is big businessand fraud is a significant problem. Examples of seafood fraud documented in the database include sale of the fish escolar, often fraudulently mislabeled as white tuna or butterfish. Escolar is banned in Italy and Japan, and other countries have issued advisories on the trade and consumption of this fish. Escolar has high content of waxy esters that is likely to cause a special form of food poisoning called gempylotoxism or gempylid fish poisoning. Another example of seafood fraud included in the database involves puffer fish, with documented incidents in the U.S. of the fish being mislabeled as monkfish to evade import and other restrictions. Puffer fish has caused tetrodotoxin poisonings in the U.S. and elsewhere. "Seafood is an example where food safety controls are species-specific, making replacement of one fish with another especially troublesome," Moore stated.
Clouding Agents: Considered the 2011 equivalent to the melamine scandal involving Chinese milk products from a few years ago, numerous database records document the plasticizer Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) and other related phthalates as having been fraudulently added as clouding agents in place of the more expensive palm oil or other allowed food ingredients in fruit juices, jams and other products. The scope of this fraud was vast: 877 food products from 315 companies were involved; 206 products were exported to as many as 22 countries; and there were roughly 4,000 potential victims in Taiwan. Safety concerns surrounding DEHP include cancer and the improper reproductive organ development in children. DEHP may be used in food contact materials (e.g., seals, packaging), however the amount allowed to migrate into the food is tightly regulated as to not exceed approximately 1.5 ppm; levels in reported examples of food fraud were found from 2-34 and 8,700 ppm in food and supplement products, respectively. The fraudulent replacement of clouding agents may have been ongoing for years, but as with other food frauds, it is often difficult to detect fraud when no immediate illness occurs. However, as illustrated in this episode, severe health repercussions may still result from consumer consumption of an undetected harmful adulterant over an extended period.
###
USP is actively seeking outside additions to the database. To add to the database or to search this free resource, visit www.foodfraud.org. Media inquiries may be directed to mediarelations@usp.org.
USP Advancing Public Health Since 1820
The United States Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) is a scientific, nonprofit, standards-setting organization that advances public health through public standards and related programs that help ensure the quality, safety, and benefit of medicines and foods. USP's standards are relied upon and used worldwide. For more information about USP visit http://www.usp.org.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Cunard is preparing to send its luxury flagship vessel, the Queen Mary 2, to Abu Dhabi, in what will be a maiden call to the region as part of a cruise around India.
Built in 2004, the $880 million dollar liner is also scheduled to arrive at the Mina Zayed cruise terminal later this month before setting off for Cochin in India.
These stop-offs are part of a special 106-day world voyage that has departed from Southampton and is set to travel around the Mediterranean, Red Sea and Indian Ocean with port calls in the Far East and Australia along the way.
Set to visit Abu Dhabi on January 29th, the illustrious vessel will bring 2,620 passengers to the Middle East region in a port call that is sure to bring a healthy injection of cash to the area.
It certainly plays into the plans of local tourism officials, who are keen to attract 180,000 cruise passengers to the region over the course of the current travel season.
Commenting on ship's imminent arrival, leisure product development manager Noura Al Dhaheri of the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority said: "To attract a cruise liner of this calibre is a tremendous endorsement of Abu Dhabi?s rising status as a global cruise destination and solid sector partner."
The news contrasts with other cruise-related developments in the region, with Norwegian Cruise Line recently cancelling a number of planned stops in Egypt for the next 12 months.
Would you consider cruising to that part of the world?
The East Central Energy Info Show with Cindy Rolain is heard each Wednesday morning on WCMP-FM 100.9 at 6:35am and on WCMP-AM 1350 at 8:05am. This week Cindy talks about ECE?s Tree Program.
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Jan. 21, 2013 ? The innate immune system detects invasive pathogens and activates defense mechanisms to eliminate them. Pathogens, however, employ a variety of tricks to block this process. A new study led by Karl-Peter Hopfner of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich shows how the measles virus thwarts the system, by means of a simple hairpin-like structure.
The innate immune system is the body's first line of defense against invasive pathogens and noxious chemicals. Essentially the system consists of an array of receptors that recognize particular molecular conformations which are characteristic of pathogenic organisms and viruses. Among the classes of molecules bound by these receptors are viral nucleic acids, which are bound specifically by so-called RIG-I-like receptors in the cytoplasm of infected cells. One of these is MDA5, which polymerizes into filaments on long double-stranded RNAs that indicate the presence of RNA viruses. RIG-I itself binds to shorter terminal segments of viral RNAs.
However, viruses have come up with a plethora of ways to avoid triggering immune defense measures. "The virus that causes measles, for instance, produces a so-called V protein, which binds specifically to MDA5 and one other RIG-I-like receptor, and thus impairs recognition of virus-infected cells by the adaptive immune system, although it does not inhibit RIG-I itself," says Professor Karl-Peter Hopfner of LMU's Gene Center. Indeed this kind of competition between viral and cellular proteins largely determines the distribution and -- above all -- the virulence of viral pathogens.
A hairpin opens up the receptor "We have been able to crystallize the complex formed by the V protein and MDA5 for the first time, and have determined its three-dimensional structure in detail," Hopfner reports. This structure also permitted Hopfner's team, in collaboration with LMU virologist Professor Karl-Klaus Conzelmann, to clarify the mode of action of the V protein. The analysis revealed that it inserts a hairpin loop into the core secondary structure of MDA5, unfolding the protein and allowing V to bind to a segment that is normally buried in the interior of the molecule. This in turn prevents MDA5 from forming filaments and signaling the presence of viral RNA.
This finding was completely unexpected, and explains why MDA5, but not RIG-I, is inhibited by the V protein: This internal sequence is different in RIG-I and this is the reason why RIG-I is not targeted by the viral product. "Our work provides a detailed insight into the mechanisms viral proteins use to inhibit host protein function. It may also open opportunities for new therapeutic interventions," Hopfner concludes.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet Muenchen (LMU).
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
C. Motz, K. M. Schuhmann, A. Kirchhofer, M. Moldt, G. Witte, K.-K. Conzelmann, K.-P. Hopfner. Paramyxovirus V Proteins Disrupt the Fold of the RNA Sensor MDA5 to Inhibit Antiviral Signaling. Science, 2013; DOI: 10.1126/science.1230949
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
In honor of the sixth birthday of his YouTube channel "Kidrauhl" on Friday, Justin Bieber posted a special acoustic video for his fans. The song, "Take You," will be featured on his new acoustic album set to be released on January 29th.
Bieber posted this note below the video:
It has been 6 years since i started this youtube channel and in those years you have all taken a small town kid from Canada who didnt even know dreams were possible and let me live a life that i am forever grateful for. I promise that as long as you are there for me I will always try to do better and to keep going. Thank you for the last 6 years and look for many more to come. #alwaysKidrauh
JB owes his success largely to the early popularity of his YouTube channel, which attracted the attention of his now-manager Scooter Braun in 2008 and led to a meeting with Usher Raymond that changed his life forever.
To give you an idea of just how far he's come, check out the first video Biebs posted to YouTube in 2007, below, covering the song "So Sick by Ne-yo. He's so little!
Beliebers: What do you think of his new acoustic vid? What song are you most looking forward to on the new album? Sound off in the comments below or tweet @HuffPostTeen!
When vacation time is short, or you want to combine a cruise with a land trip to Europe, your choices have just expanded.
Silversea Cruises
In its continuing mission to provide guests with more choices, ultra-luxurious Silversea Cruises has just announced a new collection of eight shorter cruises for spring and summer 2013. These convenient 4- to 7-day voyages to Northern Europe and the Mediterranean aboard Silver Wind, Silver Cloud, and Silver Spirit are designed for time-strapped working professionals, travelers who like to combine a cruise with a land program or back-to-back with a longer voyage, and individuals who may be new to luxury cruising and would like a taste of Silversea's award-winning, all-inclusive experience.
"Many travelers today have busy schedules that make it difficult to fit in time for an extended luxury cruise vacation," said Ellen Bettridge, Silversea's president of the Americas. "It's important for us to offer options that cater to these consumers as well as those who have time for longer voyages."
Visit Silversea.com for a complete schedule of itineraries.
Crystal Cruises
Due to the overwhelming success of Crystal Cruises' new shorter "Getaways" cruises, the large-ship luxury line has added 26 voyage options throughout Europe from April to November this year. The new 5- to 8-day cruise segments provide more opportunities for time-strapped travelers to enjoy Crystal's all-inclusive, luxury vacation experience.
Twelve Mediterranean, ten Baltic, and four Western Europe cruise "Getaways" offer numerous choices for compact, port-packed cruises aboard Crystal Serenity and Crystal Symphony in 2013. In addition to time on board for relaxing rejuvenation and pampering, one or more local overnights are featured on most sailings.
"Our 'Getaways' have proven to be very attractive to travelers from all over the world who are younger, busy professionals, first-time Crystal cruisers, and/or want to combine cruising with longer stays on land," explains Jack Anderson, senior vice president of marketing and sales. "With great destinations, plus the luxury and service for which Crystal is known?including complimentary beverages and gratuities, a world-class spa, stylish accommodations, and even Nobu's cuisine?our 'Getaways' are a great way to tour Europe while simultaneously indulging in our 'World's Best' vacation experience."
The new European options join other 5- to 11-day Getaways already offered in Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and North America in early 2013. Pre- and Post-cruise Hotel Programs further expand vacation options in many popular European cities. For more information, visit CrystalCruises.com.
Consider it the first fact check of a Barack Obama campaign pledge for his second term: Will he, or Mother Nature, deliver on promised warmer Inauguration Day weather?
It's shaping up as a close call.
In September, while campaigning in Colorado, Obama was talking to a potential voter who mentioned he had been one of the hundreds of thousands of people outdoors at Obama's bone-chilling first inaugural in 2009, when the noontime temperature was 28 degrees. Obama promised: "This one is going to be warmer."
Scientifically, the president doesn't have control of day-to-day weather. While his policies can lessen or worsen future projected global warming on a large scale, they cannot do anything about Washington's daily temperature on Jan. 21.
Still, it's a promise that for a long time looked close to a sure thing. The history of local weather was on Obama's side.
On average, the normal high is 43 degrees and the normal low is 28, but that's just around dawn. There have been 19 traditional January inaugurations and only two were colder. Ronald Reagan's second in 1985 was a frigid 7 with subzero wind chills and John F. Kennedy's in 1961 was a snow-covered 22. Jimmy Carter's 1977 inauguration also was 28.
Then there was the general warming trend Washington had been stuck in. The last time the nation's capital stayed below freezing all day was Jan. 22, 2011. The city has gone a record 700-plus days since it had 2 inches or more of snow.
An Arctic cold front looks to be racing toward the mid-Atlantic, so it will be cooler than normal on Monday, but probably not cooler than 2009, said Nikole Listemaa, a senior forecaster at the National Weather Service office in Sterling, Va., that oversees forecasts for the capital area.
Look for highs around 40 degrees with noon temperatures in the mid- to upper 30s, Listemaa said Saturday. That would keep Obama's pledge.
There's also a 30 percent chance of light snow showers for Monday. But the Arctic cold front won't arrive until Monday night into Tuesday, Listemaa added.
Extreme cold on Inauguration Day, folklore says, can be a killer.
In 1841, newly elected president William Henry Harrison stood outside without a coat or hat as he spoke for an hour and 40 minutes. He caught a cold that day and it became pneumonia and he died one month after being sworn in.
Twelve years later, outgoing first lady Abigail Fillmore got sick from sitting outside on a cold wet platform as Franklin Pierce was inaugurated and she died of pneumonia at the end of the month. Doctors now know that pneumonia is caused by germs, but prolonged exposure to extreme cold weather may hurt the airways and make someone more susceptible to getting sick.
There's one thing Washington's history shows. Bad weather generally creates bad traffic jams.
Kennedy found that out in his 1961 inauguration when 8 inches of snow fell overnight and crippled the city for what at that time was Washington's worst traffic jam. Thousands of cars were abandoned in the snow.
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Seth Borenstein can be followed at http://twitter.com/borenbears
Kudos to you and welcome to the world of securities trading! There?s a ton to learn, but it?s worth it. Here?s how to get started based on my experience as a registered financial securities representative and a decade of profitable (and fun!) investing:
Read a well written broad overview about markets and money
The Wall Street Journal Guide to Understanding Money and Investing: Kenneth M. Morris, Virginia B. Morris: 9780684869025
Dig deeper into specifics about equities
Bulls Make Money, Bears Make Money, Pigs Get Slaughtered: Wall Street Truisms that Stand the Test of Time: Anthony M. Gallea: 9780735201453
Learn the truth about how markets work in the long run
A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing (Tenth Edition): Burton G. Malkiel: 9780393340747
Note: I would not recommend diving into Graham?s Intelligent Investor, which some may suggest, as it involves a level of corporate knowledge that can be daunting to put into practice (additionally, there aren?t that many companies that qualify for his advice anymore, especially in technology?the market is too efficient these days).
Once you feel comfortable with the basic concepts around equity (stocks), Scottrade Online Trading is a solid, inexpensive choice for beginning to invest. For additional information, Yahoo! Finance is generally known as having the best information, although Google Finance has better charts. In terms of picking which stocks to buy, I?d start with companies you?re familiar with?but make sure they?re trading at a good price using the concepts from the articles above.
After you set up an account, you?ll quickly learn some form of the following, as I did: Making successful trades is difficult until you have over a few thousand dollars to invest. Most stocks you?re likely to trade simply don?t move fast enough to overcome the initial trading fees. For example, if you buy 2 shares of McDonalds at $90 with a $14 total fee ($7 to buy, $7 to sell) and the stock goes up 10% next year (about average for equities), you?ll only make a profit of $4, or 2%. Even worse, that $4 is taxed by the federal government. Bonds are even slower, and in most ?safe? cases less profitable or not even available without $5-10k to invest (unless you go down the mutual fund route, but it doesn?t sound like you want to take a passive role).
It?s difficult to find a truly great buying opportunity that hasn?t been discovered. Great stocks are expensive because they?re great stocks. There aren?t any free lunches out there. In most cases, when you make great gains it?s because you believed something that other people did not?and you were right. This is very difficult with all the news media and hysterics around the market.
Buying and selling stocks is an emotional process. It may seem like a rational, calculated, decision, but when your stocks go down you will feel pain. And in many cases that pain will lead to irrational decisions. The same is true when your stocks rise and you don?t reap benefits in a timely fashion.
The market doesn?t seem to be based on the fundamentals you?ve spent so long reading about ? in many cases it seems prone to crowd herding and random shocks.
But don?t worry! It gets better: Once you?ve made a few investments, learn about options Options. If you?re right, you?ll make ~5x the return over plain equity (however, you also loose ~5x as much when the stock goes down). For small investments, it is really the best option to ?get some skin in the game?.
As you follow the markets you?ll start to get hunches about market activities that aren?t rational and present an opportunity. For example, the market over-reacted, the news just doesn?t make sense, people are trading on too short of a time horizon?and it will lead to ?plays?, that is to say a well informed hypothesis that is contrary to many and has the potential to really move the stock.
You?ll develop a system to ease the emotional aspect of investing. In my case, I wait 3 days before buying or selling anything and have well defined Limits/Stops that automatically perform the trades I might not be capable of doing emotionally. In most cases the answer is extremely clear on whether you should take the contemplated action after this period, and it?s usually far too risky to make bets on opportunities that will be gone within a few days. Many of my worse potential investment choices have been avoided this way, since the markets have a tendency to irrationally enable a false sense of immediacy.
The market is a balance of humanity and economics. It ebbs and flows with time, and you?ll soon start to see the big picture. Fundamentals matter, but so do the charts. News matters, but also how the world is ?feeling? at the moment. It?s through an understanding of these factors that you begin to make the best investments.
When 26-year-old computer programmer and political activist Aaron Swartz committed suicide last Friday, news of his death spread across the Internet with the same speed as the viral videos and the applications he had helped to produce.
At the time of his death, he faced unnecessarily harsh felony charges entailing a possible 35-year sentence and a $1 million fine. His crime? The theft of some scholarly articles from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology JSTOR digital library with the intent to distribute the papers to the public. MIT announced yesterday that they were investigating its role in his death.
The issue of online piracy has incited passionate debate since the creation of the World Wide Web. Aside from the ethical issues of using another person?s property without their permission, U.S. Congressmen have recently argued that online piracy is severely detrimental to the American economy and is destructive to individual businesses.
Both of these claims are misleading.
Recent articles have indicated that online piracy has little to no effect on businesses, and that the restriction of free, public information sharing could actually work against the favor of the economy. Moreover, these restrictions stifle creativity, encourage censorship and are a disservice to the budding social entrepreneurs of the 21st century.
The emphasis of the U.S. government on prosecuting and restricting ?information-sharers? such as Swartz is unnecessary and ultimately counterproductive. In the past year, Congressional bills such as the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect Intellectual Property Act, known as SOPA and PIPA, have invoked uproar in the online community because of their intent to restrict and limit the flow of information flow on the Internet, essentially censoring online interactions.
Though neither bill passed, Congress continues to contend that online piracy costs the U.S. economy between $200 and $250 billion per year, resulting in a loss of around 750,000 jobs.
If those figures sound too high to be true, it?s because they are. Julian Sanchez, a research fellow from the Cato Institute, investigated those claims last year and found they ?[could not] be substantiated or traced back to an underlying data source or methodology,? suggesting that the U.S. government might have just made them up. In fact, Sanchez argued that it was virtually impossible to measure the effects of online piracy on the economy, because of the variable nature of its economic effects. Any attempt to do so, Sanchez argues, is misleading and most likely exaggerated.
Instead, research suggests that music and entertainment businesses, which are most likely to be affected by online piracy, have done better in recent economic crises than similar businesses in other industries.
Despite this evidence, threats of legal action against illegal downloads continue to escalate. Most common are the pre-movie advertisements that ominously send the message that piracy is a social evil. ?Would you steal a purse? Would you steal a car?? the advertisements ask viewers, implying that clicking a button to download a song or a movie is the legal equivalent of petty theft. It?s, of course, not as simple as that.
Unlike the theft of a car, the illegal downloading of a song does not necessarily imply tangible loss or harm to another. Equally compelling is the increasingly obvious truth that online piracy restrictions are difficult to enforce. Illegal downloading has become a norm for the Millennial Generation. We would all be hard-pressed to find someone who hasn?t downloaded something off the Internet without permission.
The openness and anonymity of the Internet has afforded the Millennial Generation enormous advantages, enabling individuals access to music, entertainment, information and community where they otherwise might be deprived.
The resources of the U.S. government could perhaps be better spent by enacting policies that will actually benefit the economy and potential business leaders. Losses caused by piracy are far outweighed by the benefits of a free, unrestricted flow of information. In the case of Swartz, the real loss is the incalculable tragedy of an inspirational and influential talent gone too soon.
As Swartz said, ?It?s called stealing or piracy, as if sharing a wealth of knowledge were the moral equivalent of plundering a ship and murdering its crew. But sharing isn?t immoral ? it?s a moral imperative. Only those blinded by greed would refuse to let a friend make a copy.?
Tragically, it may indeed have been greed that led the U.S. government to its decisions.
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Payal Mukerji is a junior majoring in business administration. Her column ?Risky Business? runs Tuesdays.
Join Hirsch?s Milnerton for their first Business Networking Breakfast for 2013 on 31 January 2013 from 08:00 ? 10:00. Shirley Bailey, Author of Key-Word Access to the Sectional Titles Act will be shining some light on issues involving Sectional Title Living. A must for any Property Manager, Chairperson or future Investors. The morning is free of charge ? though booking is essential. Refreshments will be served. Kindly RSVP to Nardo van Eck on nardo@hirschs.co.za or call 021 528 6700 for further information.
NEW YORK, N.Y. - Why wait on Washington to fix the economy when there's Wal-Mart?
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer and the biggest private employer in the U.S. with 1.4 million workers here, said Tuesday that it is rolling out a three-part plan to help jumpstart the sluggish U.S. economy.
The plan includes hiring more than 100,000 veterans in the next five years, spending $50 billion to buy more American-made merchandise in the next 10 years and helping its part-time workers move into full-time positions sooner.
The move comes as Wal-Mart attempts to bolster its reputation, which has been hit in the past year by an alleged bribery scandal in Mexico and a deadly fire at a Bangladesh factory that supplies clothes to the company. Wal-Mart, which often is criticized for its low-paying jobs and buying habits in the U.S., said it's plan aims to highlight career opportunities in the retail industry, which supports one in four jobs in the country. The company's plan could have an impact on the U.S. economy: With $444 billion in annual revenue, if Wal-Mart were a country, it would rank among the largest economies in the world.
"We've developed a national paralysis that's driven by all of us waiting for someone else to do something," Bill Simon, president and CEO of Wal-Mart's U.S. business, said Tuesday at an annual retail industry convention in New York. "The beauty of the private sector is that we don't have to win an election, convince Congress or pass a bill to do what we think is right. We can simply move forward, doing what we know is right."
At the centre of Wal-Mart's plan is a pledge to hire veterans, many of who have come home from Afghanistan and Iraq are had a particularly hard time finding jobs. The unemployment rate for veterans who served in Iraq or Afghanistan stood at 10.8 per cent in December, compared with the overall unemployment rate of 7.8 per cent.
Wal-Mart said it plans to hire every veteran who wants a job and has been honourably discharged in the first 12 months of active duty. The program, which will start on Memorial Day, will include jobs mostly in Wal-Mart's stores or in its Sam's Club locations. Some will be at its headquarters, based in Bentonville, Ark. or the company's distribution centres.
Dave Tovar, a Wal-Mart spokesman, said Wal-Mart hasn't worked out the details but it will "match up the veterans' experience and qualifications." Simon, who served in the Navy, said that veterans have "a record of performance under pressure."
"They're quick learners, and they're team players. These are leaders with discipline, training, and a passion for service. There is a seriousness and sense of purpose that the military instills, and we need it today more than ever," he said.
Wal-Mart said First Lady Michelle Obama, who spearheaded a White House drive to encourage businesses to hire veterans, has expressed an interest through her team in working with Wal-Mart and with the rest of the business community on this initiative.
In the next several weeks, Simon said the White House will meet with the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Defence and major U.S. employers to encourage businesses to make commitments to train and employ American's returning veterans. The first lady on Tuesday called Wal-Mart's announcement "historic."
"We all believe that no one who serves our country should have to fight for a job once they return home," she said in a statement. "Wal-Mart is setting a groundbreaking example for the private sector to follow."
In addition to hiring veterans, Wal-Mart said that it will spend $50 billion to buy more products made in the U.S. over the next 10 years. According to data from Wal-Mart's suppliers, items that are made, sourced or grown in the U.S. account for about two-thirds of the company's spending on products for its U.S. business.
Wal-Mart said that it plans to focus on buying more in areas such as sporting goods, fashion basics, storage products, games and paper products. The commitment comes as economics are changing for making goods overseas. Labor costs are rising in Asia, while oil and transportation costs are high and increasingly uncertain.
Simon, Wal-Mart's CEO, said that a few of the company's manufacturers have told Wal-Mart that they have defined the "tipping points" at which manufacturing abroad will no longer make sense for them. Simon cited one supplier called 1888 Mills, which made most of its towels overseas, but had an underutilized factory in Griffin, Georgia.
Wal-Mart said it worked with the supplier on a couple of innovations and now the U.S. factory is hiring again. The towels made in the U.S. will be in 600 of its stores this spring, and another 600 stores in by the fall. The towels' label will say "Made Here."
The final piece of Wal-Mart's plan is to help part-time Wal-Mart workers transition into full-time employment if they so desire. Simon said that about 75 per cent of its store management start as hourly associates, and their average pay is $50,000 to $170,000 a year.
"There are some fundamental misunderstandings out there about retail jobs, and we need to do better at explaining the opportunities we offer," he said.
The final game of the Divisional Round hit a three-year low in overnight ratings on CBS.
The Texans/Patriots AFC Divisional Round game drew a 23.8 overnight rating on CBS, down 13% from Giants/Packers on FOX last year (27.4), and down 9% from Jets/Patriots on CBS in 2011 (26.2).
The 23.8 is the lowest for the late Sunday Divisional Round window since Jets/Chargers in 2010 (23.1).
Despite the decline, Texans/Patriots earned the top overnight of the weekend. The Patriots? easy win ? they led 31-13 after three quarters ? finished comfortably ahead of the classic Ravens/Broncos (21.6) and Seahawks/Falcons (21.3) games.
Of course, that can be primarily attributed to the cushy late Sunday afternoon timeslot. Whether in the regular season or the playoffs, the 4:30 PM Sunday NFL game typically earns the top television audience of the week.
Overnight Ratings For Late Sunday Divisional Round Window Past decade
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) -- Inside a small bungalow on the street separating Kansas City, Kan., from its sister city in Missouri, a small group of entrepreneurs are working on their ideas for the next high-tech startup, tapping Google Inc.'s new superfast Internet connection that has turned the neighborhood into an unlikely settlement dubbed the "Silicon Prairie."
The home on State Line Road is one of several startup-friendly locations that have sprouted up in Kansas City in recent months. The catalyst is Google Fiber, the search-engine giant's fiber-optic network being tested in the Kansas City area that advertises speeds of up to a gigabyte per second - a rate that massively exceeds the average Internet speeds at homes hooked up with cable modems.
The advantage here for startups is simple: A fast Internet pipe makes it easier to handle large files and eliminates buffering problems that plague online video, live conferencing or other network-intensive tasks. Though the Kansas City location presents challenges for startups, including the ability to raise money outside the traditional Silicon Valley venture capital scene, entrepreneurs like Synthia Payne believe it's the place to be right now for up-and-coming tech companies.
Payne is one of those entrepreneurs hoping to launch her startup dream - an Internet subscription service for musicians who want to collaborate online - on the cheap. She shares the State Line Road house, known as the "Home for Hackers," with other startups under a deal that allows them to live rent-free while they develop their business plans.
Google's network was attractive, Payne said, because her business plan "is dependent upon really good, really fast Internet."
"Without this on-ramp here I probably would have found it very difficult to come here," said Payne, who in December moved from Denver to develop CyberJammer.
Residents here were thrilled when Google announced last year that Kansas City, Kan., and neighboring Kansas City, Mo., would be its test bed for Google Fiber. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company spent months and unknown sums installing optical fiber around the area. Google provides the full gigabit service for $70 a month and its own cable-TV like service for another $50. A slower Internet connection is free on a monthly basis after a $300 installation fee.
The first homes were installed with fiber optics in the fall, with more "fiberhoods" planned in stages over the next several months. Kansas City, Mo., and Kansas City, Kan., remain Google's only fiber market, though the company has said it plans additional roll-outs. Many in the tech industry believe Google's move could ultimately force broadband providers to accelerate their networks to compete. Making Internet access faster would give the company more opportunities to attract traffic and sell more advertising - the main way Google makes money.
The "Home for Hackers" and its unique business pitch is the brainchild of local web developer Ben Barreth, whose property was among the first wave of houses to be fiber-wired and is a block away from the Google Fiber offices. "Hackers" who pass Barreth's application process and show a real intention to work on a viable project can live there rent-free for three months. Since starting the home in October after cashing in his Roth IRA and putting a down payment on the $48,000 home, Barreth has gotten applications from nearly 60 people seeking a spot in the home.
"The whole startup thing in Kansas City is like this huge growing beast," he said. "It's got this crazy momentum."
The house has been full since mid-December with Payne and two others. One of the rooms also is reserved for fiber tourists who want a place for a day or two where they can download anything faster than they could elsewhere.
"The hope is that these startups will move their operations to Kansas City and this will really bless Kansas City, bring jobs and taxes and we'll build a really cool tech scene," Barreth said.
A few homes away from the "Home for Hackers" is the headquarters of the Kansas City Startup Village, which was started by local entrepreneur Matthew Marcus and where Mike Farmer, founder of mobile search app Leap2.com, has his offices. Farmer said Google Fiber brought attention to Kansas City's startup culture, "because it sort of ignites the imagination about what you can do with that sort of bandwidth capability."
"Most every week I meet one or two or three people that are looking to come in from out of town," he said.
Despite the growth, it remains a challenge for startups to raise money from Kansas City, Farmer said. Silicon Valley venture capital groups in particular want startup entrepreneurs to be nearby in California, he said.
"I've had some really incredible conversations with some big name VCs, and their first statement is that when you're in this early stage you have to be here, right next to us," he said. "That is a hurdle."
Andy Kallenbach recently launched FormZapper.com, an online forms management site, and also has offices near the "Home for Hackers." He said Kansas City has no aspirations to be the next Silicon Valley and may never have a "Facebook or a giant consumer-level company that takes over the world."
He said it may also be "better for us" that it's more difficult to raise money in Kansas City.
"The hardest thing about a startup is execution, OK? A lot of people can go out and raise money and get money for an idea or for some product or they can come up with some awesome presentation. But it doesn't matter if you can't build something that people will use," Kallenbach said. "I think here in Kansas City you have to at some point put your money where your mouth is. You have to `do.'"
Boise State leading scorer Derrick Marks, key reserve Mikey Thompson and backup big man Darrious Hamilton will be available to play for the Broncos in Wednesday's home game against New Mexico, the school announced Saturday.
All three were suspended for Boise State's Mountain West opener at Wyoming, a game the Broncos won 63-61.
Reserve center Kenny Buckner will serve a three-game suspension and miss games against New Mexico and Air Force (Jan. 19). He is eligible to return to the team for the Fresno State game on Jan. 23.
All suspensions were for violating team rules, the school said.
Sempra U.S. Gas & Power, a subsidiary of Sempra Energy (NYSE: SRE), stated Wednesday that it has completed work on the 150-MW Mesquite Solar I, the first phase of the planned Mesquite Solar facility in Arlington, Arizona.
The completed solar photovoltaic project can now power around 56,000 households.
From PR Newswire:
"We are pleased to continue the momentum of our solar program with the completion of Mesquite Solar 1 and will now focus on the development of the remaining 4,000-acre complex," said Jeffrey W. Martin, president and chief executive officer of Sempra U.S. Gas & Power. "This accomplishment puts us solidly on track to own and operate more than 1,000 megawatts of renewable energy capacity by the end of this year. We are excited about the future. This milestone would not have been possible without the strong support of neighboring communities, regulators and local and state elected officials."
More than 450 workers have been involved with the project, which got underway back in June of 2011. Pacific Gas & Electric is buying the power, governed by a 20-year contract.
Altogether, the complete complex could be one of the largest solar facilities in North America, producing as much as 700 MW.
Sempra Energy had revenues of $10 billion in 2011, and the company continues to operate worldwide with an employee base of 17,500 and more than 30 million consumers.
Dropbox is rapidly bulking up its Android app's photo sharing strength after lavishing some early attention on iOS. A newly posted refresh for the Google-friendly version lets photographers mass-select whole albums' worth of images quickly to share with anyone, whether they're Dropbox users or not. Android users who've been eager for parity just need to swing by the Google Play source link to get their fill.
As reported in the Globe and Mail newspaper, Taro Aso, Japan?s newly-appointed minister of finance, expressed his opinion at a recent meeting on the topic of social security, where he said he was frustrated that ? according to his perception ? many Japanese seniors are content to retire off government funds.![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uvEV2ILWU6IQx1p0OmmpNFQ5E0mUhbK2ZZGwhYDWqW-8iq1Sm-8xowRQekOeS4TvlObIvi5CCzAYQvexVbPNXMLMo9otNxjVFmlhdLq20=s0-d){kind=small}
Public release date: 23-Jan-2013
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When vacation time is short, or you want to combine a cruise with a land trip to Europe, your choices have just expanded. 
Due to the overwhelming success of Crystal Cruises' new shorter "Getaways" cruises, the large-ship luxury line has added 26 voyage options throughout Europe from April to November this year. The new 5- to 8-day cruise segments provide more opportunities for time-strapped travelers to enjoy Crystal's all-inclusive, luxury vacation experience.
