strength clare: October 2012

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

A Harlem salon's pink-themed styles raise money for Breast Cancer ...

Rochelle Mosley used strands of pink hair to enhance the styles of clients who donated to her breast cancer awareness campaign. (Photo courtesy of Rochelle Mosley)

Team Salon 804 at the 8th Annual American Cancer Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk this October. (Photo courtesy of Rochelle Mosley)

Because of the funds raised, the Salon 804 team was able to participate in the 8th annual American American Cancer Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk. (Photo courtesy of Rochelle Mosley)

Salon 804 promoted Breast Cancer Awareness Month with pink-themed hairstyles. (Photo courtesy of Rochelle Mosley)

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Pink became the new black in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month at a New York City hair salon this October. To promote awareness of breast cancer in her community,?Rochelle Mosley, owner of Harlem?s?Salon 804, created her own pink-themed campaign. But for the hair salon owner, rather than just promoting a typical pink product, her awareness theme involved dressing her client?s tresses ? with pink, of course.

Clients who donated money to her first-annual fundraising efforts against the disease were given the option to have a strand of pink hair incorporated into their styles in solidarity with the cause.?For the people who had mohawks, we put pink in the back,? Mosley?told theGrio. ?For some we put it in the bangs. Others, we put it on the side of the long hair styles.?

Mosley ultimately raised $1,000 to fight a disease that has personally impacted both her and her predominantly African-American clientele, several of whom are breast cancer survivors or currently battling the disease. Black women are significantly more likely to die from breast cancer compared to white women after being diagnosed, according to a new study presented at the American Association for Cancer Research conference this week.

?The results of this study emphasize that clinical management and follow-up for patients with breast cancer, particularly black women, is important in the first few years after diagnosis,? Erica Warner, a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health and author of the study, told CBS News.

A majority of the funds Mosley raised have been given to a close friend who is undergoing chemotherapy and radiation. The remainder supported Salon 804?s team in the 8th annual American Cancer Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk that took place in Manhattan?s Central Park on Oct. 21.

?We are a family here,? Mosley told New York?s Daily News earlier this month about her grass roots program. ?Salon 804 is down for any cause? Everybody knows somebody who has been affected by breast cancer.?

Mosley?s clients appreciated her efforts to bring awareness to a disease that disproportionately affects families in the Harlem area.

?This is something, in this community, that?s really needed,? Ila Eller, 65, told the?Daily News. ?I really admire her for the way that she reaches out? Anything that she does, I support her. Her shop can be a catalyst for many, many things, and she seems to be doing that.?

Follow Patrice Peck on Twitter at?@SpeakPatrice?and?Tumblr.

Source: http://thegrio.com/2012/10/31/a-harlem-salons-pink-themed-styles-raise-money-for-breast-cancer-awareness-month-and-awareness-of-the-disease-among-black-women/

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GM cuts European jobs, shares spike

DETROIT (AP) -- Shares of General Motors surged Wednesday after the company announced big job cuts in Europe and reported third-quarter earnings that were far better than Wall Street expected.

The Detroit company said it has cut 2,300 jobs in Europe this year and wants to trim 300 more, part of a larger plan to reduce costs and raise revenue in the struggling region with new vehicles that are more appealing to buyers.

Despite the moves, General Motors Co.'s net profit fell 14 percent as European losses widened and North American earnings dropped due to falling pension income and higher warranty costs.

But investors looked past the decline because GM's earnings far exceeded expectations. GM's stock rose $2.12, or 9.1 percent, to $25.40 in afternoon trading.

The company rode North American profits, big improvements in South America and strong earnings in international areas outside of China to make $1.48 billion, or 89 cents per share for the quarter. That's down from $1.73 billion, or $1.03 per share, a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, the company made 93 cents per share, beating analysts' estimates by 33 cents.

Still, there are signs of trouble. Profit in North America, GM's most lucrative market, fell 17 percent from July through September. The company's U.S. market share dropped more than two percentage points to 17.6 percent, and its U.S. sales increase of 3.4 percent for the year lags overall market growth of 14.5 percent. In Europe, where GM hasn't made money in a dozen years, it lost $478 million before taxes. That's $186 million worse than a year earlier.

Yet GM said its third-quarter performance shows that steps it has taken to fix troubled business units are working. Four of the company's five units were profitable, with Europe the only exception. "It stems from our geographic diversity, strong brands and the financial rigor we are instilling in the business," Chairman and CEO Dan Akerson said.

Fourth-quarter pretax earnings should be about the same as last year's $1.1 billion, the company said.

In Europe, GM made rosier predictions than other automakers. The company expects to break even before taxes by the middle of the decade. Losses this year are expected to run from $1.5 billion to $1.8 billion, about double the figure from 2011. Next year, losses should be slightly less.

The job cuts, which have come mainly through voluntary departures and early retirements, are part of a plan to cut $300 million in costs this year and an additional $500 million from 2013 to 2015, said Vice Chairman Steve Girsky, who is leading the restructuring. More job cuts could be made in the future depending on sales.

GM also is cutting inventory and low-profit rental car sales in Europe, and it plans to eliminate a third shift now working at its Eisenach plant in Germany next year. It's also reviewing whether its transmission plant in Strasbourg, France, will stay open. It's negotiating the closure of its Bochum plant in Germany, and it plans to cut Opel Astra production from three plants to two.

But cost reductions, Girsky said, aren't the only way the company plans to fix Europe. It has changed leadership, bringing in outside executives and several from North America. The company plans 23 new models and 13 new engines by 2016 in an effort to raise sales, including the Opel Mokka small SUV and the Opel Adam small car due out later this year. GM has 45,000 orders for the Mokka, far more than it can fill this year, Girsky said.

Girsky said all of this is being done with no expectation for improvement in Europe's economy, which has been hit hard by government debt problems.

"We're developing a plan that is not highly dependent on (the) external environment dramatically improving over the next several years," he said.

In North America, GM's pretax profit fell 17 percent to $1.8 billion. But in South America, the company swung from a $44 million loss last year to a $114 million profit on the strength of new models. And GM's international operations, fueled mainly by areas outside of China, nearly doubled its pretax profits to $689 million.

GM also acknowledged that its third-quarter North American pretax profit margin of 7.8 percent was far below rival Ford Motor Co.'s 12 percent. GM plans to close the gap in part with higher revenues when new products, including pickup trucks, roll out. GM now has the oldest North American model lineup in the industry, but it plans to revamp 70 percent of its models in the next two years.

The company also said 12,600 ? about 30 percent ? of its U.S. salaried retirees took lump-sum payments instead of monthly pension checks. It also expects to close a deal next month to shift liability for its salaried pension plan to an annuity managed by The Prudential Insurance Co. The actions will cut GM's pension liability by $29 billion, $3 billion more than the original estimate of $26 billion, the company said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gm-cuts-european-jobs-shares-175939495.html

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Apple in safe hands with bigger role for Ive: analysts

(Reuters) - The exit of Apple Inc's longtime mobile software products chief may be a surprise, but a band of able executives led by Tim Cook and a bigger role for design boss Jonathan Ive meant the company was in good hands, analysts said on Tuesday.

Ive, Apple's celebrated industrial design chief will now look into both hardware and software designs, following the departure of Scott Forstall after years of friction with other top executives.

"Yesterday's announcement all but confirmed that Ive will be with the company for the foreseeable future, putting to rest a recurring investor concern of an Apple without Ive," Piper Jaffray & Co analyst Gene Munster said in a research note.

"This, combined with Tim Cook's nine years remaining on his contract with Apple, suggests the two most critical management figures will be in place for the longer term."

John Browett, recently hired as Apple's retail chief, will also leave, the company said on Monday.

Eddy Cue, who runs online products, will lead Apple Maps and its Siri voice search software, while Craig Federighi, who oversees the OSX software that powers the Macintosh computers, will take charge of the iOS software.

"We think that despite the departure of Forstall who ran iOS development, iOS's future is in good hands," Munster said.

Forstall ? long-time lieutenant of late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs ? refused to sign a public apology after the mapping software on the latest iPhone contained embarrassing errors and drew fierce criticism, Reuters reported citing sources.

His departure was years in the making, and came to a head with the Apple Maps incident, sources said.

"Though Scott Forstall's departure is a surprise, this appears to be part of Tim Cook putting his own stamp on the company, and importantly, he is still surrounded by several key long-time Apple executives and innovators," Robert W. Baird & Co analyst William Power said.

(Reporting by Sayantani Ghosh in Bangalore, Editing by Joyjeet Das)

(This story corrects the headline to add attribution)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/apple-safe-hands-bigger-role-ive-140712662.html

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Acupuncture Helps Ease Fatigue After Breast Cancer ? AARP

Bulletin Today | Personal Health Print

Persistent fatigue after breast cancer treatment is a common problem among patients, with one in three women suffering the debilitating tiredness for a year or more after their treatment ends. Older women, in particular, say their post-cancer fatigue severely affects their mood and quality of life.

But a new multicenter study by British researchers finds that acupuncture may help reduce fatigue and improve quality of life in women who have had breast cancer.

In the study published this week in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, researchers with the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom found that women who received weekly acupuncture sessions had greater improvements in fatigue as well as anxiety, depression and quality of life, compared with those who only received educational materials, Reuters reported.

The study involved 302 breast cancer patients who had all received chemotherapy for breast cancer in the five years before the study. Most reported feeling chronically tired for a year or more. Seventy-five women were randomly assigned to receive a booklet about managing fatigue, while 227 received acupuncture once a week for six weeks as well as a booklet.

After six weeks, both groups were asked to rank their fatigue, anxiety, depression and other quality-of-life measures. Among the acupuncture group, general fatigue had dropped by almost four points on a 0-20 scale, compared with a less than a one-point decline in the booklet-only group.

Amit Sood, M.D., of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., who was not part of the study, told Reuters that the four-point drop should be considered ?mild to modest? improvement, enough to make acupuncture??well worth a try? for some people.

Anxiety and depression scores dropped by even more post-acupuncture, compared with the scores from women in the booklet-only group. Emotional and physical well-being got a greater boost with acupuncture therapy as well, the researchers found.

Lead researcher Alexander Molassiotis, a professor of cancer and supportive care at the University of Manchester, wrote that the results suggest that ?acupuncture is an effective intervention for managing the symptoms of cancer-related fatigue and improving patients? quality of life.?

In an accompanying editorial, Julienne Bower of UCLA?s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center noted that ?only a handful of randomized controlled trials have targeted patients with moderate to severe fatigue,? as this study did. Considering the prevalence and impact that cancer-related fatigue has on patients? health and survival, ?there is a critical need? for more studies to help patients cope with the aftereffects of cancer treatment, Bower said.

In other health news:

Mammograms: For every one life saved, three women overtreated. Breast cancer screening for women over age 50 saves 1,300 lives a year, new British research shows, but that comes with a cost: Roughly 4,000 women are overdiagnosed and treated for a slow-growing cancer that doctors say would never have threatened their lives, according to Reuters.

Advanced lung cancer patients misunderstand purpose of treatment. The Los Angeles Times reports that patients diagnosed with lung cancer that is considered incurable appear to misunderstand the purpose and likely effect of a treatment aimed at making them more comfortable, a new study says.

Photo: acidpix via flickr

Tagged: anxiety, breast cancer, cancer treatment, Candy Sagon, depression, fatigue, quality of life??? Share via: Facebook

Source: http://blog.aarp.org/2012/10/31/acupuncture-helps-ease-fatigue-after-breast-cancer/

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In Sudan blast, signs of Iran and Israel's rivalry

FILE -Part of the Yarmouk military complex in Khartoum, Sudan seen in a satellite image made on October 25 2012, following an alleged attack. A U.S. monitoring group says satellite images of the aftermath of an explosion at a Sudanese weapons factory suggest the site was hit by an airstrike. The Sudanese government has accused Israel of bombing its Yarmouk military complex on Oct 23, killing two people and leaving the factory in ruins. Analysts speculate that the 40 shipping containers which were destroyed in the central area of the image may have contained Iranian missiles bound for Gaza. (AP Photo/ DigitalGlobe via Satellite Sentinel Project, File)

FILE - Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, center, and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, left, review an honor guard, in Tehran, Iran, in this Wednesday, April, 26, 2006 file photo. Explosions at a military site near Sudan's capital Khartoum on Oct 23 2012, widely believed to be the result of an Israeli airstrike, point to a possible escalation in a hidden front of the rivalry between Iran and Israel which believes arms pipeline through Sudan to Islamic militants on Israel?s borders. (AP Photo/Hasan Sarbakhshian, file)

CAIRO (AP) ? A suspected Israeli airstrike against a weapons factory in Khartoum last week points to a possible escalation in a hidden front of the rivalry between Israel and Iran: The arms pipeline through Sudan to Islamic militants on Israel's borders.

Mystery still surrounds the blast, which killed four people. But analysts say the incident could indicate Iran is trying to send more advanced weapons via Sudan to Hamas in the Gaza Strip or Hezbollah in Lebanon ? and that Israel has become more determined to stop it at a time of increased tensions over Iran's nuclear program.

Consensus has built among Israeli and Arab military analysts that the explosion just after midnight last Wednesday at the Yarmouk factory was indeed an Israeli airstrike as Sudan has claimed. Israel says it neither confirms nor denies being behind it. Sudan, in turn, denied on Monday that Iran had any connection to the factory's production.

In a show of support for the two countries' alliance, two Iranian warships ? a helicopter carrier and destroyer that had been conducting anti-piracy patrols off East Africa's coast ? docked this week at Sudan's main Red Sea port. The Iranian commanders were holding talks with Sudanese officers as part of the countries' "exchange of amicable relations," Sudan's military spokesman said.

Sudan's Foreign Ministry dismissed allegations of an Iranian connection to the Yarmouk facility, saying "Iran does not need to manufacture weapons in Sudan, be it for itself or for its allies."

Experts say that Sudan's value to Iran is not in its modest weapons production capabilities, but in its vast desert expanses that provide cover for weapons convoys bound for Gaza through Egypt's lawless Sinai Peninsula. Israel has long contended that Iran uses the route to supply Hamas. It appears to have struck the supply line at least once before, when a convoy in a remote part of Sudan was blasted by explosions in 2009 ? though Israel never admitted to the attack.

The question now is: What would prompt Israel to conduct a bolder strike hitting a Sudanese government facility in the heart of the capital Khartoum?

The target may have been 40 shipping containers that satellite images show were stacked in the factory compound days before the explosion. Post-explosion imagery released Saturday by the Satellite Sentinel Project, a U.S. monitoring group, show six 52-foot-wide craters all centered at the spot where the containers had been, the blast's epicenter.

The group said the craters were consistent with an airstrike and that whatever it hit was a "highly volatile cargo," causing a powerful explosion that destroyed at least two structures in the compound and sent ordnance flying into nearby neighborhoods.

What was in the containers remains unknown ? leaving observers to speculate.

Retired Israeli Brigadier General Shlomo Brom, a military expert, said there is a "strong possibility" that Israel had identified an "imminent threat" within the factory.

Brom, a research associate at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, said the containers could have been part of Iran's efforts to smuggle "a new category of weapons" to Gaza. The weapons could be "something with air defense capability ... or could very well belong to the category of rockets and missiles, but just larger, stronger, and longer range," he said.

Gen. Sameh Seif Elyazal, a former Egyptian army general, said his understanding was that a strike was carried out against short-range missiles being assembled in the factory "under Iranian supervision," bound for the Hamas and Hezbollah militant groups. He said that his analysis was based on "private conversations with Israeli officials" that had been conveyed to him through others. He did not elaborate.

Elyazal said Iranian-made weapons smuggled through Sudan reach Hamas militants in Gaza and Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon.

"Iran wants to put Israel under pressure from the north, through Hezbollah and from the east through Gaza," he said.

Iran has long backed Hamas, which took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007. Iran's relations with Hamas have been strained after the Palestinian militant group this year cut its ties with Syria ? Tehran's biggest Arab ally ? over that country's bloody civil war. Iran has since cut back some aid to the group, but a senior Hamas leader visited Tehran last month and Hamas officials say the group's military wing in particular continues to receive funding from Iran.

Iran "has sought alternate routes" for its arms shipments to Hamas after Israel cracked down on maritime lanes direct to Gaza that Tehran previously used, said Michael Eisenstadt, Director of the Military and Security Studies Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

The Sudan route "complicates matters for Israel," he said.

Hezbollah is another possible destination. But despite the civil war, Syria is believed to remain the primary route for Tehran to supply its powerful Shiite guerrilla ally in Lebanon.

Iranian arms shipments gain added significance amid the dispute of Iran's nuclear program, which Israel and the U.S. contend is aimed at producing a bomb. Israel has held out the possibility of attacking Iranian nuclear facilities. Iran denies any intention to build a bomb and has warned it will retaliate for any Israeli attack ? raising fears Hezbollah, Hamas or other Iranian-backed militant groups would carry out strikes on Israel.

Speaking to Israel Radio after the Wednesday explosion in Khartoum, Israeli Vice Premier Moshe Yaalon said "there's no doubt that there is an axis of weapons from Iran via Sudan that reaches us, and not just us."

The contentions surrounding last week's explosion also point to the close ties between Iran and Sudan, dating back to the 1989 coup that brought President Omar al-Bashir to power, when Iran's Revolutionary Guard helped supply him weapons.

Though wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged atrocities in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, al-Bashir visited Tehran most recently in August for a Nonaligned Movement summit. Iran has made significant investments in water and engineering projects in Sudan.

China is the main arms source for Sudan's government. But Iran, which signed a military relations deal with Khartoum in 2008, is also a supplier.

Notably, Khartoum appears to receive Iranian drones to use in its multiple domestic wars against rebel groups, said Jonah Leff, who monitors Sudan for the Small Arms Survey. Rebels shot down two such drones, in 2008 and in March this year.

An Iranian role at the Yarmouk facility remains uncertain. The facility, which opened in 1996, was touted by Sudan as a source of pride, showing its weapons manufacturing capabilities. Still, the factory only produces ammunition. Leff said there is no evidence Iranian weapons are being assembled there, suggesting it was beyond the facility's capabilities.

But, he said, workers from Yarmouk have traveled to Iran for training.

There have also been reports of Iranian experts residing at Yarmouk, said Hani Raslan, an expert on Sudan at the Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo. Raslan also said he suspects the strike was aimed at weakening the Iranian arms smuggling network.

Fawaz A. Gerges, who heads the Middle East Center at the London School of Economics, says the strike has its symbolic aspect as well, allowing Israel to "flex its muscle and capacity and will to strike."

"Regardless of what particular weapons were destroyed, Israel sent a message to Sudan and to Iran," Gerges said.

___

Associated Press writers Sarah El Deeb in Cairo, Lauren E. Bohn and Josef Federman in Jerusalem, and Brian Murphy in Dubai contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-10-30-Sudan-Iran/id-5b0a2b6678b84d49a7fb3d6d60ae0244

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Nick Leopard: Wall Street's new 'It' Guy - The Term Sheet: Fortune's ...

Nick Leopard, 32, on the roof of Accordion's office in downtown Manhattan

FORTUNE -- Pam Hendrickson needed reinforcements. Recently the chief operating officer of the Riverside Co., a private equity firm that owns more than 80 companies on four continents with combined sales of $3.2 billion, was trying to deliver a five-year budget for all of Riverside's operations. She found herself shorthanded -- one key employee was on maternity leave, another had just left -- and the task required masterful financial modeling skills. In a bind, she turned to Nick Leopard. Says Hendrickson: "Anytime we need analytic help, Nick is my first call."

Leopard, 32, is the CEO of Accordion Partners, a financial services consulting firm that he founded in late 2009. Leopard and his team of 25 bankers act as a sort of rapid-response unit that can drop into a private equity firm or one of its portfolio companies and fix problems of all kinds -- temporarily expanding management's capacity, as the name Accordion suggests. "As much as private equity firms push, the management teams at their portfolio companies often can't build extremely complex forecasts," says Leopard. "So then there are surprises that no one saw coming." Leopard specializes in minimizing those unwanted surprises.

MORE: Private equity's golden hangover

A former lacrosse goalie at Saint Joseph's University, Leopard began his career at the commercial lender CapitalSource (CSE) in 2002 before moving to investment banking at Bear Stearns in 2005. In 2007 he joined the investment team at BHC Interim Funding, a $200 million mezzanine debt fund. Along the way he formed a network of future clients like Providence Equity Partners and Riverside.

As the financial crisis unfolded in 2008, Leopard concluded that Wall Street was going to change: Headcounts would shrink, dealmaking would slow, and buyout firms would have to hold on to portfolio companies longer. He sensed an opportunity. "You could see that the buyout firms were going to get strapped but would still want to give their portfolio companies extra help when the economy slowed," he says. Leopard has purposely kept Accordion's business model flexible. For example, his team can advise on M&A transactions like an investment bank. But unlike a bank, which makes fees on completed deals, Accordion bills strictly for its bankers' time. The firm is paid even if the deal doesn't get done, so there's no built-in incentive to push for a bad transaction.

In September, Accordion launched a new practice called CFO Leadership Services. The idea is to help companies manage investor relations, risk management, compliance, and crisis situations. Leopard says he sees another void in the market in those areas. And he's ready to fill it.

This story is from the November 12, 2012 issue of Fortune.

Source: http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2012/10/30/accordion-nick-leopard/

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BP raises dividend as Q3 profit swells 5 percent

LONDON (AP) ? Oil company BP is rewarding long-suffering shareholders with a substantial dividend increase just days after it sold a stake in a Russian joint venture for billions of dollars.

BP also revealed Tuesday that it made a net profit of $5.5 billion in the third quarter, more than offsetting the $1.34 billion loss reported in the previous three months when the company wrote down the value of some assets. It was also 5 percent higher than last year's equivalent of $5.2 billion.

Most interest came with the news that BP was raising its quarterly dividend 12.5 percent to 9 cents per share. The company's shares were up 3.4 percent to 439.3 pence in early trading in London.

"BP's performance and the strong progress we are making in transforming the company give us the confidence to increase distributions to our shareholders," said Chief Executive Bob Dudley.

"We are on track with our strategy to 2014 and are laying the right foundations for sustainable growth during the coming decade."

Last week, BP announced it was selling its 50 percent share in Russian oil company TNK-BP to state-controlled rival Rosneft for $17.1 billion cash and a 12.84 percent stake in Rosneft. BP also agreed to buy a further 5.66 percent stake in Rosneft for $4.8 billion.

"I believe our agreement will remove considerable uncertainty for our shareholders about BP's future in Russia and will secure for BP a valuable and truly distinctive position in one of the world's largest and most important oil and gas provinces," Dudley said.

BP has faced a difficult few years ever since a big and costly oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010. The company booked another $59 million in costs related to the spill in the third quarter, raising the nine-month total to $882 million.

BP said it expects to make the final payment this year into a $20 billion trust fund to compensate losses from the Macondo well blowout, in which 11 people died. Since the disaster in 2010, BP has announced disposals of assets valued at $35 billion toward its goal of $38 billion.

Elsewhere, BP said its replacement cost profit, a key industry benchmark, during the period was $4.7 billion, down from $5.3 billion a year earlier. It blamed lower oil prices and production and higher costs. Revenue of $93.1 billion was also down from $97.7 billion a year earlier.

Production of oil and gas, excluding TNK-BP, was down 3 percent compared to a year ago at 2.26 million barrels a day. BP said it expects higher production in the fourth quarter as its maintenance season ends and new projects make a contribution.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bp-raises-dividend-q3-profit-swells-5-percent-075949502--finance.html

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Twitter Fiction | The Cornell Daily Sun

Ever thought that choosing just the right 140 characters for your latest tweet was something of an art form?

Twitter agrees with you. From Nov. 28 to Dec. 2, Twitter will hold its first ?Twitter Fiction Festival.? According to Twitter's blog, this ?virtual storytelling celebration? will feature ?creative experiments in storytelling from authors around the world.? Everyone is invited to submit a proposal, and Twitter plans to announce the selected authors and festival agenda Nov. 19.

This is not Twitter?s first foray into fiction. In 2009, Alexandere Acimen and Emmet Rensin launched Twitterature, a project that boiled down 80 of the greatest works of Western fiction to a few tweets a piece. Think Cliffnotes on drugs written with text message abbreviations. (A sample from Hamlet: ?WTF IS POLONIUS DOING BEHIND THE CURTAIN????). Similar experiments have been done with the Bible (@biblesummary summarizes whole Bible chapters in single tweets) and Ulysses (a group of Joyce fans boiled every eight pages down to a single tweet). What they all have in common is summarization and immediacy. Long, difficult books are simplified and condensed, making them immediately more accessible to contemporary or less educated audiences. Although these are noteworthy first experiments, they do not use Twitter as a literary medium. The tweets are meant as summaries, not as stand-alone literature.

The Guardian has taken things a step further. In October, they challenged 21 well-known writers to compose 140 character stories. These attempts resemble flash fiction, very short fiction of just a few hundred words. Because of their brevity, many of these stories hint or suggest conflict rather than fully delineate plot and characters. Ian Rankin?s tweet is an especially good example: ?I opened the door to our flat and you were standing there, cleaver raised. Somehow you?d found out about the photos. My jaw hit the floor.? In just 140 characters, the tweet accomplishes much of what an entire short story does. There are characters, although we don't know who they are. There is conflict, although we are not sure of its specifics. There is setting, although it is not fully detailed. Already, we can guess at the relationship between the two characters and fill in some backstory about the problematic photos. While this is really good flash fiction, it?s not Twitter fiction. These pieces could very easily appear in print and not be read any differently. Although they limit their words a little more stringently than most flash fiction, the stories do not fully engage Twitter as a time-based, interactive medium.

A couple writers have moved beyond summarization and flash fiction. This past May, Jennifer Egan (who wrote Visit from the Goon Squad) tweeted an entire short story through The New Yorker?s Twitter account. The tweets for ?Black Box,? a science fiction story about a spy living in the Mediterranean, were released a minute at a time, an hour a day, for ten days straight. Unlike the previous examples, Egan's story did not confine itself to a single tweet and therefore falls outside the realm of flash fiction. Instead, it was fully-fleshed out and time-based. The delay between released segments slowed down the read, putting it in the same arena as serial fiction and television programs. While the story successfully explored Twitter as a time-based medium for reading, it did not explore it as a time-based medium for writing. Egan?s tweets were all written beforehand. She was not composing them as she went along, nor was her narrative interspersed with real-time tweets from followers.

In her critique of ?Black Box,? BuzzFeed?s Anne Trubek claims that Egan?s story left out some of the key elements of Twitter such as scrolling backwards, responding to other tweets and unrelated tweets popping up. As Trubek rightly points out, Egan?s story doesn?t take advantage of Twitter as an interactive medium, only as a serial one.

However, there are a few authors who have done so. In ?Small Fates,? Cole crafts stories around short news clippings, what he has called ?news of the weird? and ?strange little things.? Given Twitter?s importance as a journalistic medium, Cole?s stories seem to have matched form with content. There?s also Dan Sinker?s hilariously profane fake Twitter account, @MayorEmanuel, which satirized Rahm Emanuel's mayoral campaign. The fake account, which attracted a wide following for the five months it ran, took advantage of Twitter as a tool for self-promotion as well as for social activism and critique.

I think there?s more to explore. Come November 28, I hope to see writers not just writing for Twitter but writing with Twitter, crafting their stories in 140 characters at a time, opening themselves up to the improvisation and interactivity of the form.

Source: http://www.cornellsun.com/section/arts/content/2012/10/30/twitter-fiction

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Tuesday, October 30, 2012

News Summary: Pandora refreshes apps

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/news-summary-pandora-refreshes-apps-212736107--finance.htmlcruise ship sinking vernon davis

Health fair focuses on cancer | WLFI - Lafayette, Indiana

LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - A health fair at Lafayette Jefferson High School on Sunday focused on life before, with, and after cancer.

More than 40 local businesses had booths at Sunday's event promoting healthy lifestyles. Purdue Oncological Sciences Center representative Susan McCreery said the event highlights local resources for people living with cancer.

McCreery said those resources are helping people look good and feel good while fighting a tough battle. She said many of the resources are free.

"We have the YWCA here and they service more than 23 counties and I don't think people are aware of all the services that are available in Lafayette," said McCreery. "We have salons here that offer free wigs, they do eyebrows, permanent eyebrows, for men and women who have lost their eyebrows in the cancer journey. It's just a resource event open to the community."

The event lasted until 8:00 Sunday evening.

Source: http://www.wlfi.com/dpp/news/local/health-fair-focuses-on-cancer

chris herren

Storm shows retailers rely on brick and mortar

Michael Reynolds / EPA

A shopper looks at mostly empty shelves in the water section of a Target store ahead of Hurricane Sandy in Alexandria, Va., Oct. 29, 2012.

By Allison Linn, NBC News

Hurricane Sandy is serving as a reminder that while Americans love the convenience of buying things with the click of a mouse, when disaster strikes they still rely on the physical store.

?A storm is where you almost kind of kick back to old school,? said Brian Sozzi, a retail industry analyst and editor of Decoding Wall St., a newsletter.

That could be good news for chains like Wal-Mart and Target, who in recent years have faced fierce competition from aggressive online-only retailers such as Amazon.com. That?s led to speculation that the old-fashioned, brick-and-mortar strategy was becoming obsolete.

?Everyone?s saying that brick-and-mortar retailing is dead. All you need to do is go to Amazon right now and type in ?hurricane preparation? and nothing comes up,? Sozzi noted.

(In fact, a search for that phrase on Amazon.com resulted in listings for Season One of the television show ?Dawson?s Creek,? the book ?Hurricane Punch? and a video called ?Hurricane Preparation Video, Emergency Preparedness Series.?)

It?s true that people who are within hours of being hit by a hurricane don?t have the luxury of waiting a day, let alone a week, for their food supplies and candles to show up in a brown box.

Same-day delivery, which some online retailers have experimented with, may not help in an emergency situation, when delivery trucks may not be cleared to head out.

Still, experts say that retailers are making a big mistake if they ignore technology completely at a time like this. In fact, smart retailers can use their websites, Facebook pages and other technology to help consumers figure out what stores are open, and who has items in stock.

Tom Aiello, a spokesman for Sears Holdings, which includes Sears and Kmart, said the retailer is doing just that, targeting customers in the vast storm-affected area with e-mails, website banners and Facebook posts.

The retailer also is making use of technology that lets consumers see what items are in stock nearby, including storm essentials like generators and chain saws.

?Sears and Kmart have been around in these communities for a number of years. They?ve always had a history of working in these communities,? Aiello said. ?What?s different is this technology and how that?s really helping.?

Wal-Mart is keeping a list of storm-related store closures on a portion of its website reserved for disaster response. The company also posted a link to ready.gov, the government preparedness website, on its Facebook page.??

Wal-Mart spokesman Kory Lundberg said the retailer was using local Facebook pages and geo-targeted Facebook posts to keep people in the affected area up to date on store openings and other information.

Target posted an image of the Hurricane Sandy forecast along with a list of store closures. The company also said that it was bringing extra supplies, such as batteries and food, into stores in the area.

Sozzi, the retail analyst, was pleased to see that some retailers were making an effort to use technology to better serve customers heading to a physical store.

Jim Sinegal, Co-founder and former CEO of Costco, explains how retailers keep their shelves stocked ahead of the storm, and the potential impact on the election.

Still, he said he would have liked to see retailers get a lot more aggressive about communicating to customers that such tools are available.

He said most customers still probably aren?t aware that they could go to a website and check on store inventories, and instead are relying on old-fashioned methods like calling stores and driving from location to location.

?I think across the board, everybody has done a lame job,? he said.

More business news:

Source: http://bottomline.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/29/14783169-storm-shows-retailers-rely-on-brick-and-mortar-despite-technology?lite

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Cute Alert! Meet Lauren Conrad's Adorable New Puppy

Lauren Conrad introduces her puppy, Fitz, to the world! Plus, check out more stars' cute, candid and crazy Twitter photos

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/celebrity-twitter-pictures/1-b-229669?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Acelebrity-twitter-pictures-229669

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Bodog88 launches in Vietnam - Online Gambling News

Press Releases
October 29, 2012
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bodog88-logo Bodog88.com has now launched sports betting and casino in Vietnamese, poker will come online at the end of 2012. As with any launch in a new region the bespoke needs of the customer have been the key part in how the site is structured. Vietnam is very different in its online gaming consumption to other Asian markets.

Bodog88?s Managing Director, Robert Gustafsson, explains:

?Vietnam has been overlooked by many online gaming companies which is surprising for a number of reasons, not least a population of over 90,000,000. But, equally crucially, they are sports mad and love to bet in the same way the Chinese gamers love casino, with European soccer betting being at the top of the list.?

He added: ?Vietnam, like so many countries in Asia, also has a rapidly growing economy and, having first mover advantage in these countries, will be, I feel, extremely beneficial to Bodog88.?

Bodog88 offers both Traditional and Simplified Chinese, Thai, English and now Vietnamese. In the near-term Bodog88 will look to consolidate and enhance its product offering to these regions before launching elsewhere.

For further information please call:

BodogBrand.com?s International Press Office (London), on +44 7825 064 776

If you have any further information related to this story that you would like to share with us privately please click here.

Can't get enough CalvinAyre.com? Follow us on Twitter and Facebook, then you'll never miss out on the latest gaming industry news.

Views and opinions expressed are those of the Author and do not necessarily reflect those of CalvinAyre.com

Source: http://calvinayre.com/2012/10/29/press-releases/bodog88-launches-in-vietnam/

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Week 12 Biology- Bridging Genetics with Evolution and Ecology

SB2: Genetics: SWBAT identify mutations in a chromosomes. SB2: SWBAT determine how biological traits are??inherited.??

EQ/Learning Target: In medicine, how do scientists use DNA and gene "signatures" to determine genetic conditions in chromosomal mapping (Karyotype)?

Opening: My fellow doctors, thank you for attending the 2012 GCWC (Genetic Conditions World Conference). Your expertise in examining the chromosome karyotypes of four patients is needed to determine where mutations are occuring on the chromosomes and the genetic condtions. Please refer to these websites and then examine the patient profiles. Thank you for your assistance.

Work Session:?

Monday - Wednesday?

1. Multiple Alleles and Polyentic Traits:?ABO blood typing lab (in Class).?? (page 4o IAN)

2. Exploring Chromosome Matching:

3) ?Explore Chromosome Control:

Assignment: Go to this website: http://genome.wellcome.ac.uk/node30086.html

select "chromosome tour".
select?5 chromosomes. Determine the?function each chromosome?plays in your body and the role of genetic conditions.?????
?Assignment: ?A) Draw the chromosome shape. B) Write?down the number of genes on the chromsome and?C) Write down two?important facts about that chromosome?- look at the gene locations?that are marked with letters and numbers on the left side. Thursday??Mendelian Centers and EOCTCell Organelles Review: Introduction to Evolution and Ecology

4) Go to this website: Chromosome Disorder Karyotypes

Assignment: Page 40-41 in IAN: From the webstie above, read the symptoms of patient 1-4 and examine their karyotype. Based on the chromosome errors and the phenotype description, determine the genetic conditionof each patient. On the bottom of page 40, Write down the genetic condition?for each patient.

Friday? (GENETICS UNIT TEST on FRIDAY) Chapter 9,10,11, and 12

Closing: This week?we examined chromosome karyotypes and learned how?mutations errors in the transcription and translation of proteins can cause genetic conditions.?

Assignment...Reflection #5:??In the back of your IAN, please reflect (write) how the study of Genetics?can benefit from the information you learned?about chromosome karyotypes? (use?information?from 3 chromosomes that you reseached as evidence of understanding your learning target.?

Reflection 5: ?In medicine, how do scientists use DNA and gene "signatures" to determine genetic conditions in chromosomal mapping (Karyotype)?

Source: http://osbornehighschool.typepad.com/aughey/2012/10/sb2-genetics-swbat-identify-mutations-in-a-chromosomes-sb2-swbat-determine-how-biological-traits-areinherited-eqlearn.html

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No early withdrawal tax penalty on 401(k) for retiree ? Business ...

Q. I am age 57 and plan to retire this year. Do I have to wait 2? years to take 401(k) withdrawals? L.T., Little Egg Harbor, N.J.

A. No. The general rule says you must pay a 10% tax penalty, in addition to regular income tax, if you take the money before age 59?. However, there are several exceptions to the 10% penalty, including one for withdrawals taken by someone who ?separates from service? and is at least 55 years old (as opposed to 59?). You apparently qualify for the age-55 exception.

Note: The age-55 exception to the 10% penalty is not available for early IRA withdrawals (before age 59?).

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Source: http://www.businessmanagementdaily.com/32987/no-early-withdrawal-tax-penalty-on-401k-for-retiree

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Build it and they won't come - The Next Web

The buzz on ?growth hacking? has spread all across the world. Classes on growth hacking are being taught in Singapore. Companies from San Francisco to London are recruiting growth hackers. The first Growth Hacking Conference popped up a few weeks ago. This rapid craze beseeches an explanation. Why has growth hacking so strongly resonated with the startup community?

One explanation is that ?growth hacking? is just a catchy way to rebrand marketers, but this begs the question as to why ?growth hacking? went viral in the first place. The real answer is that the phrase ?growth hacking? caught fire because of its particular emphasis on growth, which determines the life and death of every startup.

Startups are facing growth challenges that were not apparent a few years ago. The platitude ?build it and they will come??made popular by the movie Field of Dreams?has since died and is now an antique of the dot-com era. Growth hacking has resonated in the startup community due to today?s growth challenges: new channel creation, channel saturation, the ?best product? fallacy and ?product-growth? fit.

Channel instability

The creation and destruction of channels is a common occurrence today. In early 2012, Pinterest became an overnight sensation and is now a major source of traffic for women-focused sites. This month, Facebook released a new site-wide paid promotion feature. On the other end of the spectrum, MySpace, Delicious, Digg, Friendster and numerous others are all hallmarks of how quickly growth can unravel.

Deloitte?s Shift Index, which tracks economic competitiveness, has shown a long-run decline in a firm?s ability to retain market leadership. Over the course of the past decade, a firm?s lifespan as a market leader has fallen by an average of between five and seven years. This shift occurred due to the rapid pace of innovation with the onset of the Internet, the proliferation of information and the empowerment of consumers with a mind-numbing number of choices.

Firms across industries have struggled to keep pace with this instability, as new channels usually result in market encroachment. A new channel presents both opportunities and dangers to market leaders. Growth opportunities are large with new channels but doors can open and close very quickly. Market leaders may be left behind.

Channel saturation

For every one successful company, there are several other bright and savvy startups trying to solve the same market problem but in a different way. With the cost of starting and running a startup at all time lows, it is now easier than ever to attempt to take market share.

From this competitive market, existing channels tend to go through cycles from newness?rapid, cheap growth?to saturation?slow, expensive growth. For example, Viddy?s and SocialCam?s integration with the newly released Facebook OpenGraph explains the majority of their rapid growth.

But this door quickly closed: Facebook changed the OpenGraph?s parameters due to, in its view, a bad user experience with over-optimized and aggressive video posting. Since this change in the OpenGraph, both products have seen their traffic decline.

Paid advertising channels follow the same pattern. Andrew Chen said CTRs have fallen from a high of 78 percent in 1994 (via HotWire) to .05 percent CTR on Facebook in 2011. Whether free or paid, a successful distribution channel typically becomes saturated quickly as competitors jump in. These channels will eventually run their courses and flatline, producing diminishing returns, until a market player rethinks how the channel is utilized for greater arbitrage.

The best product fallacy

The once-iconic perspective that products ?sell themselves? online has died. The best products do not always win. The inception of the distracted, self-interested and overloaded online consumer ended this rouse. ?If anyone tells you products sell themselves, they probably want you to fail?, said Phil Libin, co-founder and CEO of Evernote.

Tech companies naturally lean and rely on technologists to create value for their firm; however, the market has a long history of ignoring technology in favor of products that understand people. The list of the top ten best selling automobiles in the U.S. has little to do with high quality and more to do with marketing, customer satisfaction and customer service. The classic Betamax and VHS battle had little to do with a superior product and more to do with a superior distribution strategy.

Today, a stronger distribution strategy can beat a superior product. Go-to-market strategy is just as important as a good product roadmap. ?The number one reason that we pass on entrepreneurs we?d otherwise like to back is focusing on product to the exclusion of everything else,? Marc Andreessen said. ?Many entrepreneurs who build great products simply don?t have a good distribution strategy. Even worse is when they insist that they don?t need one, or call no distribution strategy a ?viral marketing strategy.??

Product-growth fit

Startup advisers and successful entrepreneurs regularly evangelize that product-market fit as the number one challenge of a startup. Even after product-market fit is discovered, startups will still struggle to find the right channel to leverage to grow. Typically, startups think distribution or ?marketing? will be the easy part. Thus, their growth strategy is often scattered with numerous possible channels.

Speaking on distribution and marketing Simon Rothman, founder of Glyde and former head of Ebay motors, said on Ethan Austin?s blog, ?Startups don?t fail for a lack for ideas, they fail for a lack of focus and prioritization.?

After discovering product-market fit, finding ?product-growth fit? is the second most daunting challenge for a startup. Product-growth fit is finding the most effective and efficient means to distribute your product or service. With hundreds of possible channels, a startup?s challenge is to move quickly to find the right method to acquire a customer and monetize that customer. The most effective methods today may change tomorrow by channel saturation and the appearance of new channels.

Growth hacking as a response

Growth hacking started to spread as a market-driven response to the above challenges. Long before Sean Ellis first wrote about growth hacking two years ago, smart marketers and product people were growth hacking without the phrase or the title. Over time these growth challenges have become nearly universal and the ?growth hacking? term appeared.

In response to channel instability and channel saturation, growth hackers quickly test and scale to be the first mover in a new channel and to rethink established channels to create new opportunities. A core element of growth hacking is testing new distribution paradigms. The ?hacker? element of ?growth hacker? refers to the ability of an individual to solve growth-related problems, not coding ability (see Design for Hackers). A growth hacker looks for opportunity creatively and is not satisfied with what is known to work for growth today.

In response to the best product fallacy and product-growth fit, growth hackers seek to leverage product as way to scale a growth strategy and ?bake-in? growth concepts that are organic to usage. The primary goal with product for a growth hacker is to utilize the user base to create sustainable growth, also called an ?engine for growth? by Eric Ries. A warning sign is a ?leaky bucket?, which is a massive hole in the gas tank for the growth engine. This reflects superficial growth and bad product-market fit.

Growth hackers appeared on the startup scene out of a need. It is much harder to grow today than in the past. When you build it, users won?t come. A growth hacker understands this challenge and lives to convince users to try something and to stick with it.

Image Credit: STR/Getty Images

Source: http://thenextweb.com/entrepreneur/2012/10/28/build-it-and-they-wont-come-how-and-why-growth-hacking-came-to-be/

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Monday, October 29, 2012

Video: Coast Guard rescues ship in distress

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/49602929/

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Brain stimulation gives tics to those without Tourette's

For the first time, one of the tics that bedevil people with Tourette's has been induced in volunteers who don't themselves have the disorder, an experiment that might help us to understand and even treat the condition.

Jennifer Finis of Heinrich Heine University in D?sseldorf, Germany, and her colleagues suspected that a type of Tourette's tic called echophenomena, which involves mimicking other's movements, may be caused by over-excitation of the supplementary motor area (SMA) ? a brain region involved in the initiation of movement.

To investigate further, her team used a non-invasive technique called repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), which involves delivering brief but strong magnetic pulses to the scalp. By changing the frequency of rTMS, the stimulation could either inhibit or excite the SMA.

Thirty seconds before and after rTMS, 30 volunteers were shown video clips of someone making a spontaneous movement. Those who'd had their SMA excited were three times as likely to imitate the kind of behaviour they saw in the clips than those who'd had it suppressed.

"We suspect that this is a mechanism that might underlie tics more generally than just echophenomena in people with Tourette's syndrome," says Peter Enticott of Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, who worked on the study.

Recent studies have found mirror neurons in the human SMA (Current Biology, doi.org/dfp4j6). Mirror neurons are known to fire when we watch others perform actions. Could these SMA mirror neurons be involved in inducing echophenomena when the SMA is stimulated in volunteers without Tourette's?

"Yes, this could indeed provide an explanation," says Marcel Brass of Ghent University in Belgium, who studies echophenomena. "Alternatively, the SMA has also been related to internal control of action. So interfering with this region might make participants more susceptible to [echophenomena]."

The team is now planning to study whether inhibiting the SMA using rTMS may help reduce symptoms in people with Tourette's.

Matthias Wittfoth of the Hannover Medical School in Germany, says that he sees the findings as "a valuable first step towards the understanding of specific symptoms of people suffering from Tourette's syndrome".

But he advises caution while interpreting the results. He points out that the researchers did not use computer-assisted technology to deliver the rTMS signals precisely to the SMA, something that the researchers themselves acknowledge. "We cannot be sure that the same brain areas were stimulated in each participant," says Wittfoth. Moreover, of the 30 individuals who participated in the experiment, only seven were males. "Tourette's syndrome affects proportionally more men, thus their experimental group including mostly women does not reflect this," says Wittfoth.

Journal reference: Cortex, doi.org/jmj

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Affordable Website Designers Boost Small Business Website ...

Affordable website designers are professional teams or firms which can pull together a positive website design package for small businesses for the right price. Small businesses often rush to establish an online presence in the hopes of garnering lots of traffic and online sales. Many will contract with web designers without investigating the designer's track record or web portfolio. The lure is a really cheap price with the promise of a top spot in the search engines within days. What they get for their investment is usually a template or "cookie-cutter" website that fails to differentiate the business from its competitors. Further, there is usually no immediate increase in traffic or sales as "promised."

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An online business presence should be easily tied to the physical aspects of the small business. The business logo, if it exists, is the primary thematic element tying the on and offline business together. Affordable website designers ensure the business logo is incorporated into the website theme. If no logo exists, graphic artists can produce several options for selection. Once complete the logo is trademarked and incorporated into all aspects of the business. With the "branding" completed in the website design, a unique identity emerges for a professional online presence.

Content and linking strategies are the main tools of search engine optimisation (SEO). SEO is the process of making the website easily indexed and consumed by search engines. Natural, relevant and fresh content and links indicate the website has value and is used by the Internet consumer. Professional designers never use automated or randomly generated content to quickly over populate a website. A strategy for slow build-up of relevant, human readable content ensures quality traffic and higher placement with the search engines as an authoritative website. Investing in affordable website designers will pay a huge return on investment for a small business in repeat traffic and sales.

James Allen is author of this article. To know more about affordable website designers, website design Brisbane and ecommerce website developer, please visit http://www.totalwebdesign.com.au

Source: http://www.webarticlecollection.com/affordable-website-designers-boost-small-business-website-investment-returns/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=affordable-website-designers-boost-small-business-website-investment-returns

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Polls show new Israeli bloc will retain power

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