Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/249261427?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Tuesday, September 18, 2012
How life arose on Earth: Researchers brew up organics on ice
ScienceDaily (Sep. 18, 2012) ? Would you like icy organics with that? Maybe not in your coffee, but researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., are creating concoctions of organics, or carbon-bearing molecules, on ice in the lab, then zapping them with lasers. Their goal: to better understand how life arose on Earth.
In a new study published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, the research team provides the first direct look at the organic chemistry that takes place on icy particles in the frigid reaches of our solar system, and in the even chillier places between stars. Scientists think that the basic ingredients of life, including water and organics, began their journey to Earth on these lonesome ice particles. The ice and organics would have found their way into comets and asteroids, which then fell to Earth, delivering "prebiotic" ingredients that could have jump-started life.
The various steps needed to go from icy organics to slime molds are not clear, but the new findings help explain how the process works. The lab experiments show that organic material can begin the processing it needs to become prebiotic -- while still frozen in ice.
"The very basic steps needed for the evolution of life may have started in the coldest regions of our universe," said Murthy Gudipati, lead author of the new study at JPL. "We were surprised to see organic chemistry brewing up on ice, at these very cold temperatures in our lab."
The organics looked at in the study are called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs for short. These carbon-rich molecules can be found on Earth as combustion products: for example, in barbecue pits, candle soot and even streaming out of the tail pipe of your car. They have also been spotted throughout space in comets, asteroids and more distant objects. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has detected PAHs in the swirling planet-forming disks around stars, in the spaces between stars and in remote galaxies.
Murthy and his colleague Rui Yang of JPL used their lab setup to mimic the environment of icy PAH molecules in the quiet cold of space, at temperatures as low as 5 Kelvin (minus 450 degrees Fahrenheit, or minus 268 degrees Celsius). First, they bombarded the particles with ultraviolet radiation similar to that from stars. Then, to determine the products of the chemical reaction, they used a type of laser system known as MALDI (for Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption and Ionization), which involves zapping the ice with both infrared and ultraviolet lasers.
The results revealed that the PAHs had transformed: they had incorporated hydrogen atoms into their structure and lost their circular, aromatic bonds, becoming more complex organics. According to Gudipati, this is the type of change that would need to occur if the material were to eventually become amino acids and nucleotides -- bits and pieces of protein and DNA, respectively.
"PAHs are strong, stubborn molecules, so we were surprised to see them undergoing these chemical changes at such freezing-cold temperatures," said Gudipati.
Another bonus for the research is that it might explain the mystery of why PAHs have not yet been identified on ice grains in space. While the hardy organics are pervasive in the cosmos as gases and hot dust, researchers have remained puzzled that their signatures do not show up on ice. The new findings show that PAHs, once they stick to the ice surface, are chemically transformed into other complex organics, explaining why they might not be seen.
While the new results teach us that life's journey could have already begun in the very cold regions of the universe, another question remains: Did it arise elsewhere beyond our sun, too? Researchers don't know, but studies like this one help the ongoing search for life beyond Earth.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Murthy S. Gudipati, Rui Yang. In-Situ Probing of Radiation-Induced Processing of Organics in Astrophysical Ice Analogs?novel Laser Desorption Laser Ionization Time-Of-Flight Mass Spectroscopic Studies. The Astrophysical Journal, 2012; 756 (1): L24 DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/756/1/L24
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/8Whqt7ciLhw/120918162220.htm
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First badger cull licence issued
17 September 2012
Last updated at 07:21 ET
The first licence allowing farmers to shoot badgers in an attempt to reduce cattle TB is to be issued on Monday.
The licensing body, Natural England, said the cull would go ahead in Gloucestershire, where cases are high.
Ministers are pressing ahead with plans to cull badgers in two areas of the South West, amid pressure from farmers.
The science behind the culls is uncertain; a decade-long scientific trial of badger culling concluded there were only modest benefits.
Some wild badgers can become infected with the bacteria that causes bovine TB, and pass the infection on to cattle.
Natural England is about to issue the licence for Gloucestershire, while a second, for Somerset, is still being assessed.
A spokesperson told BBC News, "One will issued later today for the Gloucestershire area."
The licenses will allow farmers to shoot up to 70% of badgers in the pilot zones.
The first cull is expected to begin with days or weeks in a precise area of West Gloucestershire which is being kept secret.
Continue reading the main storyThe pilot areas
- West Gloucestershire pilot area description: mainly in the county of Gloucestershire, predominantly within the council districts of the Forest of Dean and Tewkesbury, and parts lie within the districts of Wychavon, Malvern Hills and the south east part of the county of Herefordshire. The area does not include the public forest estate in the Forest of Dean.
- West Somerset pilot area description: located in the county of Somerset. The application area predominantly lies within the council district of West Somerset and part lies within the district of Taunton Deane.
- Source: Natural England
The cull, which is being paid for by the farmers taking part, will allow the shooting of free-running badgers.
Animal welfare and wildlife campaigners have opposed the cull, but lost their fight in the High Court last week.
Defra says the action is necessary to protect cattle from bovine TB, which leads to the slaughter of thousands of cattle each year.
A Defra spokesperson said: "We will continue to work with the farming industry so badger control in two pilot areas can start as soon as is practical.
"No one wants to cull badgers but last year bovine TB led to the slaughter of over 26,000 cattle and to help eradicate the disease it needs to be tackled in badgers."
Plans to begin culling in Wales were recently abandoned in favour of a vaccination policy. There are no proposals to cull badgers in Scotland, where TB incidence is low.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19623703#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
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Monday, September 17, 2012
U.N. draws up second list of Syrian war crimes suspects
GENEVA (Reuters) - United Nations human rights investigators said on Monday that they had drawn up a new secret list of Syrians and units suspected of committing war crimes who should face criminal prosecution some day.
The independent investigators, led by Paulo Pinheiro, said they had gathered "a formidable and extraordinary body of evidence" and urged the U.N. Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
"A second confidential list of individuals and units believed to be responsible for violations is being provided to the High Commissioner of Human Rights," Pinheiro told the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.
He said there was an "increasing and alarming presence" of Islamist militants in Syria, some joining the rebels and others operating independently. Their presence tended to radicalize the rebels who have also committed crimes, he said.
Western countries are seeking yet another condemnation of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government at the session.
"The international community must ensure impunity will not prevail," European Union ambassador Mariangela Zappia said at Monday's debate that was also attended by Syrian envoy Faysal Khabbaz Hamoui.
(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Alistair Lyon)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-n-investigators-draw-second-list-syrian-warcrimes-075805672.html
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Saturday, September 15, 2012
Filmmaker behind anti-Muslim movie gets attorney - The Seattle Times
CERRITOS, Calif. ?
The California man behind the anti-Muslim movie that has inflamed the Middle East has obtained legal counsel.
Escorted by Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies, attorney Steve Seiden emerged from the Cerritos, Calif., home of Nakoula Basseley Nakoula after a lengthy meeting Friday afternoon.
Seiden says he's been asked to consult with Nakoula about matters he's not at liberty to discuss.
Seiden said to reporters, "You're keeping his young children prisoners in their home because they're afraid to come out."
Seiden said he had no further comment, but asked the throng of news media to leave.
Source: http://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld/2019160214_apusegyptfilmmakerattorney.html?syndication=rss
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UN health agency says Ebola toll at 31 in Congo
GENEVA (AP) ? A deadly outbreak of the Ebola virus has killed 31 people in northeastern Congo, more than doubling the death toll from a week ago, the U.N. health agency said Friday.
There have been 69 cases in all including nine confirmed by a lab, the World Health Organization said, and five of the deaths have been confirmed by lab work.
The Ebola virus has no cure and is deadly in 40 percent to 90 percent of cases. The disease causes severe internal bleeding.
"The situation is serious," Fadela Chaib, a spokeswoman for the Geneva-based agency, told reporters.
She said it was unusual that the first person to be infected was a health worker. Normally someone working outside would have been the first, as has mostly been the case in the eight previous Ebola epidemics in Congo since the first discovery of it in 1976. This is the first outbreak in the Haut-Uele territory, in northeastern Congo.
Authorities had said last week that 15 people had died in northeastern Congo, where the tradition of washing and displaying of corpses before funerals spreads the epidemic. The tradition is intended to show love and respect for the deceased, but the practice also brings people into close contact with victims of the deadly virus.
Aid group Doctors Without Borders, along with WHO and Congo's health ministry, have been conducting education campaigns in the area to warn people of the risks linked to this practice.
Doctors without Borders also is managing two quarantine centers in Isiro and Viadana and the U.N. has called for the creation of a $2 million fund to fight the epidemic.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/un-health-agency-says-ebola-toll-31-congo-104026127.html
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Women of Teal: OC Awareness Month #14 - Inside Knowledge...
The CDC?( Centers for Disease Control)? has done an outstanding job this year raising awareness of Women's Cancers during Gynecologic Cancer Awareness Month. They have developed the program Inside Knowledge: Get the Facts About Gynecologic Cancer. The program concentrates on the 5 main gynecologic cancers- ovarian, uterine, cervical, vaginal and vulvar.
I am so happy to see that the spokesperson for the PSA is Jenny Allen. I met Jenny a number of times and she is a great performer ( I Got Sick Then I Got Better), writer, mother and Ovarian Cancer survivor.
I urge you to check out the CDC page which includes
Help spread the word about gynecologic cancers. Thank You.?
Dee
Every Day is a Blessing!
Source: http://womenofteal.blogspot.com/2012/09/oc-awareness-month-14-inside-knowledge.html
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Thursday, September 13, 2012
BedandBreakfast Tv ? Multiple Domain Web Hosting, What Is It?
Delaware
Well written and detailed reviews can give you definitive insight into what to expect from a particular web hosting service. That said, it is necessary to point out that not all reviews are written by writers knowledgeable about web hosting. In order to ensure you are reading a quality review, you need to direct your attention towards well established blogs, websites, and print publication which are credible. Less than reputable reviews are not of much value to someone seeking helpful information. Thankfully, there are quite a number of excellent resources available which can deliver on such expectations.
With a plethora of low cost web hosting companies being launched on a monthly basis it has become extremely important for these firms to provide their customers not only with the latest in technology and ease of use but also with something that helps them stand apart from the crowd. Reliable Web Hosting understands that businesses have choices which is why it distinguishes itself by offering unlimited domains for one monthly price.
Handing over the job to a cheap web hosting services provider in India will only create problems for you, for your site. Imagine the site doesn?t upload or function slowly when your customers come online on your site! Once gone dissatisfied, customers don?t come back again (well, in most of the cases). So, wisdom lies in searching for a reliable service provider and not choosing a particular service provider, just because it is giving services at cheap prices.
Web hosting is a technique which is dedicated to provide web space and web services to any website in order to make it live over the internet. A successful website primarily depends on web hosting solutions because it assures the quick loading speed of the website. Effective hosting solutions affect the performance of any website. If your website loading time is quick then user will take more interest in your website. But if your website takes more time than the user would not wait and would exit from your website and that is not good for your website. So select such a server which is responsible and provide quick loading time to the website.
State officials approximate that more than half of the small businesses in Georgia do not have have a website. This initiative?s purpose is to assist small business owners with locating new customers and with their over all growth strategy.
Google has partnered with Intuit, an online business website tool that to offers easy-to-build websites, a customized domain name and free web hosting for one year for small businesses.
The best thing about Windows Web Hosting India is its exclusivity. It has been a lifesaver for many over the years, with its economical and effective services ensuring many a website being successfully hosted. Plenty of small firms looking to develop their online businesses have been using the Windows Hosting Service for a long time.
Support Look into the support, how fast the support team is to solve your technical query. Also, do they provide phone support? Live chat support? Look into these things, if not available try any another hosting provider.
Hosting firms offering unlimited bandwidth and disk space ? Most internet hosts are conscious of the reality that most of their internet sites will never run out of bandwidth or disk space simply because they?re too small, and therefore claim their services are ?unlimited.? This is, in reality, not accurate as if your website does get far too large, they will request you spend extra for the added bandwidth. Be cautious to select an internet plan, like Bluehost?s, that is essentially, what you see is what you get.
There are thousands of web hosting providers online. This way, you can focus on other business-related issues other than the website.
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Source: http://www.bedandbreakfasttv.com/multiple-domain-web-hosting-what-is-it/
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Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Gene linking cataracts and Alzheimer's disease identified
ScienceDaily (Sep. 11, 2012) ? In a recent study, investigators at Boston University Schools of Medicine (BUSM) and Public Health (BUSPH) identified a gene linking age-related cataracts and Alzheimer's disease. The findings, published online in PLoS ONE, contribute to the growing body of evidence showing that these two diseases, both associated with increasing age, may share common etiologic factors.
Gyungah Jun, PhD, from the departments of medicine, ophthalmology and biostatistics at BUSM and BUSPH, served as the study's lead author. Lindsay A. Farrer, PhD, professor of medicine, neurology, ophthalmology, genetics & genomics, epidemiology and biostatistics and chief of the Biomedical Genetics Section at BUSM, was the study's senior author.
Using the Framingham Offspring Eye Study cohort, investigators looked at brain MRI findings on or after 10 years from the original eye exam and concluded that there was a significant correlation between a quantitative measure of cortical cataract and several Alzheimer's disease-related measures of brain degeneration, in particular volume of the temporal horn which is a brain structure that is progressively enlarged in patients with Alzheimer's disease. Another strong correlation in these same individuals, between cortical cataract formation and poorer performance on several cognitive tests administered at the time of the MRI scan, further supports this link.
With such a link not confounded by age or sex, the investigators then performed a genome-wide association study looking at nearly 190,000 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), or DNA sequence variations. Three intronic (non-coding) SNPs in the gene encoding ?-catenin came to the fore. This protein is a key component in cell adherence and formation of cell junctional structures. Previously, ?-catenin was also implicated in brain and eye development, but not directly in either cataracts or Alzheimer's disease. To establish a more direct link of ?-catenin to Alzheimer's disease, the researchers transfected into neuronal cells ?-catenin bearing a mutation near the location of the top-associated SNPs and observed a significant and specific increase in the toxic form of amyloid ?, the protein that aggregates in Alzheimer brains and thought to be central to development of the disorder. In addition, the researchers found increased deposits of ?-catenin in lens tissue obtained from autopsy-confirmed Alzheimer's cases but not from subjects lacking Alzheimer's-associated neuropathology.
"Though much work remains to be done, a link between cataracts and Alzheimer's disease supports the idea of a systemic rather than brain-limited focus for processes leading to Alzheimer's disease," said Farrer. "This study gives hope that we are moving toward earlier diagnosis and new treatment targets for this debilitating disease."
Juliet Moncaster, PhD, from the department of psychiatry; Sudha Seshadri, MD from department of neurology and associate professor of the Framingham Heart Study; Jacqueline Buros, BS, from the department of medicine; Ann C. McKee, MD, from the departments of neurology, pathology and laboratory medicine, the Boston University Alzheimer's Disease Center, and the Bedford Veterans Administration Hospital; and Phillip A. Wolf, MD, of the departments of neurology, epidemiology and professor of the Framingham Heart Study of BUSM and BUSPH, contributed to this paper. Researchers from the University of Toronto, the Bedford Veterans Administration Hospital, the Universit? Laval and the University of Cambridge also collaborated on this study.
This study was supported by grants from the National Institute on Aging for investigated-initiated projects (R01-AG025259, R01-AG33193, R01-AG081220, R01-AG16495, and R01-AG033040) and the Boston University Alzheimer Disease Center (P30-AG13846), National Institute of General Medical Science (R01-GM75986), Wellcome Trust, Medical Research Council, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Alzheimer Society of Ontario, and Ontario Research Fund.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Boston University 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:
- Gyungah Jun, Juliet A. Moncaster, Carolina Koutras, Sudha Seshadri, Jacqueline Buros, Ann C. McKee, Georges Levesque, Philip A. Wolf, Peter St. George-Hyslop, Lee E. Goldstein, Lindsay A. Farrer. ?-Catenin Is Genetically and Biologically Associated with Cortical Cataract and Future Alzheimer-Related Structural and Functional Brain Changes. PLoS ONE, 2012; 7 (9): e43728 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0043728
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.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/health_medicine/genes/~3/_4D5yMr08LM/120911172306.htm
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California telecom companies push bill to quash oversight on ...
By American Independent
Monday, September 10, 2012 15:00 EDT
?
By?Siddhartha Mahanta
California could be the latest state to enact a law that dramatically curbs regulatory oversight of telecommunications services in the state, handing a significant victory to the industry players that have lobbied for the bill?s passage.
On its face, SB 1161 seems simple enough.?The text of the bill?explains that it seeks only to ?preserve the future of the Internet by encouraging continued investment and technological advances? and ?supporting continued consumer choice.? But to achieve that, the measure would gut the regulatory authority of the California Public Utilities Commission, a key state oversight body, over many Internet-based communications technologies.
What that means: California customers would no longer have an official regulatory body to address their concerns over the quality and affordability of these new, emerging services, which would not be bound to the same consumer protections that apply to traditional, wire-based telephone systems. To date, the commission has not signaled a strong intention to regulate this growing sector of the communications industry. By preventing it from doing so in the future, critics say, SB 1161 addresses a problem?an overeager regulatory commission?that does not exist.
Consumer advocates argue that SB 1161 would bar the CPUC from keeping close tabs on big telecommunications companies like AT&T and Verizon?two of the bill?s big backers?and safeguarding customer protections. Supporters, meanwhile, say that the CPUC and any regulations it might pass will only hinder the tech industry and stymie job creation. Proponents like tech industry analyst and columnist Larry Downes say that Governor Jerry Brown should quickly sign SB 1161 into law and begin to roll back the authority of a commission whose budget has?risen by $300 million over the past year.
The state assembly and senate?passed the bill?in late August. Now, Gov. Brown has until September 30 to decide whether to sign the measure into law.
Voice-over IP
Two parts of SB 1161 are of particular concern for its critics. Section 710(a) would prevent the CPUC from enacting new regulations that affect Internet-based phone services, such as Skype and Google Voice. These services fall under the rubric of what?s known as voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), a rapidly growing segment of the communications market. Most of these services are free for users, and are more reliable than traditional, copper-based landline service. Meanwhile, section 710(b) of the bill would pre-empt any department, agency, commission, or ?political subdivision of the state? from passing new laws or rules that regulate VoIP.
But this vaguely worded section also goes one sizable step further: it would keep localities from issuing new rules on any other Internet protocol (IP)-enabled service?potentially, a far broader de-regulatory stroke. In a memo written in June, Lynn Sadler, the CPUC?s director of governmental affairs, sharply criticized SB 1161, writing that it would? ?tie the Commission?s hands if it decides in the future that there is a need to reassess its regulatory role over VoIP.?
Grasping the implications of this provision requires a basic understanding of the quickly shifting landscape for traditional, wire-based phone service. Increasingly, these networks are using IP to expedite the distribution and transmission of phone signals. Meanwhile, two of the entrenched telecommunications providers, AT&T and Verizon, have publicly announced their intentions to gradually shift their customers out of wire-based service and into more IP-enabled networks.
But if these companies begin shifting to newer, more internet-based modes of communication, state regulators would be prevented by the new legislation from stepping in to address consumer complaints. Given the growing prominence of IP in basic telecommunications services, any law that cuts regulatory supervision over this technology is likely to register a strong impact on the future telecommunications environment. In other words: as providers move towards a more IP-centric model, SB 1161 could prevent the CPUC and local jurisdictions from issuing regulations that keep the industry in check.
Under current law, a traditional telephone customer can file a complaint with the commission and receive a hearing, after which the commission votes on the validity of the complaint. But under SB 1161, that chain of oversight and responsiveness would be in peril. While the bill would allow the commission to ?continue to monitor and discuss VoIP services,? it would only be allowed to issue reports to the FCC and the legislature, and take no formal action. Instead, the commission would be able to respond ?informally? to complaints, and provide information on how to contact the proper state and federal authorities. A source connected with the commission who asked not to be identified described this as a substantial step down for the body.
SB 1161 does preserve the commission?s authority over state emergency telephone services, universal service programs, existing requirements for backup power systems, and the ability ?to address or affect the resolution of disputes? over?intercarrier compensation, or the charges paid by one carrier to another to originate, carry, or terminate telecommunications traffic. It also maintains the commission?s authority over support structures and other facilities involved in the transmission of signals?a key concession extracted from the bill?s proponents, according to an official familiar with the matter.
The commission did manage to successfully lobby for several amendments in the final version of the bill, including a provision that the bill would not impact its ?existing regulation of, proceedings governing, or existing commission authority over, non-VoIP and other non-IP enabled? phone service, ?including regulations governing universal service and the offering of basic service and lifeline service, and any obligations to offer basic service.? But this could mean little in a communications environment where IP-enabled communication has displaced traditional, wire-based service.
For the commission, the concern is that as non-VoIP and non-IP enabled, traditional phone services become a thing of the past, this exception would basically become meaningless over time. The CPUC would have the power to address issues related to a sector of service that is quickly shrinking.
In April,?the?Los Angeles Times?reported?that Michael Peevey, the commission?s president, had broken with the rest of the body, which opposed the SB 1161. ?We should be very careful before we jump off the cliff here as commissioners and say we oppose this,? Peevey said at a meeting of the group. ?My view is that Silicon Valley is the economic engine of the state?I don?t want to support anything that in any way would diminish that.?
But Lynn Sadler?s June memo asserted that concerns like Peevey?s could be overblown. ?There is no current problem addressed by the bill,? Sadler wrote. ?Rather, the author and supporters of the bill fear that the CPUC will impose unnecessary regulations on providers of IP-enabled services if this bill is not enacted.?
In an August 18 interview with the?San Francisco Chronicle, CPUC commissioner Mike Florio suggested SB 1161 could pose dangers to consumers, and argued that the commission has made no moves to restrict VoIP that should be of concern to the industry.
?It?s not at all clear under this bill that we?d be able to touch anything having to do with quality-of-service problems,? Florio warned.??It?s going to mean lawyers and lawsuits and a lot of time and money and energy that doesn?t need to be spent. We?ve done nothing to regulate computer applications like Skype, have no desire to do so, and that?s not what this is about.? AT&T declined to comment for this story, and Verizon did not respond to a request for comment.??
Industry analyst Larry Downes views the regulations of a body like the CPUC as costly impositions on the growth of a new technology?one that it is unqualified to regulate. In a?recent column urging Gov. Brown to sign the bill, Downes pointed out that wire-based phone service in California has decreased by 17 percent between 2008 and 2010, versus a 46 percent increase in VoIP accounts over that period.
?[T]he PUC has little expertise to offer in regulating VoIP or any other Internet service. Nor should it. State utility commissions were created to oversee, well, utilities. You know?telephone poles, power lines, and water pipes.?Control of physical infrastructure, thanks to technological innovation, is no longer much of a constraint on consumer choice or pricing for voice services,? Downes wrote. The VoIP industry in California, he says, should be allowed to flourish, free of regulation.
According to TeleGeography, a telecommunications market research firm, the VoIP sector is exploding. In 2011, the firm estimated that the number of Skype calls would jump by 48 percent, while calls made through traditional phone companies would increase by a paltry 4 percent. Given those growth expectations, plus the increasing convergence between copper-based service and IP, the industry?s interest in SB 1161 is obvious.
Jim Hawley, a spokesperson for TechNet, a Silicon Valley-based trade group that supports the bill, argues that the regulatory process could be a costly, threatening burden for a young start-up trying to attract investors. ?If you?re going to expand monopoly-style regulation to a vibrant new industry?the legislature should make that decision, not a regulatory body,? Hawley says.
But Regina Costa, the Telecommunications Director at The Utility Reform Network (TURN) in California, warns that SB 1161 prevents the CPUC from keeping tabs on VoIP. ?What ability do state regulators have in the future to identify these problems and solve them?? Under SB 1161, the CPUC ?wouldn?t have the authority to say to Verizon, ?Your VoIP wasn?t reliable.? Verizon could tell them to go stuff it.?
Lobbying strength
Other states have considered or passed?bills that deregulate sections of the telecommunications industry?or?remove obligations for phone service providers?to offer basic phone service for all customers?known as ?carrier-of-last-resort? obligations, or a guarantee to provide low-cost, landline based telephone service to homes. As?The Washington Post?has reported, several states have passed laws that remove these obligations.
In California, the telecom industry has joined forces with Silicon Valley, as Fabiola Carrion, a broadband analyst with the Progressive States Network, explains. Technology trade groups in Silicon Valley, including TechAmerica, TechNet, and the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, released a?fact sheet?arguing that SB 1161 would clear the road of costly regulatory hurdles. SB 1161, they say in a?joint website urging Gov. Brown to sign the bill, clears the road of ?protracted regulatory proceedings that create delay and unnecessary expense.?
SB 1161?s cadre of deep-pocketed supporters include telecom companies such as AT&T, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Verizon, and trade groups representing the tech sector. According to an?analysis by Map Light,?a public interest group that tracks the influence of money in politics, state senators received nearly 11 times as much in campaign contributions from interest groups that support SB1161 than from those who oppose it.
Coming in at?number four on the list?is Sen. Alex Padilla, the Democrat from Los Angeles who introduced SB 1161 and who has chaired the Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee since 2008. Data compiled by Influence Explorer shows that the telecommunications industry has taken care of Padilla since he was first elected to the assembly in 2006.?From 2006 to 2010, Padilla received just over $109,000 from the telephone utilities and telecom services and equipment industry, including a number of sizable donations from senior executives at AT&T and Verizon.
Nearly 80 percent of those contributions came from AT&T, the California Cable & Telecommunications Association, Comcast, Verizon, Time Warner, and Verizon Wireless and executives with the companies?all of whom support SB 1161. Padilla also received $5,000 from CALTEL during that same span. CALTEL initially supported the bill, but later dropped its support. ?Padilla?s office did not respond to a request for comment.
As the?Los Angeles Times?reported?in April, AT&T enjoys considerable influence on politics in California?or pays generously for it, at least.? The paper reported that AT&T spent over $225,000 on last year?s Speaker?s Cup, a $12,000-a-head weekend Democratic fundraiser boasting ?world-class golf?free-flowing wine and four-star cuisine,? body wraps, and massages. The?Times?also reported that from 1999 to 2011, AT&T has spent more trying to influence California officials than any other corporation.
Industry motivation: an ear for the future
AT&T, for its part, has poured nearly?$3.3 million into lobbying the California state house through the first six quarters?of the 2011-12 legislative session, notably increasing its spending by about $70,000 and? $200,000 in the fifth and sixth quarters, respectively, after the introduction of SB 1161.?Verizon?and the?California Cable & Telecommunications Association?have also lobbied on SB 1161.
Their interest in the measure isn?t difficult to discern. AT&T currently offers a voice communications platform called U-Verse, which is delivered through VoIP. Verizon also offers VoIP over FiOS, its fiber-line based service that bundles together Internet, telephone, and television service.
Meanwhile, Verizon is also making a strong push towards IP and VoIP services. At an investors? conference in June, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam made the company?s?position on VoIP abundantly clear.??Every place we have FiOS, we are going to kill the copper,? McAdam said, according to a transcript of the vent. ?We are going to just take it out of service and we are going to move those services onto FiOS. ? And then in other areas that are more rural and more sparsely populated, we have got [wireless service] built that will handle all of those services and so we are going to cut the copper off there.?
McAdam also had some pointed words about the ongoing ?battle? over future regulation. ?The pendulum has swung a bit more to the regulators putting their thumb on the scale and we don?t like that,? he said, insisting that new regulations slow down investment and innovation while endangering prospects for job growth.
?The regulatory environment has got to loosen up a little bit, mostly in the states and so we are working that,? McAdam said, indicating that Verizon was pleased with de-regulatory measures that have passed recently in Florida, Virginia and Texas. Such laws allow the company ?to be a lot more flexible in the marketplace and?invest where customers want ?us to invest and start to sunset some of the older technology.?
In other words, ?if you?re a copper-based customer, you?re moving over to that network whether you?ve chosen it or not,? Regina Costa says. Rural customers, Costa says, will not benefit from wireless, which is notoriously unreliable in remote areas.
Sean McLaughlin, the executive director of Access Humboldt, a community media organization in northern California, says that SB 1161?s impact will be acutely felt in the less dense, more remote stretches of the state along the northern coast.
In these places, existing providers find it less profitable to extend broadband service. This is because laying cable across vast, sparsely populated stretches is a costly proposit0ion, with little guarantee of a worthwhile return on that investment. In response, media activists like McLaughlin have built a number of locally owned and operated broadband networks to service these stretches of northern California.
?We have remote areas that lack reliable basic phone service,? McLaughlin says of Humboldt. ?We?re familiar with what it looks like when it?s not profitable? to provide service to such areas, he says.
If SB 1161 becomes law, McLaughlin worries that the county would no longer possess the authority to take charge. ?SB 1161 ties hands of local governments. Not only can the PUC not make any rule that touches VoIP communications ? no subdivisions of the state can do that,? McLaughlin says. SB 1161?s ?whole frame is that there?s no constructive role for local governments,? he contends, pre-empting them from making any rule that would regulate IP-enabled services.
According to Christopher Mitchell, the director of the Telecommunications as Commons Initiative at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, phasing copper-line customers into wireless falls right in line with Verizon?s long-standing plans for rural service. ?Verizon is interested in wireless because it can charge so much more. So I imagine rural folks will be worse off if we allow these companies to abandon? wire-based service, he says.
Dan O?Connell, a VoIP analyst at Gartner, a telecommunications research firm, estimates that fully replacing a copper-based network will likely to take at least a decade. But companies like Verizon and AT&T want to set the regulatory stage now, through bills like SB 1161 and others like it around the nation.
?CEOs of companies like Verizon and AT&T are laying out the argument? for de-regulation, O?Connell says. ?They will say, ?We?re taking [copper] down in five years. In reality, it could be 12 or 15. Nonetheless, Verizon or AT&T want to make sure they?ll have this stuff running 15 or 20 years from now.?
Broader implications
CALTEL, a trade group that started as a firm supporter of SB 1161, has recently aligned with its opponents. CALTEL?s membership consists of local carriers that provide voice and broadband services to residential, business, and wholesale customers, coupling their own networks with copper lines leased from providers like AT&T and Verizon. Most offer VoIP service, and harness IP-enabled technology to provide service to customers.
When Sen. Padilla first introduced SB 1161 in February, CALTEL quickly signed on, believing that it would protect services using copper and IP, while ensuring reasonable rates for consumers.
But CALTEL soon reversed its position. In an August 24 letter written to Gov. Jerry Brown encouraging him to veto the bill, CALTEL executive director Sarah DeYoung wrote that ?the benefit of regulatory certainty for VoIP providers? offered by SB 1161 ?is far outweighed by the harmful effect that [it] would have on competitive carriers? ability? to offer affordable, competitive, high-quality broadband service to consumers.
In her letter, DeYoung cites Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam?s comments about his company?s intentions to phase out copper service. She also excerpts portions of comments filed this past spring by both AT&T and Verizon in response to an FCC rural broadband initiative?called the Connect America Fund.
In the comments cited by DeYoung, AT&T and Verizon urged the FCC to free the new, IP-based telecommunications world from the strictures of the old regime. The telecommunications titans argued that regulatory requirements like carrier of last resort obligations and universal service are ??vestiges? of a bygone telecommunications age, ?designed for a different time, a different network, and a different business model to the new world of IP interconnection for voice service.? Such obligations, the companies wrote, drive up costs and ?impair their ability to compete effectively with largely unregulated cable broadband services.?
As such, AT&T and Verizon say, these obligations should not apply to IP-enabled services. Their argument: because IP-based telecommunications are still in their relative infancy, regulatory requirements like carrier of last resort would place an unfair burden on their ability to grow and thrive in this market.
The California bill, CALTEL argues, would ?completely foreclose? the state of California?s ability to protect broadband competition once the current providers shift over to IP technology.
A number of consumer advocates contacted by The American Independent view SB 1161 as another salvo in the industry?s nationwide de-regulatory battle. According to the Institute for Local Self-Reliance?s Chris Mitchell, the companies supporting this type of legislation hope to clear the field of service requirements that, they claim, will slow them down on their march towards an all-IP environment. ?The broad stroke is that these companies are trying to reduce the amount of regulation they face and are trying to justify it by pointing to expensive investments they have made,? in new, IP-based services.
?They want to get rid of all [carrier-of-last-resort obligations] from what I can tell,? Mitchell says. ?[T]hey want the ?market? to decide who gets access to communications technology and how.?
Originally published at The American Independent.
[Women in shock at computer screen via Shutterstock]
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New computing approach to materials science under development
ScienceDaily (Sep. 10, 2012) ? Krishna Rajan of Iowa State University and the Ames Laboratory thinks there's more to materials informatics than plotting a thick cloud of colorful data points.
As he sees it, managing computing tools to discover new materials involves harnessing the key characteristics of data: volume, velocity, variety and veracity (the four V's).
Lately, though, "the focus is only on volume," said Rajan, Iowa State's Wilkinson Professor of Interdisciplinary Engineering, director of the university's Institute for Combinatorial Discovery and director of the international Combinatorial Sciences and Materials Informatics Collaboratory. Rajan is also an associate of the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory. "The focus is on more and more data. Data doesn't make you smarter. What you want is knowledge."
And so Rajan's research team is developing statistical learning techniques to research and develop new materials. A 2011 paper published by the Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical & Engineering Sciences describes how the process helped researchers improve piezoelectrics, materials that generate electricity when they're bent. (Rajan is lead author of the paper.) Another 2011 paper published by Nature described using the same tools to design vaccine-delivery materials that mimic pathogens and enhance the body's immune response. (Balaji Narasimhan, associate dean for research at Iowa State's College of Engineering and the Vlasta Klima Balloun Professor of Engineering, is lead author of the paper.)
A 2012 article in Science by Robert F. Service also contrasts Rajan's approach with studies that have computed the properties of tens of thousands of potential new battery materials.
"Our approach requires the need to carefully establish a dataset of descriptors on which we directly apply statistical learning tools," says the Proceedings paper (co-authored by Prasanna Balachandran, an Iowa State post-doctoral research associate; and Scott Broderick, an Iowa State research assistant professor). "One of the arguments we are trying to put forward in this paper is that although the potential number of variables can in fact be large, data dimensionality reduction and information theoretic techniques can help reduce it to a manageable number."
Rajan likens the process to cooking the perfect spaghetti sauce. Rather than starting with every ingredient in the grocery store, why not start with the most important ingredients? Maybe with the tomatoes and the salt?
"Then how much salt and how many tomatoes?" Rajan said. "Depending on how they're combined, you get different results. That's the logic of this."
The way to start, Rajan said, is to develop some rules of thumb about the material you're trying to build. Once the most important design rules are set, computing power can be used to search through libraries of compounds and identify promising solutions.
"It's not that we need more data," Rajan said. "We need the right data."
Rajan calls his approach efficient, robust and effective. He says it's all based on data mining, information theory and statistical learning concepts. He also says it can be readily applied to different problems in various disciplines.
Rajan has used his ideas to help Iowa State researchers advance their work in agronomy, biofuels, climate studies and genomics. His work has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense and Iowa State University.
Matt Liebman, Iowa State's Henry A. Wallace Endowed Chair for Sustainable Agriculture and a professor of agronomy, has worked with Rajan to study how variables such as farming practices, soil type and climate affect the availability of nitrogen in crops such as corn. He said Rajan has been able to take large data sets, sort the useful information from the less relevant noise and identify influential variables and relationships.
"Given the complexity of the world of soils, plants and climate, that's a nice skill set to have as we develop this effort," Liebman said. "He has an approach that nobody in the field I normally work with has. This is a good example of cross-fertilization among disciplines."
Rajan and other researchers will discuss their data-driven methods during the first International Conference and Summer School in Molecular and Materials Informatics next February in Melbourne, Australia. The conference is sponsored by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (Australia's national science agency) and Iowa State. Rajan is one of five members of the conference organizing committee.
The conference will cover methods for the rapid discovery of novel materials, data management, visualization of materials data and other topics in materials and computational sciences.
Rajan is patient and thoughtful when explaining his techniques. He said it's all part of helping the materials science community understand his path toward materials informatics.
"Part of my job is building that community," he said. "And the community is growing."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Iowa State University.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal References:
- R. F. Service. Materials Scientists Look to a Data-Intensive Future. Science, 2012; 335 (6075): 1434 DOI: 10.1126/science.335.6075.1434
- P. V. Balachandran, S. R. Broderick, K. Rajan. Identifying the 'inorganic gene' for high-temperature piezoelectric perovskites through statistical learning. Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 2011; 467 (2132): 2271 DOI: 10.1098/rspa.2010.0543
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/F6ZaJeM0kto/120910173400.htm
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Monday, September 10, 2012
Literary masterpiece 'Infinite Jest' visualized in Google map
11 hrs.
David Foster Wallace fans: Put down your copy of D.T. Max?s newly released biography of the writer, Every Love Story Is A Ghost Story and click immediately on Infinite Atlas. Non-fans, stop whatever it is you?re doing and do the same.
Infinite Atlas is, in the simplest terms, "an independent research and art project seeking to identify, place and describe every possible location in David Foster Wallace?s 'Infinite Jest.'" In broader terms, it?s an infinitely absorbing marriage of literature and rich location-based data.
The map is the work of Washington-based writer, and dedicated "Infinite Jest" fan, William Beutler.
Beutler actually launched the project earlier this year in the form of Infinite Boston, a blog-based photographic tour of locations that figure into DFW?s complex study of life, addiction, depression, failed entertainment, and tennis. At the time Beutler wrote: "In July of what might have been Year of Glad, one year ago this week, I traveled to Boston, Massachusetts with the express purpose of visiting as many of the landmarks and lesser known precincts that appear in, or provide inspiration for, the late David Foster Wallace?s 1996 novel "Infinite Jest" as I could manage on a Thursday-Sunday trip. My reasons for doing so will become apparent at a later date, but for now I am pleased to present what I am calling Infinite Boston: a ruminative travelogue and photographic tour of some fifty or so of these locations, comprising one entry each non-holiday weekday, from now until sometime in early autumn."
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That later date has arrived and we now have the Infinite Atlas, a mind-bendingly detailed Google Maps-based compendium of over 600 IJ locations. Visitors can click on the map to reveal details about each location from the novel, in many cases including quotes, as well as where the site appears in the book and which characters are associated with it (and Beutler hasn?t just covered off your A-list places, like Enfield Tennis Academy and Ennet House. To wit: the listing for Marty?s Liquors, "Which Gately drives past in Pat Montesian?s black 1964 Ford Aventura"). Locations can also be discovered via search, and through a comprehensive lists of characters (again, we?re not just talking about Hal Incandenza and Michael Pemulis--the list includes everyone down to "the Watertown, NY boy who owned Ward and June, progenitors of the Concavity?s feral hamsters") and story threads. Fans are also encouraged to submit photographs of the locations.
The project also includes a poster version of IJ sites, the Infinite Map, available for purchase here. The map depicts the novel?s ?territorially reconfigured North America? and features 250 of its most interesting locations (as well as the Great Seal of O.N.A.N., pictured above).
Beutler, who had worked as a political journalist and is now a communications consultant, says the project has been four years in the making. "I re-read Infinite Jest after Wallace?s passing, and became obsessed with the idea that there was a way to treat Infinite Jest as a very large data set," he says. "It turned out that others had done so previously, the designer Sam Potts in particular, but with a primary focus on the relationship between characters. So I didn?t want to retrace that route. Meanwhile, I was influenced by friends involved in cartography, and I?ve always found maps to be fascinating, so both of these things pushed me in this direction."
At first, a map of locations was just one of many ideas, he says. "At one point I was going to include box scores for the Enfield Tennis Academy players, but the further I got into research, the more I realized how much more there was to do with geography."
The scope of the project meant Beutler brought in a number of creative partners, including agency JESS3 and DC web development company RedEdge, which helped bring the interactive map to life.
When it came to compiling the project?s staggering volume of data, Beutler had additional help. "A lot of the early research was compiled by a friend from back to college, named Olly Ruff, who had also first read Infinite Jest years ago," he says. "We each spent dozens of hours combing through the book, page-by-page, in late 2010 to make sure that we missed nothing, and to argue about what was where and what was the significance. We had those conversations right up to the point where we had to send it off to the printer. The early information architecture was done by another friend, Lyzi Diamond, who had recently earned a degree in Geography from the University of Oregon. Our eventual cartographer was Derek Watkins, who is now a graphics editor at the New York Times."
As for Beutler?s plans for the project, he says, "I?m really hoping to get readers to upload photographs of locations that I haven?t visited--and considering the scope of the project is global, that?s still most places. Otherwise, there are still some details to correct--our database is very good, but not free of noise--so that will take me some time to iron out the details. Even as I say that, I think the site is about 95% correct. It always takes a lot more effort to improve from there, but I?m just enough perfectionist, and just enough a fan of "Infinite Jest" to stick with it."
Teressa Iezzi is the editor of Fast Company's?Co.Create.?She was previously editor of Ad Age?s Creativity and is the author of "The Idea Writers: Copywriting in a New Media and Marketing Era." Follow her on Twitter.
This story originally appeared on Fast Company's Co.Create site.
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U.S. singing sister Dorothy McGuire dies at 84
(Reuters) - U.S. singer Dorothy McGuire, who with her two sisters made dozens of hit records in the 1950s and 1960s, has died in Arizona, her son said on Sunday.
McGuire, 84, died on Friday at her home in Paradise Valley, Arizona, her son Rex Williamson told Reuters. She had suffered for some time from Parkinson's disease, he said.
Dorothy McGuire was the middle sister of The McGuire Sisters - Christine, Phyllis and Dorothy - who had hits with "Goodnite, Sweetheart, Goodnite", "Sincerely" and "Sugartime" and were often compared to their 1940s predecessors, The Andrews Sisters.
They began their careers as children, singing in their Miamisburg, Ohio, church and later at hospitals and military bases before singing a record deal in 1952.
Often dressed in identical outfits and hairstyles, they were frequent guests on television variety shows and they later performed for U.S. Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
Some 18 years after they retired in 1968, they reunited and played the hotel and nightclub circuit in Las Vegas and New York until the mid-1990s. The McGuire Sisters were inducted in the National Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 1994.
Dorothy is survived by siblings Phyllis and Christine.
(Reporting By Jill Serjeant in Los Angeles; Editing by Sandra Maler)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-singing-sister-dorothy-mcguire-dies-84-202257086.html
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Sunday, September 9, 2012
Google?s ?Develop for Good? hackathon winners tackle environment, human rights
Google held a ?Develop for Good? hackathon for developers surrounding the company?s June I/O conference, allowing developer groups using Google products to tackle a variety of projects related to human rights, the environment, and politics.
At Google?s I/O developer conference in June, the company held a ?Develop for Good? hackathon as a collaboration between the I/O conference and Google?s?philanthropy?arm, Google.org. On Friday, Google picked the winners from the hackathon in three main categories: Ideas, Politics and Elections and Green. The selection of winners highlighted some interesting projects where companies are using technology to tackle issues in human rights and the environment.
Ideas
Hackers in the Ideas arena were asked to develop a tool that could be used for reporting information from hostile situations with limited internet and repressive government regimes.
The winning project, Silent Lens, developed software for Android that allows users to capture sensitive information and securely transmit that information to others even with a hostile government and limited connectivity.
Silent Lens founders explained on their website the importance of getting information from those hostile environments into the world: ?Information about incidents of violence in these situations is tremendously important: it can shame governments into reform, help the international community pressure regimes to cease violence, and increase citizens? own commitments to affecting change.?
Politics and Elections
A Nigerian group created the winning project for Politics and Elections, taking the focus off the US Presidential election and instead bringing democratic participation to Nigeria with a new web platform. The group hails from the Google Developer Group in Lagos, Nigeria.
The project, a prototype of Assembly Bills, will allow Nigerian citizens to give input on bills through the website, rather than traveling to the host city to participate in the legislative process. ?Assembly bills was created to give the ordinary citizen access to give inputs into bills that are to be pass into law by the legislative arms of their country,? the Assembly Bills founders explain on the site.
Green
The winners of the Green challenge hail from Pakistan, specifically from the the Google 
Developer Group in Karachi, where they?re attempting to crowdsource citizen complaints about environmental concerns to bring them to the attention of government officials. The project, called Green It,?rewards citizens who are particularly active and vocal in the community.
?What we generally concluded from our survey was that people put all the blame on government officials that they never respond to the problems and the area around us remains black where on the other hand the government officials say that we try to resolve every problem reported to us,? the group explained on its site. ?We concluded that there is generally a communication gap between the society and the officials.?
Through the Google+ platform, Green It will allow citizens to report?environmental?concerns to government officials, and other citizens can validate the concerns if they also feel that it?s a problem. If the government doesn?t respond to widespread complaints, the idea is that users can then get media involved in the issue.
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Saturday, September 8, 2012
Romney, Obama in battle for working-class whites
FILE - In this Sept. 3, 2012 file photo, President Barack Obama speaks during a campaign rally in Toledo, Ohio. President Barack Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney are working feverishly for an increasingly smaller but crucial slice of the electorate _ white, working-class voters. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak, File)
FILE - In this Sept. 3, 2012 file photo, President Barack Obama speaks during a campaign rally in Toledo, Ohio. President Barack Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney are working feverishly for an increasingly smaller but crucial slice of the electorate _ white, working-class voters. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak, File)
FILE - In this July 18, 2012 file photo, Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks in Bowling Green, Ohio. President Barack Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney are working feverishly for an increasingly smaller but crucial slice of the electorate _ white, working-class voters. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) ? President Barack Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney are working feverishly for an increasingly smaller but crucial slice of the electorate ? white, working-class voters.
These clock-punching voters ? from Iowa's tiny manufacturing cities to Virginia coal country to pockets of Ohio reliant on the auto industry ? are considered the potential tipping point in battleground states that will decide the winner on Nov. 6. These voters are also critical to turning less competitive states such as Michigan into suddenly swing states in the final stretch.
Romney is trying to expand what polls show is an advantage for the Republican while Obama hopes to narrow the gap. Both are trying to pit these voters against their opponent by stoking a sense of economic and social unfairness, and also by calling on surrogates with stronger ties to these voters. It's why Romney has seized on Obama's decision to give states greater flexibility on welfare work requirements and why Obama turned to former President Bill Clinton, long popular with working-class voters, to make the case for his second-term bid.
"In the richest country in the history of the world, this Obama economy has crushed the middle class," Romney said in accepting the Republican presidential nomination.
Obama counters that Romney's opposition to a federal bailout of U.S. automakers hurts his chances with working-class whites.
"I stood with American manufacturing. I believed in you. I bet on you," Obama told an audience in Toledo, Ohio, an automotive manufacturing hub within sight of Michigan, on Labor Day.
These voters are a hodge-podge of union households and gun-rights advocates, often from rural areas and smaller cities. They are found in a handful of competitive states where neither candidate has an appreciable advantage, including northern Florida and northwest and southeast Ohio. They are also found in key counties in states that have voted Democratic in presidential elections since the 1980s but are seen as more competitive this year. Those include areas outside Madison and Milwaukee in southern Wisconsin, mixed-income suburbs outside Detroit and rural parts of western Pennsylvania.
Neither Romney nor Obama has a natural connection with them.
Both are Harvard-educated and wealthy. But Obama, an African American raised politically in Chicago's Democratic network, has struggled with these voters. Obama famously dismissed their misgivings about his candidacy in 2008, saying "they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."
Romney, the son of a former governor and car company president, made a fortune as a private equity firm executive before serving a term as Massachusetts governor. Romney's profile varies from these working-class voters who are less educated and from smaller cities and rural areas.
Still, he has a commanding lead among these voters: 57 percent preferred the Republican, compared to 35 percent for Obama, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll last month. Romney's support is on par with what 2008 Republican nominee John McCain received from this group, but Obama is doing worse, according to exit polls that showed him at 40 percent four years ago.
Romney sought an edge with Obama's decision to allow states to apply for waivers seeking flexibility in how to administer welfare work requirements, a key part of the sweeping welfare realignment President Bill Clinton signed in 1996.
Rick Santorum, who performed well among working-class whites during his unsuccessful bid for the GOP presidential nomination, has led the Romney campaign's charge that Obama supports lifting the work requirement, a claim widely debunked by independent fact-checking groups.
"(Obama) showed us once again he believes in government handouts and dependency by waiving the work requirement for welfare," Santorum said during his speech to the Republican convention.
Diane Carnes of Chillicothe, Ohio, in the state's rural south, said there is a cultural disconnect with Obama. "Southern Ohio is full of people who are disgusted with this president walking away from welfare reform," said Carnes, a Republican. "We are working people, who believe in work."
Santorum vigorously dismissed suggestions of racial politics, although Carnes and other Republicans said some rural white voters in swing states still harbor racial opposition to Obama.
Obama's policies fall outside this bloc's comfort zone, said Steve Schmidt, who managed McCain's 2008 campaign.
"President Obama is totally out of touch with these people in a fundamental way," Schmidt said. "In this environment, Romney's team is wise to be focused on this group."
Romney was in Chillicothe, the heart of southern Ohio, last month, promising to loosen restrictions on oil, coal and natural gas development industries. That signals to many voters here the promise of well-paying jobs in counties where unemployment has run well above the state and national averages.
Romney's choice of Rep. Paul Ryan is seen as another direct appeal. Ryan is from Janesville, Wis., a manufacturing hub between Madison, Wis., and Chicago.
"Remember when he said people in the Midwest, people like us like to cling to their guns and religion?" Ryan said of Obama while campaigning in Iowa this week. "This Catholic deer hunter is darn proud of that. Guilty as charged."
Many of these conservative Democrats helped elect Republican Ronald Reagan president in 1980.
But since then, a Republican has not won Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Ryan's place on the ticket, and Romney's direct appeals to working-class whites, may not tip the state to the GOP in November, but they could force Obama to spend money to capture states critical to his re-election chances.
This voting bloc has shrunk dramatically as a share of the overall electorate, now more diverse and college-educated. In 1980, 63 percent of voters were white, non-college-educated. In 2008, they made up just 39 percent. And Obama performs far better with minority voters.
Obama, in turn, is trying to hold down Romney's margins. He talks about his wife Michelle's upbringing in a working-class home on Chicago's South Side.
His campaign is working to undercut the businessman Romney's jobs argument by contending that the private-sector experience Romney touts was often at the expense of working families. Romney's former private equity firm Bain Capital helped launch some national chains, but also shuttered some plants.
"I continue to believe Gov. Romney is going to struggle in all the Midwestern states given his stance on the issues," Obama's campaign manager Jim Messina said in an interview.
Obama also has two weapons in his arsenal and is deploying them strategically.
Vice President Joe Biden, long a popular figure to working-class Democrats, grew up in Scranton, Pa., and has jabbed hard at Romney's credibility with these voters.
"Out of touch? Swiss bank account, untold millions in the Cayman Islands. Who's out of touch, man?" Biden said recently.
Clinton stars in an Obama campaign ad and was the prime-time speaker at the convention on Wednesday night. Clinton's profile as a former Arkansas governor helped him as a candidate. His wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, performed better than Obama with working-class whites in places like Pennsylvania and West Virginia during their battle for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.
Romney advisers said Clinton is the strongest counter-punch Obama has with these voters.
The former president went hard after them hard in his convention speech, using the term "middle class" no less than 10 times.
Clinton directed his closing pitch to them: "If you want a winner-take-all, you're-on-your-own society, you should support the Republican ticket. But if you want a country of shared opportunities and shared responsibility, a we're-all-in-this-together society, you should vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden."
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Succession Planning Starts with Strategy and NOT Financial or Legal
A member of The Family Business Network posed a question "Preparing for succession in your business? How
much consideration should you give to insurance, tax, exit, and
financial planning?"
Well before we focus on finance and legal, the focus should be strategic. Does the business model and competitive context point to a business that the next generation should succeed into? For some reason everyone jumps on the legal financial bandwagon and this only hurts successors. Why? Who wants to succeed into a business that is not viable for the next 20 years... Blockbuster, Best Buy, A&P... do we need more examples?
much consideration should you give to insurance, tax, exit, and
financial planning?"
Well before we focus on finance and legal, the focus should be strategic. Does the business model and competitive context point to a business that the next generation should succeed into? For some reason everyone jumps on the legal financial bandwagon and this only hurts successors. Why? Who wants to succeed into a business that is not viable for the next 20 years... Blockbuster, Best Buy, A&P... do we need more examples?
This is where a business family is more adept at adjusting to the rapidly changing business environment vs a family business. I know this all to well with one advisory after another giving our family business tactical advise vs. strategic and critical thinking. We may have taken a different route with the thinking I propose.
All the best!
Dom Celentano
Tips on Running a Small Business
Source: http://managementofsmallbusiness.blogspot.com/2012/09/succession-planning-starts-with.html
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Friday, September 7, 2012
Insurance News - Company Launches Private Health Insurance ...
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"InsureXSolutions is the culmination of more than 24 years of experience in the health insurance industry which reinforces our mission for providing innovative, cost-effective health care programs," said President of Flex,
Businesses and their employees are supported by an InsureXSolutions Interaction Center that is staffed with a team of licensed product specialists. The Interaction Center is available Monday through Friday,
To learn more about InsureXSolutions, visit www.insurexsolutions.com or call 888-353-9178. InsureXSolutions is a registered trademark of
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nseverino@flexiblebenefit.com
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Source: http://insurancenewsnet.com/article.aspx?id=356472&type=lifehealth
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