F8?Select a large range of cells without holding down that mouse button by clicking your starting cell, pressing F8 and clicking the ending cell. Range selected! Esc turns off the feature.
F9?See the resulting value of a formula in edit mode by pressing F9. Press Enter to effect a ?past values.? It will convert your formula to its result. Undo or Ctrl+Z will get your formula back.
F11?Choose any chartable range and press F11. Excel will insert a new work sheet with this data charted in the default chart format. The Change Chart Type button will let you choose a different chart type.
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MIDLAND CITY, Ala. (AP) ? A standoff in rural Alabama went into a second full day Thursday as police surrounded an underground bunker where a retired truck driver was holding a 5-year-old hostage he grabbed off a school bus after shooting the driver dead.
A normally quiet dirt road was teeming with activity around the siege that began late Tuesday. At least a dozen police cars and trucks, a fire truck, a helicopter, officers from multiple agencies, media and at least one ambulance crowded the stretch where the dead-end residential road branches off a U.S. highway near Midland City, population 2,300. A staging area for law enforcement was lit by bright lights overnight.
The boy being held was watching TV and getting medication sent from home, according to state Rep. Steve Clouse, who met with authorities and visited the boy's family. Clouse said the bunker had food and electricity.
Authorities lowered medicine into the bunker for the boy after his captor agreed to it, Clouse said.
The gunman, identified by neighbors as Jimmy Lee Dykes, 65, was known around the neighborhood as a menacing figure who once beat a dog to death with a lead pipe, threatened to shoot children for setting foot on his property and patrolled his yard at night with a flashlight and a shotgun.
Authorities say the gunman boarded a stopped school bus Tuesday afternoon and demanded two boys between 6 and 8 years old. When the driver tried to block his way, the gunman shot him several times and took a 5-year-old boy off the bus.
Dykes had been scheduled to appear in court Wednesday to face a charge of menacing some neighbors with a gun as they drove by his house weeks ago.
Homes on the road had been evacuated earlier after authorities found what they believed to be a bomb on the property. SWAT teams took up positions around the gunman's property and police negotiators tried to win the kindergartener's safe release.
The situation remained unchanged for hours as negotiators talked to the suspect, Alabama State Trooper Charles Dysart told a news conference late Wednesday. Earlier in the day, Sheriff Wally Olson said that authorities had "no reason to believe that the child has been harmed."
Local TV station WDHN obtained a police dispatch recording of the moment officers first arrived at the site. On it, the officers are heard saying that they were trying to communicate with Dykes through a PVC pipe leading into the shelter.
Authorities gave no details of the standoff, and it was unclear if Dykes made any demands from the bunker, which some officials described as being like the underground tornado shelters some homes have in their yards.
"As far as we know there is no relation at all. He just wanted a child for a hostage situation," said Michael Senn, a pastor who helped comfort other traumatized children after the attack.
The bus driver, Charles Albert Poland Jr., 66, was hailed by locals as a hero who gave his life to protect the 21 students aboard the bus. Authorities say most of the students scrambled to the back of the bus when the gunman boarded.
Neighbors described a number of run-ins with Dykes in the time since he moved to this small town near the Georgia and Florida borders, in a region known for peanut farming. Dykes had been scheduled to appear in court to answer charges he shot at his neighbors in a dispute last month over a speed bump.
In that dispute, neighbor Claudia Davis said he yelled and fired shots at her, her son and her baby grandson over damage Dykes claimed their pickup truck did to a makeshift speed bump in the dirt road. No one was hurt.
Mike and Patricia Smith, who live across the street from Dykes and whose two children were on the bus, said their youngsters had a run-in with him about 10 months ago.
"My bulldogs got loose and went over there," Patricia Smith said. "The children went to get them. He threatened to shoot them if they came back."
"He's very paranoid," her husband said. "He goes around in his yard at night with a flashlight and shotgun."
Another neighbor, Ronda Wilbur, said Dykes beat her 120-pound dog with a lead pipe for coming onto his side of the dirt road. The dog died a week later.
"He said his only regret was he didn't beat him to death all the way," Wilbur said. "If a man can kill a dog, and beat it with a lead pipe and brag about it, it's nothing until it's going to be people."
__
Associated Press writers Bob Johnson in Montgomery and Jay Reeves in Birmingham contributed to this report.
"We must stop being the stupid party." So Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal told Republicans assembled at the winter meeting of the Republican National Committee last week. Breaking the stupidity habit, Jindal continued, means more than avoiding unforced errors like Mitt Romney's 47 percent remark or Todd Akin's reflections on gynecology. Although Jindal's speech was remarkably light on details, the governor argued that Republicans have outright failed to appeal to the problems and perspectives of most Americans. ?
By describing the GOP as "the stupid party,"?Jindal evoked the British philosopher John Stuart Mill. In 1866, when he was serving in Parliament, Mill confidently asserted that "the Conservative Party was, by the law of its constitution, necessarily the stupidest party." What Mill did not know was that Conservatives would, within a few years, be transformed from a reactionary rump into Britain's natural party of government.?
Jindal?and other Republican reformers could learn something from the mastermind of this transformation: Benjamin Disraeli. Although his times were different than ours, Disraeli provides a model of how conservatives can learn to win in a changed country. ?
Disraeli's accomplishment is more easily appreciated if we consider the Conservative Party at the time of Mill's statement. Although several Conservatives served as prime minister in previous decades, the party had not won an absolute parliamentary majority in years. The basic reason was its hostility to electoral reform. After the 1832 Reform Act increased the number of middle-class voters and eliminated "rotten boroughs" controlled by great landowners, the Conservative base among the rural gentry was seriously outnumbered.?
The problem was exacerbated in the 1840s, when Prime Minister Robert Peel led pro-free trade Conservatives into a coalition with the opposition Whigs. With the exception of Disraeli and his patron, the Earl of Derby, almost all the party's luminaries followed Peel into the alliance that became the Liberal Party. The Conservative bench was so empty that the short-lived government Derby formed in 1851 was dubbed the "Who? Who?" cabinet in imitation of the Duke of Wellington's response to the members' names.?
The Conservatives' situation hadn't improved much by the time of Mill's remark. In 1866, they were working against another reform bill, this one extending the franchise to what we would now call the lower-middle class. Led by Disraeli in the House of Commons, the Conservatives managed to defeat the bill despite its popularity with the public. Too small to govern but unwilling to compromise, the Conservatives looked like the Victorian "Party of No".
But opposition to reform in 1866 was just the first stage in Disraeli's strategy to revive Conservatism. The following year, Disraeli successfully introduced his own bill, which extended the franchise even more broadly than the previous proposal. Rejecting Conservative resistance to mass democracy, Disraeli argued that not only should the people be allowed to vote, but that they would vote Conservative if given the chance. It was a revolutionary argument at the time. It was also correct.?
Disraeli was proved right in the election of 1874, which yielded the first Conservative majority in nearly 30 years. Serving as prime minister with his own mandate, Disraeli secured passage of pioneering measures for improving public health and increasing workers' rights. For Disraeli, these measures had nothing to do with hostility to wealth. Inspired by Romantic conservatives like the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, he believed that the "Two Nations" of the rich and the poor could only be reconciled when the privileged few accepted responsibility for the welfare of the many.?
This belief had a utopian aspect. But Disraeli was correct that workers and small-business people preferred cooperation with an elite that showed concern for their welfare to the harsh laissez-faire associated with 19th-century liberalism. What's more, Disraeli did not hesitate to base this alliance on religious affinity. In Victorian Britain, both the working class and gentry tended to be members of the Church of England, while entrepreneurs were disproportionately members of dissenting churches.
Disraeli's domestic populism was accompanied by renewed activism around the world. Disraeli, more than any other politician, deserves credit for the transformation of Britain's ramshackle collection of dependencies into a formal empire. His pursuit of international prestige was mocked by Liberals. But it was exceptionally popular with new voters enfranchised by his reforms ? and managed to secure most of Disraeli's aims without war between great powers.?
Indeed, the revitalization of the Conservative party with a base in the "respectable" working class, rather than any specific policy, was Disraeli's greatest achievement. Disraeli's sustained term in office lasted only six years, from 1874 to 1880. But Conservatives were the government for much of the next century ? and beyond.?
So: What lessons can Republicans today draw from Disraeli's career? ?
Number one: Successful parties seek popular majorities rather than clinging to procedural advantages. From the early stages of his career, Disraeli argued that Conservatives had to show that they represented "one nation" rather than a single class whose influence was exaggerated by unequal representation. In the present context, that means Republicans should reject attempts to rig the electoral college in their favor. Gaming the system may help win the next election, but it will never win a mandate.?
The second lesson: Republicans must show that they care about solving the problems faced by voters outside the most comfortable classes. In addition to developing credible responses to wage stagnation and unemployment, that means helping Americans acquire and keep health insurance, and make safe investments for their retirement. As I've argued before, Republicans ?should reform Social Security and Medicare with the aim of preserving, not privatizing, them. The idolatry of market forces that such proposals reflect is historically rooted in Mill's utilitarianism rather than in traditional conservatism. ??
Finally, Republicans must retain their assertive nationalism, which resonates with what Walter Russell Mead describes as the Jacksonian tendency in American politics. Nevertheless, they should learn to temper it with prudence. Disraeli was among the 19th century's most outspoken advocates of "British exceptionalism". At the same time, he recognized that other nations are also proud of their achievement and traditions ? and that Britain could often achieve its aims by cultivating common interests rather than hectoring or bullying. The same is true of the United States.?
A Republican Party that learned Disraeli's lessons would still be recognizably conservative. But it would be a governing party with the potential to appeal to voters in a variety of demographics and regions. Hope for an American counterpart to Disraeli's "one nation" Conservatism may seem anachronistic. It shouldn't ? because it's essentially the triumphant Republicanism of Nixon and Reagan under an unfamiliar name.?
Samuel Goldman blogs for The American Conservative. Follow him on Twitter:?@swgoldman.
Jan. 30, 2013 ? Chimps can learn more efficient ways to use a tool by watching what others do, according to research published Jan. 30 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Shinya Yamamoto and colleagues from Kyoto University and Kent University, UK. Their study presents the first experimental evidence that chimps, like humans, can watch and learn a group member's invention of a better technique.
Chimps in the study were provided juice-boxes with a small hole and straws to drink with. One group of chimps used the straws like dipsticks, dipping and removing them to suck on the end, while the other group learned to suck through the straw directly. Learning both techniques required the same cognitive and motor skills, but chimps that drank through the straw got considerably more juice in a shorter amount of time. When the first group of chimps watched either a human or a chimp demonstrate the more efficient 'straw-sucking' technique, all of them switched to using this instead.
The study concludes, "When chimpanzees are dissatisfied with their own technique, they may socially learn an improved technique by closely observing a proficient demonstrator."
According to the authors, their results provide insights into the cognitive basis for the evolution of culture in chimpanzees, and suggest ways that culture could evolve in non-human animals.
The present study was financially supported by grants-in-aid from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in Japan (MEXT: 20002001, 24000001, and MEXT special grant ''Human Evolution'' to T. Matsuzawa) and from Japan Society for the promotion of Science (JSPS: 18-3451, 21-9340, 22800034 and 40585767 to S. Yamamoto).
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Journal Reference:
Shinya Yamamoto, Tatyana Humle, Masayuki Tanaka. Basis for Cumulative Cultural Evolution in Chimpanzees: Social Learning of a More Efficient Tool-Use Technique. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (1): e55768 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0055768
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? LG Electronics Inc. has reported its first quarterly loss in a year after Europe slapped it with a massive fine for price fixing.
The South Korean consumer electronics maker said Wednesday its net loss totaled 468 billion won ($429 million) for the last quarter of 2012. The European Union fined it 491.6 million euros last month for rigging prices of cathode-ray tubes for years. LG said it would appeal.
Operating profit rose 25 percent over a year earlier to 107.2 billion won. Revenue fell slightly to 13.5 trillion won.
Most of LG's profit came from its mobile division that posted record-high smartphone shipments and from its home appliance division.
LG said its smartphone shipments jumped 56 percent over a year earlier to 8.6 million in the quarter.
A lot of jobs in the music industry are self-explanatory?and most people think they know about every single opportunity within the business. However, their may be some jobs that are extremely important that many people never know they existed. One career that many people may not be familiar with is talent buying. Talent buyers work for concert halls, bars, and clubs and buy artists and book them for venues.
In order to become a talent buyer you need to have three extremely important personality traits. First, a talent buyer should be a high achiever. This is because they need to have a drive to book artists that they think the venue would not otherwise be able to get. Second, talent buyers need to be organized because of all of the schedules and events that they are putting together for the venue. It would be a disaster to accidentally book two artists on the same day. Third, they need to have great communication skills and be able to represent the venue they work for in the best light.
Photo from musicmaker.org
The road to becoming a successful talent buyer could potentially be a long one. Most people in this career field major in Arts, Entertainment, or Media Management. The average salary for a talent buyer is roughly 63,000 dollars, however, because talent buyers tend to earn about 10 percent of the estimated talent budget, the salary definitely changes from time to time. In an interview for absolutepunk.net, Matt Dunn, a successful talent buyer/promoter states ??Sure, it SUCKS to lose money and all, but EVERY show has happy kids stoked to see their favorite bands, so it brings back the rewarding side of it all? (Giaramita 1).
Every job has its ups and downs and a talent buyer is not exception. One of many exciting tasks that talent buyers jobs is actually booking the artists, especially since the concert would have never happened without them in the first place. Matt Dunn states ?Just imagine if YOU booked a Fall Out Boy show at the Ritacco, thousands of kids STOKED on life to see these bands, bands STOKED on life to play for this many kids, and it all happened because YOU answered the phone and YOU did the work to make it swing? (Giaramita 1). The down of the job is the inconsistency of??the salary. Just like in any business, markets and tastes of the public are always changing, and because the job depends on peoples? preferences, it is important for the talent buyer to see these changes in order to make money.
Overall, becoming a talent buyer is a great way to stay involved in the music industry without being an artist. Being the person who puts the entire event together and sees the customers and artist enjoy themselves is a very rewarding job, and I am thankful for anyone that does it.
Dow Chemical publicly disavowed?a $6.5 billion project for a natural gas export terminal that it partly owns, Alic writes.?Dow is opposed to this project because its senior management believes high volumes of LNG exports will lead to higher prices at home.
By Jen Alic,?Guest blogger / January 28, 2013
The liquefied natural gas tanker Inigo Tapias makes its way through Boston Harbor past downtown Boston. Dow Chemical opposes the natural gas export project because its senior management believes high volumes of LNG exports will lead to higher prices at home, Alic writes, which would bode ill for the future construction of chemical plants and Dow?s overall bottom line.
Michael Dwyer/AP/File
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Dow Chemical CO. (NYSE:DOW) is opposed to the idea of unlimited US natural gas exports, and this opposition has led it most recently to completely disown a $6.5 billion project for a Texas export terminal that it partly owns.
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Earlier this week, Dow management publicly disavowed Texas-based Freeport LNG, which it partly owns with a limited partner status.
Dow vice president of energy and climate change George Biltz told?Bloomberg: ?Dow is not going to be part of the new investment. We have taken no role and haven?t worked with them at all? on the export proposal.?
The Freeport LNG export terminal is hoping for federal permission to cool 1.4 billion cubic feet of gas into liquid natural gas (LNG) daily. This LNG would be transported to overseas markets.?(Related Article:?Betting on Mediterranean Shale: 3 Plays, 1 Winner)?
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It's the most remarkable movie Steven Spielberg has made in quite a spell, and one of the things that makes it remarkable is how it fulfills those expectations by simultaneously ignoring and transcending them.
Lincoln paints a powerful and compelling portrait of the man who has become an icon. We don't need to see more of his life to understand how rare a figure he was - this window is more than sufficient.
Lincoln offers proof of what magic can happen when an actor falls in love with his character. Because as great as Day-Lewis has been in his many parts, he has never seemed quite so smitten.
The film masterfully captures the dual dilemmas facing the president in the final months of his life: how to bring the war between the states to an end, and how to eradicate slavery, once and for all.
Lincoln is a stirring reminder that politics can be noble. Might there be a lesson here for today's shrill D.C. discourse? 'Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished.
Day-Lewis' voice is thin and reedy, which jibes with historical accounts but subverts our expectations. His attitude makes listeners lean in, and so do we, magnetized by his kindly reserve.
It may indulge its subject a little too much but it highlights the road to a momentous occasion with an intimacy that gives emotional weight to political machinations
The actual vote on the Amendment proves surprisingly gripping, but elsewhere moments of piety and sentimentality undermine Day-Lewis's magnificent, credibly flesh-and-blood Lincoln.
It's an impeccably crafted history lesson that, unusually for a Spielberg film, tells us why its subject matter is important, instead of engaging with it on an emotional level.
Daniel Day-Lewis gives a towering performance in Steven Spielberg's bravest picture to date.
N?o ? um retrato multidimensional de um indiv?duo complexo, mas uma f?bula. Um letreiro de "Era uma vez..." em seu in?cio n?o ficaria deslocado.
Against the odds, Spielberg makes something genuinely exciting of the backstage wheedling.
A historic epic from Steven Spielberg carries a lot of baggage, but he surprises us with a remarkably contained approach to an iconic figure. What's most unexpected is that this is a political drama, not a biopic.
[Spielberg is] a man on a mission. And his not so secret weapon is Day-Lewis, an actor so charismatic it's hard to think clearly while he's on screen.
Perhaps this is a rose-tinted view of Lincoln - he comes across as more living saint than man - but as cinema, it is powerful, gripping and thoroughly entertaining.
Spielberg is always a professional, and the film is never less than well-crafted.
By stepping into history without fear, favour or any overfamiliar biopic folly, Lincoln, handsome, often thrilling, and movingly human, goes into history as a major movie achievement.
A rousing, rigorous and morally complex legal procedural more than a trad biopic. And all the better for it.
his is a warm, celebratory film, handsomely shot, with a subtle, sympathetic central performance from Day-Lewis, and tremendous support from Tommy Lee Jones ...
Spielberg's plodding camera endlessly tracks and circles Day-Lewis in complete reverence, while veteran composer John Williams delivers yet another repetitive Jurassic Extra-Terrestrial score.
What a feat from Day-Lewis: the nearest thing a 21st-century biopic can get to a seance.
It's tiresome to describe Day-Lewis as brilliant, so let's push the boat out: his Lincoln is absolutely wonderful.
A thoughtful and thought-proving picture.
Lincoln reminds you how little has actually changed in one-and-a-half centuries - presidents still have to worry about the war dead while trying to create a better life for the fractured living.
Impressively directed and superbly written, this is an absorbing and enjoyable political drama with an Oscar-worthy central performance from Daniel Day-Lewis.
Daniel Day-Lewis gives yet another performance for the ages in Steven Spielberg's admirably literate, thoroughly charming biopic.
Summary: VOIP or ?Voice Over Internet Protocol? is applied to a wide range of services that convert voice telephone calls to a stream of data which can be passed over Private Networks or the Internet.? This technology can be very useful when integrated in an overall telecommunications plan.? However, for many reasons, this may not be the best solution for all businesses. VOIP can be costly, complicated and can reduce overall call quality.? However, VOIP can also provide many new features and reduce costs over time. Before making a decision to move to VOIP, make sure you fully understand your communication needs and how VOIP service may help support your business.
The three main areas of VOIP are: Business or Hosted VOIP, VOIP based Business Telephone Systems and Consumer VOIP.
1. Business VOIP services such as hosted PBX ? A hosted PBX is a telephone system that is housed outside of the customer?s office in the provider?s network and is becoming popular in the work place. The customer uses an Internet connection and VOIP telephones connected to their local area network. The advantage of these services can be a fixed cost per month with unlimited calls, as well as using the same telephone system for employees with common voice mail and dialing plans.
The disadvantage of these services can be service outages caused by the customer?s local area network, the Internet connection, or the hosted PBX provider. It is also often difficult to diagnose the source of the service outages, resulting in frustration for the customer and service provider. The highest-quality hosted PBX providers will provide their own Internet connection and often insist on managing the customer?s local area network so they can make sure that service works properly. Some customers save money with hosted PBX but many do not due to the cost of local area network upgrades. These systems need to be looked at on a case by case basis.
2. VOIP based business telephone systems ? These systems place the telephone hardware at the customer?s office. The features are very similar to a hosted PBX and the telephone lines can be VOIP based (called SIP trunks) or traditional telephone lines. The initial cost of these systems is often 20 to 50% higher than a traditional telephone system but there are long term savings on maintenance. For example; employees can simply plug their phone into any network jack in the office. There is often a requirement for upgrade or replacement of the local area network equipment for these systems to function properly.
VOIP based business telephone systems are growing rapidly in business telecommunications and there is no question that this trend will continue. In spite of the popularity there are many customers who have experienced significant service interruptions due to poorly planned installations. Even the best installations do tend to have a higher incidence of occasional unexplained technical problems. It is highly recommended that business installations be handled by a trained professional with a past record of successful installations. Make sure that thorough reference checks are performed on any vendors before the project is implemented, and that the system is fully tested under real life conditions before the installers leave the building.
3. Consumer VOIP services ? These are free or low cost services such as Skype, Vonage, or Google Voice. Typically, these are used for saving money on long distance telephone calls.? These services are especially popular for placing international calls. Skype is also used as a video conferencing service. These services often do save money but the quality of calls can vary since the provider has no control over the user?s Internet connection. If you can tolerate poor connection quality or can place another call over a regular telephone line when VOIP call quality is poor, this service may be of interest to you.?
These services do work especially well for businesses to save money when an employee is located in another country. The amount of money saved is usually significant compared to buying traditional telephone service.? However, most businesses telephone conversations are important and the cost of lost calls or poor communication can far outweigh the savings. Long distance calling rates have come down significantly in the past few years, so a regular telephone line may end up being a better option even for international calls.
What?s the right decision for me?
Businesses often think that if they aren?t using the latest technology, they are falling behind their competition. This may be true, but not all new technologies are the best choice for all situations.? Many people assume that VOIP services are ?cheap?, but VOIP services can actually be more expensive in some business applications.? Additionally, communications over a VOIP phone system may be ?choppy? and difficult to understand due to poor data transmission and poor quality Internet connections.? Most businesses cannot tolerate these disruptions to quality communication within their organization. In other words, poor call quality can also be very expensive by reflecting negatively on your business.? If you have employees scattered all over the world, VOIP may be a great way to be connected. But for most businesses, traditional phone services including the integration of VOIP applications as needed, may be the best option for affordable, consistent, high quality phone service.
Who can you contact to help you through the process?
If you have questions or would like to discuss VOIP options for your office, please feel free to contact Blue Rooster Telecom at 805-543-8700 or visit our website at www.blueroostertelecom.com
Want to learn more about Blue Rooster Telecom?
Blue Rooster Telecom is a San Luis Obispo-based telecom carrier offering voice, VoIP, Internet, and data services. Its customers are always first, as the company sets the highest standards for customer service, delivering reliable products and creating custom solutions. Some of Blue Rooster Telecom?s employees have over 30 years of telecommunication experience, with a passion to be dependable, professional and friendly when working with any client. For more information, visit www.blueroostertelcom.com or like them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/blueroostertelecom
Tags: Business Telecom SLO, Business Telephone Lines, Jeff Buckingham, San Luis Obispo, VOIP
Jackson Laboratory professor emeritus Douglas Coleman wins BBVA, King Faisal awardsPublic release date: 29-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Joyce Peterson joyce.peterson@jax.org 207-288-6058 Jackson Laboratory
Prizes shared with Jeffrey Friedman of Rockefeller University and HHMI
Bar Harbor, Maine -- Douglas Coleman, Ph.D., a retired Jackson Laboratory scientist whose work established the first clues to a genetic component in obesity, has won two major international science awards: the Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Biomedicine from the BBVA Foundation, based in Bilbao, Spain, and the King Faisal International Prize in Medicine from the Saudi Arabian King Faisal Foundation.
Coleman, 81, will share both prizes with Jeffrey Friedman, M.D., Ph.D., of Rockefeller University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
"I'm delighted and honored to be sharing these awards with Jeff Friedman," Coleman said, adding that receiving news of both awards on Monday was "pretty amazing. It's like a hole in one!"
Coleman conducted his groundbreaking work in the 1950s and 1960s, with Friedman building on Coleman's discoveries from the 1990s to today. Together their work showed that chemical and genetic factors -- not just willpower and eating habits -- are involved in appetite control and obesity, opening possibilities for future pharmaceutical treatments. Their work also demonstrated that fat is not simply a passive energy-storage site, as previously thought, but is an endocrine organ that produces important hormones.
The BBVA Foundation will present its award to the scientists at a ceremony in Spain in June. The Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Biomedicine includes a 400,000-Euro (about $540,000) cash gift to be shared by the scientists. The Foundation is affiliated with BBVA (Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria), one of Spain's largest banks.
In the announcement for the prestigious King Faisal International Prize in Medicine, the organizers noted that the scientists' work in identifying and characterizing the pathway of the hormone leptin "has had a major impact on our understanding of the biology of obesity," adding that this work provides "more illuminating views of the endocrine system."
At a ceremony in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in March, the scientists will each receive a certificate, a gold medal and a cash endowment of $100,000. The King Faisal International Prize in Medicine has been awarded annually since 1981. The King Faisal Foundation was established in 1977 by the late King Faisal ibn Abd Al Aziz, a son of Saudia Arabia's founder.
The BBVN Foundation and King Faisal Foundation awards are the latest of several major scientific prizes that Drs. Coleman and Friedman have won. In October 2009, they received the Shaw Prize, the so-called "Nobel of the East," at a ceremony in Hong Kong. And on Oct. 1, 2010, they accepted the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award in New York. Coleman's other honors include election to the National Academy of Sciences in 1998 and the 2005 Gairdner Foundation Award.
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The Jackson Laboratory is an independent, nonprofit biomedical research institution based in Bar Harbor, Maine, with a facility in Sacramento, Calif., and a new genomic medicine institute in Farmington, Conn. It employs a total staff of more than 1,400. Its mission is to discover precise genomic solutions for disease and empower the global biomedical community in the shared quest to improve human health.
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Jackson Laboratory professor emeritus Douglas Coleman wins BBVA, King Faisal awardsPublic release date: 29-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Joyce Peterson joyce.peterson@jax.org 207-288-6058 Jackson Laboratory
Prizes shared with Jeffrey Friedman of Rockefeller University and HHMI
Bar Harbor, Maine -- Douglas Coleman, Ph.D., a retired Jackson Laboratory scientist whose work established the first clues to a genetic component in obesity, has won two major international science awards: the Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Biomedicine from the BBVA Foundation, based in Bilbao, Spain, and the King Faisal International Prize in Medicine from the Saudi Arabian King Faisal Foundation.
Coleman, 81, will share both prizes with Jeffrey Friedman, M.D., Ph.D., of Rockefeller University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
"I'm delighted and honored to be sharing these awards with Jeff Friedman," Coleman said, adding that receiving news of both awards on Monday was "pretty amazing. It's like a hole in one!"
Coleman conducted his groundbreaking work in the 1950s and 1960s, with Friedman building on Coleman's discoveries from the 1990s to today. Together their work showed that chemical and genetic factors -- not just willpower and eating habits -- are involved in appetite control and obesity, opening possibilities for future pharmaceutical treatments. Their work also demonstrated that fat is not simply a passive energy-storage site, as previously thought, but is an endocrine organ that produces important hormones.
The BBVA Foundation will present its award to the scientists at a ceremony in Spain in June. The Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Biomedicine includes a 400,000-Euro (about $540,000) cash gift to be shared by the scientists. The Foundation is affiliated with BBVA (Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria), one of Spain's largest banks.
In the announcement for the prestigious King Faisal International Prize in Medicine, the organizers noted that the scientists' work in identifying and characterizing the pathway of the hormone leptin "has had a major impact on our understanding of the biology of obesity," adding that this work provides "more illuminating views of the endocrine system."
At a ceremony in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in March, the scientists will each receive a certificate, a gold medal and a cash endowment of $100,000. The King Faisal International Prize in Medicine has been awarded annually since 1981. The King Faisal Foundation was established in 1977 by the late King Faisal ibn Abd Al Aziz, a son of Saudia Arabia's founder.
The BBVN Foundation and King Faisal Foundation awards are the latest of several major scientific prizes that Drs. Coleman and Friedman have won. In October 2009, they received the Shaw Prize, the so-called "Nobel of the East," at a ceremony in Hong Kong. And on Oct. 1, 2010, they accepted the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award in New York. Coleman's other honors include election to the National Academy of Sciences in 1998 and the 2005 Gairdner Foundation Award.
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The Jackson Laboratory is an independent, nonprofit biomedical research institution based in Bar Harbor, Maine, with a facility in Sacramento, Calif., and a new genomic medicine institute in Farmington, Conn. It employs a total staff of more than 1,400. Its mission is to discover precise genomic solutions for disease and empower the global biomedical community in the shared quest to improve human health.
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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.
Jan. 29, 2013 ? A patient's relationship with his or her doctor has long been considered an important component of healing. Now, in a novel investigation in which physicians underwent brain scans while they believed they were actually treating patients, researchers have provided the first scientific evidence indicating that doctors truly can feel their patients' pain -- and can also experience their relief following treatment.
Led by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the Program in Placebo Studies and Therapeutic Encounter (PiPS) at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School, the new findings, which appear online? January 29 in Molecular Psychiatry, help to illuminate one of the more intangible aspects of health care -- the doctor/patient relationship.
"Our findings showed that the same brain regions that have previously been shown to be activated when patients receive placebo therapies are similarly activated in the brains of doctors when they administer what they think are effective treatments," explains first author Karin Jensen, PhD, an investigator in the Department of Psychiatry and Martinos Center for Biological Imaging at MGH and member of the PiPS. Notably, she adds, the findings also showed that the physicians who reported greater ability to take things from the patients' perspective, that is, to empathize with patients' feelings, experienced higher satisfaction during patients' treatments, as reflected in the brain scans.
"By demonstrating that caring for patients involves a complex set of brain events, including deep understanding of the patient's facial and body expressions, possibly in combination with the physician's own expectations of relief and feelings of reward, we have been able to elucidate the neurobiology underlying caregiving," adds senior author Ted Kaptchuk, director of the PiPS and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. "Our findings provide early evidence of the importance of interacting brain networks between patients and caregivers and acknowledge the doctor/patient relationship as a valued component of health care, alongside medications and procedures."
Previous investigations have demonstrated that a brain region associated with pain relief (right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, VLPFC) and a region associated with reward (rostral anterior cingulate cortex, rACC) are activated when patients experience the placebo effect, which occurs when patients show improvement from treatments that contain no active ingredients. The placebo effect accounts for significant portions of clinical outcomes in many illnesses -- including pain, depression and anxiety.
Although behavioral research has suggested that physicians' expectations influence patients' clinical outcomes and help determine patients' placebo responses, until now little effort has been directed to understanding the biology underlying the physician component of the clinical relationship. Jensen and her colleagues hypothesized that the same brain regions that are activated during patients' placebo responses -- the VLPFC and rACC -- would similarly be activated in the brains of physicians as they treated patients. They also hypothesized that a physician's perspective-taking skills would influence the outcomes.
To test these hypotheses, the scientists developed a unique equipment arrangement that would enable them to conduct functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of the physicians' brains while the doctors had face-to-face interactions with patients, including observing patients as they underwent pain treatments.
The experiment included 18 physicians (all of whom had received their medical degree within the last 10 years and represented nine separate medical specialties). Two 25-year-old females played the role of "patients" and followed a rehearsed script. The experiment called for the participating physicians to administer pain relief with what they thought was a pain-relieving electronic device, but which was actually a non-active "sham" device.
To ensure that the physicians believed that the sham device really worked, the investigators first administered a dose of "heat pain" to the physicians' forearms to gauge pain threshold and then "treated" them with the fake machine. During the treatments, the investigators reduced the heat stimulation, to demonstrate to the participants that the therapy worked. The physicians underwent fMRI scans while they experienced the painful heat stimulation so that investigators could see exactly which brain regions were activated during first-person perception of pain.
In the second portion of the experiment,each physician was introduced to a patient and asked to perform a standardized clinical examination, which was conducted in a typical exam room for approximately 20 minutes. (The clinical exam was performed in order to establish a realistic rapport between the physician and patient before fMRI scanning took place, and was comparable to a standard U.S. doctor's appointment.) At this point the physician also answered a questionnaire, the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, used to measure the participant's self-reported perspective-taking skills.
During the third step, says Jensen, the physician and patient were led into the scanner room. "The physician went inside the scanner and was equipped with a remote control that could activate the 'analgesic device' when prompted," she explains. Mirrors inside the scanner enabled physicians to maintain eye contact with the patient, who was seated on a chair next to the scanner's bed and hooked up to both the thermal pain stimulator and the pain-relieving device.
Then, in a randomized order, physicians were instructed to either treat a patient's pain or to press a control button that provided no relief. When physicians were told not to activate pain relief, the "patient" exhibited a painful facial expression while the physicians watched. When the physicians were instructed to treat the patients' pain, they could see that the subjects' faces were neutral and relaxed, the result of pain relief. During these doctor-patient interactions, fMRI scans measured the doctors' brain activations.
Following the scanning session, the physicians were removed from the scanner and told exactly how the experiment had been performed, says Jensen. "If the physician did not agree with the deceptive component of the study, they were given the opportunity to withdraw their data. No one did this."
As predicted, the authors found that while treating patients, the physicians activated the right VLPFC region of the brain, a region previously implicated in the placebo response. Furthermore, Jensen adds, the physicians' ability to take the patients' viewpoints correlated to brain activations and subjective ratings; physicians who reported high perspective-taking skills were more likely to show activation in the rACC brain region, which is associated with reward.
"We already know that the physician-patient relationship provides solace and can even relieve many symptoms," adds Kaptchuk. "Now, for the first time, we've shown that caring for patients encompasses a unique neurobiology in physicians. Our ultimate goal is to transform the 'art of medicine' into the 'science of care,' and this research is an important first step in this process as we continue investigations to find out how patient-clinician interactions can lead to measurable clinical outcomes in patients."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
K B Jensen, P Petrovic, C E Kerr, I Kirsch, J Raicek, A Cheetham, R Spaeth, A Cook, R L Gollub, J Kong, T J Kaptchuk. Sharing pain and relief: neural correlates of physicians during treatment of patients. Molecular Psychiatry, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/mp.2012.195
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.
Google's new image search design is really nice, but if you miss the old search function, the Google Operating System blog shows off a quick way to return to the old view.
At the bottom of the search screen you'll find a "Switch to basic version" link. Unfortunately, with Google's infinite scrolling this is hard to get to. From the image search screen, type the End key on your keyboard (Fn+Right Arrow on Mac), and you're taken to the bottom of the screen. From here, click the "Switch to basic version" link and you'll get the old paginated image search back. Google doesn't save your choice, but if you prefer to click through results instead of infinite scrolling this doesn't take long.
Quickly Switch to the Basic Google Image Search | Google Operating System
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) ? Gregg Williams may be a step closer to returning to the NFL after being suspended indefinitely for his role in the Saints' bounty program.
Titans coach Mike Munchak has talked with Williams and is interested in adding him to his Tennessee staff, said a person familiar with the situation. The person spoke Sunday to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because the Titans do not discuss personnel moves until they are finalized.
Before the Titans could hire Williams, he must be reinstated by the league. Commissioner Roger Goodell suspended him indefinitely for his role in the New Orleans Saints bounty program, and NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said Sunday the league has not yet addressed Williams' potential reinstatement.
Munchak did not immediately answer a message left by the AP on Sunday. The Titans coach has not talked with the media about his team since the day after the season ended.
How quickly the league considers reinstating Williams may take at least a week with the San Francisco 49ers arriving in New Orleans on Sunday to kick off festivities leading up to the Feb. 3 Super Bowl.
Williams is the only coach or player who has yet to return to the NFL in the wake of the bounty scandal.
Goodell just lifted the suspension for New Orleans coach Sean Payton on Tuesday, nearly two weeks earlier than expected. Saints general manager Mickey Loomis was suspended for eight games and assistant head coach Joe Vitt for six. Four current or former Saints players were also suspended after an investigation found the club had a performance pool offering cash rewards for key plays, including big hits. The player suspensions eventually were overturned.
Williams was the Saints defensive coordinator from 2009-11 and was hired by St. Louis in January 2012 by former Titans coach Jeff Fisher before being suspended indefinitely in March 20112. Williams' son, Blake, also was on Fisher's staff as the Rams' linebacker coach ? but his contract was not renewed earlier this month.
Munchak has known Williams since 1990. Munchak was playing for the then-Houston Oilers when Williams became an assistant coach with the team. They also coached together with the Oilers; Munchak oversaw the offensive line starting in 1994 and Williams rose from defensive assistant to coaching special teams, then linebackers and finally defensive coordinator.
Williams left the Titans to become head coach of the Buffalo Bills in 2001 before becoming defensive coordinator with the Washington Redskins from 2004-07. He also was defensive coordinator in Jacksonville in 2008 before being hired by the Saints in 2009.
Williams also has a relationship with Munchak's current defensive coordinator, Jerry Gray. When Williams left for Buffalo, Gray went with him and served as Williams' defensive coordinator with the Bills.
Even though Gray currently has the job, the Titans' defense needs help and Munchak will be coaching for his job in 2013 after going 6-10 in his second season as head coach. One reason for the losing record was Tennessee's inability to stop anyone; the Titans set a franchise record allowing 471 points in 2012. The only change Munchak has made to his defensive staff was letting linebackers coach Frank Bush go and moving Chet Paralavecchio into the job from assisting with special teams.
In Williams' last season with the Titans, Tennessee ranked first in the NFL in fewest yards allowed, first in passing yards allowed and third in rushing defense. The Titans also set a franchise-record for fewest points allowed with 191 with an aggressive defense.
If you are setting up a blog one of the first things you need to do is choose a domain name, This is your URL (Uniform Resource Locator) which is your virtual address on the internet. Your domain name is what your loyal readers/potential customers will use to locate your blog.
Ideally, it needs to be a reasonably short, memorable name and you can be as creative as you like, Bear in mind, however, that a straightforward domain name such as www.monetizeblogging.com not only gives a clue to what the site is about (Monetization Tips), but is also useful in terms of search engine placement and optimization.
Domain names can be bought quite cheaply these days and have a variety of extensions such as .com, co.uk, biz and .tv are also available and other varieties are likely to come online in time. If ?possible, try to purchase the domain name with the .com extension and/or your country?extensions?(co.uk/co.fr/co.za, etc).
Consider the following:
1. Have several domain name choices in mind. Your first one might not be available.
2. If possible, use a key word that relates to your product or service in the domain name.
3. Choose catchy, memorable name where possible.
4. Make sure the domain name is easy to spell.
5. Check the?sleeping?of your domain name before you make your purchase. Once you?ve pressed the purchase button, you can?t make any corrections.
6. Remember to renew your domain name on time annually to maintain ownership.
When choosing the domain name, remember the acronym RAIL:
1. R- recall. How easy is to recall the name?
2. A-aesthetics. How does the name look? Does it look good on business cards and company literature?
3. I-impressions. First impressions are crucial. Does the name sound good?
4. L-length. Domain names are limited to the 26 letters of the English alphabet, ten numerals and hyphen ? 37 characters in all. When?picking?a name, less is more. A short name is preferable to a long one.
On Thursday, the Nevada Gaming Commission unanimously approved an interactive gaming technology provider license for the US branch of Italian outfit Lottomatica Group. Lottomatica simultaneously announced it would rebrand itself as GTECH, the subsidiary it acquired in 2006 for $4.7b, in a bid to further integrate its operations with US division GTECH Holdings Corp. The rebranding will be complete by the end of the year.
Also on Thursday, the NGC approved an interactive gaming operator license for Sartini Synergy Online, the online offshoot of tavern/casino/slot-route operator Golden Gaming. The Las Vegas Review-Journal?s Chris Serioty, who attended Thursday?s hearing, quoted Golden Gaming CEO Blake Sartini saying his online poker ambitions weren?t quite ready for primetime, but that he?d wanted the license so he could be ?ready when it makes sense.?
ONLINE GAMING THE ONLY WAY TO SAVE ATLANTIC CITY Wells Fargo Securities gaming analyst Dennis Farrell Jr. says online gaming could represent ?a lifeline? to Atlantic City?s struggling casinos. Farrell?s research suggests that if New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie were to sign the online gaming legislation currently sitting on his desk, the resulting online market ?could be almost half of the existing New Jersey gaming market?s revenue.? Farrell says that could mean $1.5b in annual revenue in five years time, which would add $150m in annual tax revenue to New Jersey?s coffers. (Overly optimistic? Hell, yeah.) Farrell believes that if AC?s casinos cross-promote the online product with their offline amenities, it would provide ?significant advantage? over strengthening regional competition in Pennsylvania and New York.
State Sen. Ray Lesniak issued a statement following the release of Farrell?s report, saying ?I couldn?t have said it better myself.? Lesniak said the report provided ?incontrovertible proof that internet wagering is the shot in the arm that Atlantic City?s casinos need.? Lesniak said he hoped Christie would read Farrell?s report and act accordingly ?to put our state?s casino industry on surer fiscal footing.? Earlier this week, Christie told a New Jersey radio audience he had doubts about the benefits online gaming could provide to Atlantic City. Christie has until Feb. 4 to make up his mind.
MASSACHUSETTS ONLINE GAMING BILL WOULD ALLOW INTERSTATE COMPACTS The office of Massachusetts state Sen. Jennifer Flanagan was good enough to send CalvinAyre.com a copy of the legislation intended to authorize the state lottery to take its action online. As Flanagan previously stated, the bill is more a conversation starter than a definitive statement, totaling just three pages in length. The first section authorizes the lottery to determine what type of games it will offer online, while limiting it to transactions ?initiated and received or otherwise made within the Commonwealth.? Section 2 authorizes ?multi-jurisdictional lottery games ? provided that any such lottery or lotteries conducted online or over the internet has been properly authorized by each state or other jurisdiction that is part of the group.? While this includes Mega Millions and PowerBall multi-state lotteries, it?s broad enough to permit interstate compacts with other states that pass online gaming legislation that goes beyond mere ticket sales.
Both Flanagan and State Treasurer Steven Grossman took pains to stress that nothing would be enacted that would leave the state?s 7,400 lottery retailers out of the loop, suggesting a scheme by which online credits would need to be purchased via an approved retail agent. But they?re already getting pushback from the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA), which queried registered voters in the 43 states that offer lotteries and determined that 78% of respondents were opposed to the concept of internet lotteries in general and 80% were opposed to allowing people to purchase online lottery tickets with credit cards. RILA senior VP Brian Dodge issued a not-so-subtle threat to lawmakers who might advocate for online lotteries, saying voters ?overwhelmingly are less likely to support? such politicians.
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NEW YORK (AP) ? Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o admitted to Katie Couric he answered questions about his "dead," online girlfriend even after he received a call Dec. 6 from a woman posing as the fake person.
Te'o also maintained he played no part in the hoax.
Pressed by Couric to admit that he was in on the deception, the All-American said he was convinced the woman he knew as Lennay Kekua died in September. Te'o claims he never met Kekua in person but developed a serious relationship with her through phone calls and electronic messages.
"Katie, put yourself in my situation. I, my whole world told me that she died on Sept. 12. Everybody knew that. This girl, who I committed myself to, died on Sept. 12," Te'o said in an interview to air Thursday on Couric's syndicated talk show. A segment of the interview with Te'o and his parents was broadcast Wednesday on "Good Morning America."
"Now I get a phone call on Dec. 6, saying that she's alive and then I'm going be put on national TV two days later. And to ask me about the same question. You know, what would you do?" Te'o said.
The Heisman Trophy finalists made at least three references to his girlfriend in media interviews after Dec. 6, including during ESPN's Heisman presentation show on Dec. 8.
Te'o's father defended his son when Couric pointed out that many people don't believe the Irish star, suspecting he used the situation for personal gain.
"People can speculate about what they think he is. I've known him 21 years of his life. And he's not a liar. He's a kid," Brian Te'o said with tears in his eyes.
On Tuesday, the woman whose photo was used as the "face" of the Twitter account of Te'o's supposed girlfriend says the man allegedly behind the hoax confessed and apologized to her.
Diane O'Meara told NBC's "Today" show that Ronaiah Tuiasosopo used pictures of her without her knowledge in creating a fake woman called Lennay Kekua.
Te'o told ESPN last week that Tuiasosopo had contacted him to apologize for the hoax soon after Deadpsin.com broke the news with a long report. Te'o told ESPN that not until Tuiasosopo confessed did he finally, fully realize Kekua did not exist.
Tuiasosopo has not commented on the scheme.
The top FBI agent in northern Indiana said authorities don't believe a crime was committed, so there is no investigation.
"I don't think there was any financial harm to Mr. Te'o," said Robert Ramsey, FBI supervisory special agent for northern Indiana. "There was no federal violation regarding the Internet hoax perpetrated against Mr. Te'o."
If there had been a crime, it would fall under federal jurisdiction, he said.
SEOUL, South Korea ? North Korea is warning that it is prepared to conduct a nuclear test and carry out more long-range rocket launches.
In a statement carried Thursday by state media, the National Defense Commission in Pyongyang threatened to wage a "full-fledged confrontation" against the U.S. for what it calls continued hostility.
The declaration follows the U.N. Security Council's condemnation of North Korea on Tuesday and expanded sanctions against the regime for launching a rocket in December. North Korea said the launch was a peaceful satellite mission, but the U.S. and others say it was actually a test of long-range missile technology.
Every manager has to deal with a certain amount of pessimistic, hostile or uncooperative behavior at times. But a hard-core negative attitude that starts with just one employee can quickly infect an entire department (or a whole company) if the manager doesn?t rein it in quickly.
Here are 10 tips for confronting em?ployees whose negative behavior has begun to affect co-workers and the company:
1. Don?t get drawn into the employees? negative mind-set. Listen to their points, but don?t temper your own realistic optimism.
2. Avoid getting into an argument. Negative people thrive on the negative energy of arguments. Point out areas of agreement when possible in order to build rapport. Keep your cool.
3. Set standards. Spell out the consequences of negative behavior, such as decreased morale. Base them on behavior, not attitude.
For example, you may not be able to change the fact that an employee doesn?t like a certain company policy. But you can discipline employees if they don?t follow the policy or are insubordinate in gossiping about it.
4. Ask questions. Force the employee to be specific about what is creating his or her negative thoughts and actions.
5. Try role-playing. Ask the em??ployee to put himself in your shoes and pretend he has been asked to resolve the problem. That way, you will have the employee contribute his ideas for the best possible solutions.
Involving the employee may also lead to more positive feelings about the solution or outcome since he or she had a hand in creating it.
6. Listen carefully. Use active listening to ensure that you?re understanding the employee correctly.
7. Don?t lower your expectations of them. A negative attitude doesn?t necessarily mean a poor performer.
8. Empower employees. Stop the ?victim? mentality from forming. Allow employees to take responsibility for ?good? events, so they can make them happen again; and for the ?bad? events, so they have the power to change them in the future.
9. Solicit feedback. Always ask for employees? opinions before making major decisions that will affect them. The more you listen to employees, and take an active interest in their concerns, the less likely they will be to complain to each other. ?
10. Hire right. Identify negative people before they?re hired. During the interview, listen for feelings that ?life isn?t fair? in response to questions like: Have you ever felt you?ve been treated unfairly in the past? What were your chief concerns about management in your previous jobs? and What would you have changed if you were the manager at your last job?
4 important don?ts
Don?t shower negativists with lots of attention. You?re only rewarding bad behavior.
Don?t stop asking them to pitch in and do tasks outside their normal job descriptions. Otherwise, you?re also punishing positive (or less vocal) employees.
Don?t correct them less often in order to avoid dealing with the attitude. Employees can?t be expected to change for the better if they?re not asked to.
Don?t allow employees to get bored or complacent.? A negative attitude develops easily when there?s ?nothing to look forward to.?
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A MotherHood Experience: P&G Tips to maximize family budgets skip to main | skip to sidebar
P&G Tips to maximize family budgets
The holiday season is now over and as we sit back and reflect about the joyous festivities, we can't help but also think about our 2013 budget which may or may not have a dent in it after gift giving and holiday hosting. Soon we will be facing the much?dreaded?post-holiday bills and some of us may be scratching our heads as to what happened and how we can get back on track for the New Year.?Sandra Hanna, CEO and co-founder of www.smartcookies.com has some great tips to help ease the pain of the headache that comes with post-holiday budget blues. We had the opportunity to listen to Sandra speak at the P&G event last November, shes a fantastic person with some amazing ideas to help families everywhere.? Find free outdoor activities: During the weeks the kids are off on holidays, or on weekends, why not participate in free outdoor activities like sliding at a local public hill, skating at a local public rink or even look into free winter festivals that may be taking place in your neighbourhood. These activities keep everyone happy and won't make an impact on your already dented budget.? If you live in a close-knit neighbourhood you can also invite the local kids together for a snowman parade. This is where kids build snowmen and parade them around the block in a wagon or sled. Maybe even have a judging contest (of course everyone would win, it's all for fun after all). Workout at home: There's no need to keep up with the?Jones'?and spend on a gym membership this year. You can get a simple workout right at home. If you're willing to tough it outside a brisk walk, run or snowshoe could be the best workout you have all year. Best of all these activities cost you nothing but time and energy, if you want to work off that post-holiday overindulgence, these are great starting points. In winter months it can even be fun to get a group of friends together and share winter workout gear or workout music playlists to help eachother get motivated to meet their workout goals. With the money saved, you could all enjoy a nice hot chocolate or late for a treat afterward.? Cold water wash: No matter what the season, I wash our laundry in cold water. It saves money on electricity, use of hot water and also not as hard on the clothing. Less chance of shrinking that new sweater mom got me for Christmas. Using cold water and detergent like Cold Water Tide can actually save about $7 a load in energy costs. With the amount of laundry we do per week - those savings can definitely add up!
Winter Staycation: Want to take the family on a vacation on an already tight budget? Why spend hundreds on a vacation somewhere hot and balmy when you can save money on a staycation right in your own city! You'd be surprised how fun and inexpensive a staycation close to home can be. Local hotels, restaurants and attractions often have off-season discounts you can cash in on. Just do a little research about where you're heading and call in advance letting them know about your local staycation to see if they have any discounts and savings you could use for your family. Being local you may just find a cheap hotel room rate or family meal discounts in hotels and restaurants!? For more great money saving tips don't forget to follow @SmartCookies on Twitter and Like the SmartCookies Facebook fan page! Happy winter budgeting! Disclosure: Posted by AME in participation as a #PGMom Brand Ambassador. We receive special perks as part of the program. Comments and opinions on this blog are those of the author. Product information, tips and stock images provided by representatives of P&G.?
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Public release date: 29-Jan-2013
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Google's new image search design is really nice, but if you miss the old search function, the Google Operating System blog shows off a quick way to return to the old view. 
If you are setting up a blog one of the first things you need to do is choose a domain name, This is your URL (Uniform Resource Locator) which is your virtual address on the internet. Your domain name is what your loyal readers/potential customers will use to locate your blog.
On Thursday, the Nevada Gaming Commission unanimously approved an interactive gaming technology provider license for the US branch of Italian outfit Lottomatica Group. Lottomatica simultaneously announced it would rebrand itself as GTECH, the subsidiary it acquired in 2006 for $4.7b, in a bid to further integrate its operations with US division GTECH Holdings Corp. The rebranding will be complete by the end of the year. 
Every manager has to deal with a certain amount of pessimistic, hostile or uncooperative behavior at times. But a hard-core negative attitude that starts with just one employee can quickly infect an entire department (or a whole company) if the manager doesn?t rein it in quickly.