TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Two Libyan military officers were killed and three soldiers injured when unknown assailants forced their way into a military camp in the desert south, an army spokesman said on Saturday.
The early morning attack happened at the Tamahind base, which was previously a storage place for army equipment under ousted dictator Muammar Gaddafi and is near the desert town of Sabha, some 800 km (500 miles) south of the capital Tripoli.
Sabha residents contacted by phone said the attackers came in eight cars before fleeing.
"They came in by cars, shooting. Two officers were killed and three others were injured," Ali al-Sheikhli, spokesman for the army chief of staff, said. "An investigation is under way."
General Ramadan al-Barasi, military governor for the south, was not in the camp during the attack but his assistant Musa al-Awami was among the casualties, Sheikhli said.
In the chaos since Gaddafi's fall in 2011, the North African country's vast desert south has become a smuggling route for weapons which have reached al Qaeda militants deeper in the Sahara. The lawless region is also a conduit for trafficking legal and contraband goods.
Libya's national congress declared the south a military zone in December and ordered the temporary closure of borders with Algeria, Niger, Chad and Sudan.
The decree gave the defense ministry powers to appoint a military governor with authority to arrest fugitives from justice and deport illegal immigrants.
(Reporting by Ali Shuaib; Writing by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Editing by Jason Webb)
In each issue of Distro, editor-in-chief Tim Stevens publishes a wrap-up of the week in news.
At a rather vitriolic (and frequently profane) presentation given to a small group of frequently bemused journalists (myself included), T-Mobile CEO John Legere laid out the company's reinvention. In the interest of keeping things PG I won't repeat the colorful language, but Legere accused the other major carriers of being not only confusing, but also misleading -- ignoring the fact that his own company has, for years, enacted the very same policies. No more. It's time for the UnCarrier to step up.
But, it's important to note that you'll be paying full price, or near to it, for your smartphone.
First is a series of contract-free Simple Choice plans, which are similar to those the company offered before. It's $50 for "unlimited talk + text + web" -- though the data use is indeed limited to 500MB. Stepping up to truly unlimited everything is $20 more, which is a fair bit cheaper than the biggest plans from competing carriers. But, it's important to note that you'll be paying full price, or near to it, for your smartphone.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) ? After a fire broke out at Dorothy Phillips' apartment in Philadelphia, the Red Cross gave her a temporary place to stay. Unfortunately, the shelter would not accept her beloved dog, Max.
Who would care for him while she looked for a new home?
"As far as I'm concerned, he's one of my grandbabies," Phillips said.
Max is now being boarded in a kennel in a Philadelphia suburb thanks to Red Paw, an animal rescue group that has a unique partnership with the southeastern Pennsylvania chapter of the American Red Cross.
While Red Cross workers tend to human victims of residential disasters like fires, floods or building collapses, Red Paw takes care of their animals.
The nearly 2-year-old agency uses a network of volunteers, foster homes and other animal welfare groups to care for pets whose owners are struggling to rebuild their lives. Help includes veterinary care, pet supplies and temporary boarding ? all free of charge.
"We don't want to see anyone lose their pet because of something completely out of their control," Red Paw founder Jen Leary said.
Leary started the nonprofit after seeing the heartbreak and confusion of too many pet owners during her work as a city firefighter and Red Cross volunteer. Red Paw then teamed up with the local Red Cross about 18 months ago.
Before Red Paw, the Red Cross had no uniform approach to handling displaced animals ? each case depended on the location of the disaster and the available responders, Red Cross spokesman Dave Schrader said.
Red Paw is now the go-to group whenever Red Cross clients need help with their animals. It's a model that Leary hopes to replicate in other states.
Schrader called Red Paw "invaluable" in helping victims cope with catastrophes.
"Knowing that their pets will be cared for certainly reduces the trauma," he said.
According to Leary, Red Paw responded to 164 disasters last year in Philadelphia and four surrounding counties, helping nearly 300 animals ? including dogs, cats, birds, turtles, ferrets and a snake. The group relies entirely on donations.
Red Paw volunteer Kat Nania recalled going out one snowy night in January after a fire had destroyed a house in southwest Philadelphia. A cat was missing, and its owner said the feline had just birthed a litter of kittens.
Nania feared the worst when she entered the ruins of the house ? its ceiling fallen in, broken glass everywhere, the interior staircase more like a hill than steps. But there, hiding behind a mirror, was a still-pregnant Tabitha.
"She was just so frightened, she let me scoop her up and put her in the carrier," Nania said. "When I felt her pregnant belly, I was just like, 'Yes!'"
Tabitha gave birth within a day of the rescue. But she and her kittens need a permanent home now; their owner could no longer care for them and surrendered the animals to Red Paw to put up for adoption.
"The goal is always to reunite people with their pets," Leary said. "But sometimes after losing everything they had, it's hard to do that."
Red Paw aims for reunification within a month, but Leary conceded it can take much longer. The agency was able to reunite 86 families with their pets last year; an additional three dozen animals were surrendered and re-adopted.
Max, the German shepherd-pit bull mix owned by Phillips, remains in the group's care while Phillips looks for a new home. She isn't sure when she'll have one, but she calls constantly to check on her dog.
In Philadelphia, the city's animal control organization will also respond to animals left homeless by disasters, executive director Susan Cosby said. But Red Paw's capacity for crisis response is valuable because it eases the burden on her agency, which deals with more than 32,000 stray and surrendered animals per year.
"They're able to work in a far more specialized way with the animals and families that they're helping," Cosby said, later adding: "We can't do it alone. There's just too much work to be done."
___
Online:
http://www.redpawemergencyreliefteam.org
http://www.acctphilly.org
http://www.redcrossphilly.org
___
Follow Kathy Matheson at www.twitter.com/kmatheson
Build a base with Tetris blocks, but don't get too far - those pesky red lines are out to get you
A hidden gem at GDC 2013 was tucked away at the PlayStation booth called Rymdkapsel. This is a minimalistic strategy game with some Tetris-style base expansion mechanics. Players have to collect resources, research new technologies, and defend themselves against the occasional wave of attackers.
Don?t look now, or rather, look now, because mobile internet?traffic is speeding past companies who have not embraced the single most important technology to developing business today. Only a few short years ago, the cumbersome desktop computer was king. It was only practical for office or home use. Taking it with you was dreadfully difficult and impractical. Internet caf??s popped up, and libraries could be used by those?travelling?or away from their computer to find directions, restaurants, shop, or find local businesses, such as car repair, urgent care centres, or a hotel. Along came the laptop computer. But now, the smart phone and iPad, and its tablet brethren, are flying off the shelves and into practical everyday use for the business person and citizen.
Related Posts: Will Mobile be King in 2013? Analyzing the Present and Predicting the Future! Announcing?InstantMobile our all-in-one Mobile Website Builder!
Does Your Business Website?Accommodate Mobile Browsers?
A majority of websites and companies have not prepared for the onslaught of business being done through mobile browsers and are missing out on billions of dollars in sales. Since buying services and products are not relegated only to local and regional businesses, it behooves companies to have a mobile version of their website to take advantage of the selling and informational opportunities presently before them. Sadly, most are not.
It is important to understand that the normal websites that don?t accommodate mobile browsers provide a poor visitor experience, and may actually turn off potential customers from your products and services. Therefore, having a site that is mobile-friendly may mean beating out a competitor, growing your business, increasing revenues, and attracting and retaining customers.
New technology is helping make this a simple and modestly priced venture for small and large companies. ?Responsive web design? is one of the hot new terms in the industry today, and we will discuss how it will assist the business owner or company in making certain they acquire as much market share as possible.
A company has three choices when considering whether to develop their website for the mobile browsing. But first, let us look at important statistics of smart phones and tablets to help give you some perspective on why developing your website for the mobile market is a wise investment.
Smart Phone and Tablet Statistics and Information
Today, 91 million Americans own a smart phone, and there are over 1 billion active ones globally in use. By 2014, there will be 90 million tablets in the hands of businesses and consumers. They should not be ignored.
Searching the internet for products, services, and events is the #2 use of the smart phone, while texting is first. Yes, there are significantly more texts going out than phone calls. What may be surprising is that the smart phone has become like a hand-held portable computer.
The buying demographic everyone wants is between 25 and 40, and this is where the majority of smart phone owners are. Moreover, these people have grown up using computer technology like many grew up using pencils and hand-held calculators.
In the recent past, smart phones were slow in uploading websites, information, games, or search, but now speeds are amazing, so this is no longer a deterrent. Because of the slowness, many companies opted out of what they thought would be an expensive design to wait for faster speeds. They are here. This means, if you have been sitting on the sidelines because of this, you no longer have an excuse to remain disengaged.
The fastest growing segment of mobile app and website development is with local businesses. 70% of business search is for local products and services. If you have ever used a smart phone to search for this time of entity, even today, it is likely that you were able to find a website that was neither user friendly nor intuitive. It obviously was not designed for mobile use. How did you feel? Probably like you wasted time. Again, with tremendously fast speeds, and the phone guts to handle the data, this no longer has to be an issue.
Tablets manufacturers have learned quite a bit from their older cousins, the smart phone, and have come to market more prepared for what the consumer wants when locating businesses. Again, it cannot be stressed enough that having your website optimized for these gadgets will help position you to take advantage of the financial and relational opportunities that exist and are coming.
3 Options for Mobile Web Design
Responsive web design uses new technology that allows the web developers to build a mobile site that is pictorially compelling, and easy to read and navigate without losing the essence that a standard site offers. In fact, this technology is being employed on standard internet websites, too. The coding allows for instant sizing of the page in conjunction with the type of web-based tool that is being used to view it, ie, the desktop, smart phone, or tablet.
Your company has three choices when deciding whether nor not to utilize this new technology and, therefore, be more competitive online.
Do Nothing ? There are many reasons why companies will not choose to embrace responsive web design, and they include, budget or cost, technical savvy, fear of the unknown, or simple disinterest. In an economy where competition for customer dollars has never been fiercer, none of these are acceptable. The trend is towards the mobile market, as we demonstrated. Let go your horse-and-buggy mentality because the Model A is rolling off the assembly line.
Develop a Separate Theme ? Responsive mobile web design allows you to develop a totally?separate?mobile theme that properly sizes the site and allows the user to engage with the site in a much more user friendly mode. In this version the available content is chosen strictly for the mobile version and in some instances the whole site is pared down to fewer pages than the normal site and streamlined for the mobile user.
New Website Optimized for Mobile Use ? The third and final choice you have as a company is to either start new with a website, or redesign your website from the outset utilizing the science behind responsive web design, which ultimately is about the user experience. The data on how people engage websites is prodigious, and so this is incorporated into this new way of preparing your site for both the mobile and desktop user for maximum effect and engagement. So no matter what size browser the person is using the coding will be responsive and allow them to see the entire site content (graphics, pictures, etc) in their chosen screen size. It will adapt to the user ? this is the way of the future.
Conclusion
In our ever-changing world we see obsolete technology and products all the time. What will never change is how important it is for businesses to understand how their customers and prospects engage them on the internet, whether it is from a desktop, laptop, smart phone or tablet. Having a website that intuitively makes adjustments to the site visitor so they can have the best user experience possible is now available through responsive website design. This technology will naturally evolve with the user, making it one of the most important innovations yet in website design and development. The question is, will you ignore the business opportunities this technology brings and dismiss mobile web development, or will you embrace it and reap the benefits?
Written By Jim Larson
Jim Larson writes about the internet for National News Daily.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- As many as 700,000 civilian employees at the Defense Department will be furloughed for as long as 14 work days beginning in June, eight fewer days than originally anticipated after Congress gave military officials greater flexibility to apportion automatic budget cuts driving the layoffs.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel described the reduction from 22 days to two weeks as "good news" during a Pentagon news conference Thursday.
Hagel also announced that President Barack Obama has nominated Air Force Gen. Philip M. Breedlove to take over as commander of all U.S. and NATO forces in Europe.
Furlough notices will be sent out in early May, and the furloughs will begin in June and last through September. Employees will be furloughed for one day in each of the last 14 weeks of the 2013 budget year.
The thorny issue of who will be exempt from the furloughs remains unresolved. Pentagon officials have estimated that at least 10 percent of the department's roughly 800,000 civilian workers will not face furloughs, but they have declined to identify them.
The Pentagon previously has said it will not furlough civilians in the war zone and in critical public safety jobs, or people whose jobs are not paid for through congressional funding. Also exempt are as many as 50,000 foreign nationals who work for the department but are covered by international agreements.
The automatic cuts took effect March 1, triggered by Congress' failure to trim the federal deficit by $1.2 trillion over a decade. The Pentagon initially faced a $46 billion budget reduction through Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year, but Hagel said a new spending bill signed by Obama this week lowered the reduction by roughly $5 billion. That allows the military to start military construction projects and other programs that otherwise would have been delayed.
The furloughs are expected to save about $2.5 billion, Hagel said.
Before the bill was signed, civilians would have been required to take one day a week off without pay for 22 weeks ? a 20 percent pay cut for more than five months. The spending bill gave officials the leeway to lessen the salary cuts and spread money around to other key priorities, including training, maintenance and possible ship deployments.
As an example, the Navy had delayed refueling overhauls of two aircraft carriers, the USS Theodore Roosevelt and the USS Abraham Lincoln ? critical maintenance work that officials said would be a priority if additional funding became available.
Breedlove is the top Air Force commander in Europe. If he's confirmed by the Senate, he would be the first Air Force general to hold the top NATO job since Joseph Ralston served there from 2000-2003. Breedlove would succeed Navy Adm. James Stavridis, who has held the job since 2009.
Obama chose Breedlove after his first choice for the job, Marine Gen. John Allen, announced he would retire after 19 months commanding allied forces in Afghanistan because of his wife's health.
Hagel, who said he met with Breedlove on his way back from a recent trip to Afghanistan, urged the Senate to confirm him quickly.
"We need to get that position filled," he said.
Obama said Breedlove has "served with distinction in assignments at all levels of the U.S. Air Force and around the globe, from Washington to Germany, Italy, Spain and South Korea."
NEW YORK (AP) ? Martin Scorsese is developing a TV series based on his 2002 film "Gangs of New York."
The director is partnering with Miramax, which released the Oscar-nominated film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Daniel Day-Lewis. The planned show doesn't yet have a TV network.
The series expands on the brutal, 19th-century New York gang world of the film. Miramax says the series will chronicle the birth of organized crime in not just New York but also in cities such as Chicago and New Orleans.
In a statement Thursday, Scorsese says the era was too rich to fully explore in a two-hour film. He says the series "allows us the time and creative freedom to bring this colorful world, and all the implications it had and still does on our society, to life."
The Bend Parks & Rec. passed their bond and we know we?ve got an ice rink on the way. We are trail town USA and perhaps the most dog-friendly town in the world. We?ve got a ski resort, rivers, lakes, golf courses? what else do we need?
Seriously though, what would you like to see come to Bend or Central Oregon?
Something new? More of something we already have? A better version of something we already have?
As a tennis coach, I can tell you that Bend needs more tennis courts. As a basketball coach I can also tell you that Central Oregon could use more basketball courts.
I also know that many want a new skate park, we are on our way to having more pickleball courts? but what say you?
Author Description
Josh Cordell
I'm a sportswriter, coach, photographer, video producer and all-around sports nut. To find out more about me go to http://joshcordell.com/
Mate choice is a key factor in the evolution of new animal species. The choice of a specific mate can decisively influence the evolutionary development of a species. In mice, the attractiveness of a potential mate is conveyed by scent cues and ultrasonic vocalizations. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Pl?n investigated whether house mice (Mus musculus) would mate with each other even if they were from two populations which had been separated from each other for a long time period. To do this, the researchers brought together mice from a German population and mice from a French population. Although to begin with all the mice mated with one another randomly, the hybrid offspring of French and German parents were distinctly more choosy: they showed a definite preference for mating with individuals from their father's original population. According to the researchers, this paternal imprinting accelerates the divergence of two house mouse populations and thus promotes speciation.
In allopatric speciation, individuals of a species become geographically isolated from each other by external factors such as mountains or estuaries. Over time, this geographic separation leads to the sub-populations undergoing various mutations, and thus diverging genetically. Animals from the two different sub-populations can no longer successfully reproduce, so two new species evolve.
To find out what role partner selection plays in such speciation processes, Diethard Tautz from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology and his colleagues conducted a comprehensive study on house mice ? the classic model organisms of biology. "To investigate whether there are differences in the mating behaviour of the mice in the early stages of speciation, we caught wild house mice in southern France and western Germany. The two populations have been geographically separate for around 3,000 years, which equates to some 18,000 generations," says Diethard Tautz. Due to this geographical separation, the French and German mice were genetically different.
The Pl?n-based researchers created a semi-natural environment for their investigations ? a sort of "Playboy Mansion" for mice. The research enclosure was several square meters in size and was divided up using wooden walls, "nests" made out of plastic cylinders, and plastic tubes. It also featured an escape tube with several entrances, which led into a cage system nearby. "We constructed the enclosure in such a way that all animals had unimpeded access to all areas, but thanks to the structural divisions were also able to create their own territories or retreat into nests," explains Tautz. "The escape tube was a control element. If the mice retreated to it only very seldom ? as was the case in our experiment ? then we could be sure there was no overpopulation in the central enclosure."
In this central enclosure, the French and German mice had both time and space to mate with each other and reproduce. "At first, all the mice mated with each other quite randomly. But with the first-generation offspring, a surprising pattern emerged," says Tautz. When the first-generation hybrid offspring of mixed French and German parentage mated, they showed a specific preference for pure-bred mates whose "nationality" was that of their father only. "There must be some kind of paternal influence that prompts the hybrid mice to choose a mate from a specific population, namely that of their father," concludes the biologist, based on the results of his study. "This imprinting must be learned, however, meaning that the animals must grow up in the presence of their fathers. This was not the case for the original mice, which were kept in cages for a time after being caught."
"We know that mice use ultrasonic vocalizations to communicate with each other and that particularly in the case of male mice these vocalizations can reveal signals of individuality and kinship. We believe that, like birdsong, the vocalizations of the males have a learned component and a genetic component," says Tautz. Therefore, French and German mice really could "speak" different languages, partly learned from their fathers, partly inherited from them. Individual mice thus have a mating preference for mice that speak the same language as they do.
The French and German mouse populations had evidently been geographically separated long enough for preliminary signs of species differentiation to be apparent as regards mating preferences. In addition, another aspect of mating behavior also sped up the speciation process.
Although mice have multiple mates, the researchers found evidence of partner fidelity and inbreeding. The tendency to mate with relatives fosters the creation of genetically uniform groups. When both occur together, this accelerates the speciation process.
In a next step, Diethard Tautz wants to find out whether the vocalizations of the mice play the decisive role in paternal imprinting, or if scent cues are also involved. Furthermore, the biologist wants to identify the genes that are involved in mate selection.
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Inka Montero, Meike Tesche and Diethard Tautz: "Paternal imprinting of mating preferences between natural populations of house mice (Mus musculus domesticus)", Molecular Ecology (2013), doi: 10.111/mec.122271;
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft: http://www.mpg.de
Thanks to Max-Planck-Gesellschaft for this article.
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Mar. 28, 2013 ? When Charles Babbage prototyped the first computing machine in the 19th century, he imagined using mechanical gears and latches to control information. ENIAC, the first modern computer developed in the 1940s, used vacuum tubes and electricity. Today, computers use transistors made from highly engineered semiconducting materials to carry out their logical operations.
And now a team of Stanford University bioengineers has taken computing beyond mechanics and electronics into the living realm of biology. In a paper to be published March 28 in Science, the team details a biological transistor made from genetic material -- DNA and RNA -- in place of gears or electrons. The team calls its biological transistor the "transcriptor."
"Transcriptors are the key component behind amplifying genetic logic -- akin to the transistor and electronics," said Jerome Bonnet, PhD, a postdoctoral scholar in bioengineering and the paper's lead author.
The creation of the transcriptor allows engineers to compute inside living cells to record, for instance, when cells have been exposed to certain external stimuli or environmental factors, or even to turn on and off cell reproduction as needed.
"Biological computers can be used to study and reprogram living systems, monitor environments and improve cellular therapeutics," said Drew Endy, PhD, assistant professor of bioengineering and the paper's senior author.
The biological computer
In electronics, a transistor controls the flow of electrons along a circuit. Similarly, in biologics, a transcriptor controls the flow of a specific protein, RNA polymerase, as it travels along a strand of DNA.
"We have repurposed a group of natural proteins, called integrases, to realize digital control over the flow of RNA polymerase along DNA, which in turn allowed us to engineer amplifying genetic logic," said Endy.
Using transcriptors, the team has created what are known in electrical engineering as logic gates that can derive true-false answers to virtually any biochemical question that might be posed within a cell.
They refer to their transcriptor-based logic gates as "Boolean Integrase Logic," or "BIL gates" for short.
Transcriptor-based gates alone do not constitute a computer, but they are the third and final component of a biological computer that could operate within individual living cells.
Despite their outward differences, all modern computers, from ENIAC to Apple, share three basic functions: storing, transmitting and performing logical operations on information.
Last year, Endy and his team made news in delivering the other two core components of a fully functional genetic computer. The first was a type of rewritable digital data storage within DNA. They also developed a mechanism for transmitting genetic information from cell to cell, a sort of biological Internet.
It all adds up to creating a computer inside a living cell.
Boole's gold
Digital logic is often referred to as "Boolean logic," after George Boole, the mathematician who proposed the system in 1854. Today, Boolean logic typically takes the form of 1s and 0s within a computer. Answer true, gate open; answer false, gate closed. Open. Closed. On. Off. 1. 0. It's that basic. But it turns out that with just these simple tools and ways of thinking you can accomplish quite a lot.
"AND" and "OR" are just two of the most basic Boolean logic gates. An "AND" gate, for instance, is "true" when both of its inputs are true -- when "a" and "b" are true. An "OR" gate, on the other hand, is true when either or both of its inputs are true.
In a biological setting, the possibilities for logic are as limitless as in electronics, Bonnet explained. "You could test whether a given cell had been exposed to any number of external stimuli -- the presence of glucose and caffeine, for instance. BIL gates would allow you to make that determination and to store that information so you could easily identify those which had been exposed and which had not," he said.
By the same token, you could tell the cell to start or stop reproducing if certain factors were present. And, by coupling BIL gates with the team's biological Internet, it is possible to communicate genetic information from cell to cell to orchestrate the behavior of a group of cells.
"The potential applications are limited only by the imagination of the researcher," said co-author Monica Ortiz, a PhD candidate in bioengineering who demonstrated autonomous cell-to-cell communication of DNA encoding various BIL gates.
Building a transcriptor
To create transcriptors and logic gates, the team used carefully calibrated combinations of enzymes -- the integrases mentioned earlier -- that control the flow of RNA polymerase along strands of DNA. If this were electronics, DNA is the wire and RNA polymerase is the electron.
"The choice of enzymes is important," Bonnet said. "We have been careful to select enzymes that function in bacteria, fungi, plants and animals, so that bio-computers can be engineered within a variety of organisms."
On the technical side, the transcriptor achieves a key similarity between the biological transistor and its semiconducting cousin: signal amplification.
With transcriptors, a very small change in the expression of an integrase can create a very large change in the expression of any two other genes.
To understand the importance of amplification, consider that the transistor was first conceived as a way to replace expensive, inefficient and unreliable vacuum tubes in the amplification of telephone signals for transcontinental phone calls. Electrical signals traveling along wires get weaker the farther they travel, but if you put an amplifier every so often along the way, you can relay the signal across a great distance. The same would hold in biological systems as signals get transmitted among a group of cells.
"It is a concept similar to transistor radios," said Pakpoom Subsoontorn, a PhD candidate in bioengineering and co-author of the study who developed theoretical models to predict the behavior of BIL gates. "Relatively weak radio waves traveling through the air can get amplified into sound."
Public-domain biotechnology
To bring the age of the biological computer to a much speedier reality, Endy and his team have contributed all of BIL gates to the public domain so that others can immediately harness and improve upon the tools.
"Most of biotechnology has not yet been imagined, let alone made true. By freely sharing important basic tools everyone can work better together," Bonnet said.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Stanford University Medical Center.
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Journal Reference:
Jerome Bonnet, Peter Yin, Monica E. Ortiz, Pakpoom Subsoontorn, and Drew Endy. Amplifying Genetic Logic Gates. Science, 28 March 2013 DOI: 10.1126/science.1232758
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Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
WASHINGTON ? Protesters outside the U.S. Supreme Court building today gathered as the justices started hearing arguments in one of two cases that will influence heavily the future of marriage in America and, according to analysts, the future of the nation itself.
Jamal Johnson engaged in several heated exchanges with activists who want to redefine the bedrock institution of civilization and allow same-sex marriage.
Johnson called it a ?step in the wrong direction for humanity,? arguing that allowing same-sex marriage will open the doors to a future in which responsibility virtually vanishes.
He described homosexuality as ?fighting nature? by denying the basic biological instincts of procreation.
?Heterosexuality requires responsible behavior,? he added, asserting that by condoning homosexual behavior, one is condoning irresponsible behavior.
Today the high court heard a challenge to California?s Proposition 8, an amendment to the state constitution passed by voters in 2008 that defines marriage as a unique relationship between one man and one woman.
The fallout from the court?s decision could have far-reaching consequences for the future of ?gay? rights in America, as there are almost 40 states that have banned same-sex marriage.
A challenge to the federal Defense of Marriage Act is next on the agenda for the Supreme Court. The 1996 law, passed under the Clinton administration, denies federal benefits to homosexual couples and permits states to not recognize same-sex marriages created in other states.
In both cases, which will be decided by the end of June, defenders of traditional marriage argue the divisive issue of same-sex marriage should be left to the democratic processes of each state.
Also outside the Supreme Court was French Catholic exchange student Isolde Cambournac, who said the debate is about answering the ?universal question? that forms the ?base of all societies?: What is marriage?
A French presence in D.C. is timely considering the nation?s Hollande government is pushing for the legalization of same-sex marriage. Last Sunday, some 1.5 million French Catholics and conservatives protested the plan.
Cambournac also mentioned the number of similarities between the social conflicts over the definition of marriage in the U.S. and France. He said the heart of the issue in both countries is ?over the meaning of marriage,? which is the ?union of man and woman to procreate.
The student said, ?If we do not believe in that, we can exchange marriage for a lot of things ? it is very dangerous.?
There were an estimated 6,000 protesters on hand.
She emphasized the importance of recognizing the direct connection ?between marriage and procreation.?
In the Prop. 8 case, Hollingsworth v. Perry, opponents claim the amendment violates the U.S. Constitution?s equal protection and due process clauses.
A sweeping precedent by the Supremes on the issue could nullify the laws in 36 states that define marriage as one man and one woman. Currently, nine states, the District of Columbia and three Indian tribes recognize same-sex marriage.
Arguing on behalf of Protectmarriage.com, the group that sponsored Prop. 8, attorney Charles J. Cooper contended in court papers that the state has an interest in protecting traditional marriage because its very future depends on it.
Marriage, he argues, is ?inextricably linked to the objective biological fact that opposite-sex couples and only such couples are capable of creating new life together and, therefore, are capable of furthering, or threatening, society?s existential interests in responsible procreation and childbearing.?
He further pointed out that domestic partnership laws offer homosexuals ?some of the most comprehensive civil rights protections in the nation.?
Lawyers Ted Olson and David Boies want the court to overturn the will of California voters, writing: ?The unmistakable purpose and effect of Proposition 8, is to stigmatize gay men and lesbians ? and them alone ? and enshrine in California?s Constitution that they are unequal to everyone else, that their committed relationships are ineligible for the designation ?marriage? and that they are unworthy of that most important relation in life.?
Many analysts believe Justice Anthony Kennedy will cast the deciding vote, with the liberal wing, Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, ruling in favor of same-sex marriage. Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas are expected to rule against it.
Defenders of traditional marriage have much to be concerned about with respect to Kennedy?s position on ?gay rights,? considering he voted to overturn Texas? ban on sodomy in Lawrence v. Texas in 2003
Kennedy wrote in his opinion: ?Liberty protects the person from unwarranted government intrusions into a dwelling or other private places. In our tradition the state is not omnipresent in the home.?
WND CEO Joseph Farah writes in his daily column that while Kennedy, a Reagan appointee, has been a disappointment as a swing vote, he made a statement earlier this month ?that was somewhat encouraging.?
Kennedy told reporters from his hometown, Sacramento, that legislating from the bench is ?a serious problem.?
?A democracy should not be dependent for its major decisions on what nine unelected people from a narrow legal background have to say,? Kennedy said.
When the California Supreme Court created same-sex marriage in the state, a decision later overturned by voters, Justice Marvin Baxter in his dissenting opinion warned of the consequences of judicially ordering a change in the standard for marriage.
?The bans on incestuous and polygamous marriages are ancient and deeprooted, and, as the majority suggests, they are supported by strong considerations of social policy,? he wrote for his court. ?Our society abhors such relationships, and the notion that our laws could not forever prohibit them seems preposterous.
?Yet here, the majority overturns, in abrupt fashion, an initiative statute confirming the equally deeprooted assumption that marriage is a union of partners of the opposite sex. The majority does so by relying on its own assessment of contemporary community values, and by inserting in our Constitution an expanded definition of the right to marry that contravenes express statutory law.?
His concluded with a warning.
?Who can say that, in 10, 15 or 20 years, an activist court might not rely on the majority?s analysis to conclude, on the basis of a perceived evolution in community values, that the laws prohibiting polygamous and incestuous marriages were no longer constitutionally justified??
The subsequent federal district court decision in the case raised outrage when Judge Vaughn Walker ruled that homosexuals must be allowed to marry. That was because Walker, who retired almost immediately after the case, was found to have been living with another man in a long-term homosexual relationship through which he personally was in a position to benefit.
Critics also noted:
?Before the trial even began, the 9th Circuit issued an extraordinary writ of mandamus to overturn Chief Judge Walker?s order requiring proponents to turn over confidential internal communications.?
?Also before the trial ? the Supreme Court of the United States issued an emergency stay ? enjoining Chief Judge Walker from video recording and disseminating the trial proceedings.? (He later used video recordings anyway.)
?Walker?s decision recognizing a right under the Federal Constitution for same-sex couples to have their relationships recognized as marriages conflicts with the judgment of every State and federal appellate court to consider the validity of the traditional opposite-sex definition of marriage.?
Walker peremptorily held that gays and lesbians are a suspect class ? even though all 11 Circuit Courts of Appeals ? have repeatedly and squarely held to the contrary.?
?Walker refused to stay his judgment pending appeal. As a result, the 9th Circuit was forced to issue such a stay.?
In his ruling advancing same-sex marriage Walker also arrived at the following highly controversial legal findings:
?Religious beliefs that gay and lesbian relationships are sinful or inferior to heterosexual relationships harm gays and lesbians.?
?Rather, the exclusion exists as an artifact of a time when the genders were seen as having distinct roles in society and in marriage. That time has passed.?
?The gender of a child?s parent is not a factor in a child?s adjustment.?
?The evidence shows beyond any doubt that parents? genders are irrelevant to children?s developmental outcomes.?
?Gender no longer forms an essential part of marriage; marriage under law is a union of equals.?
?Many of the purported interests identified by proponents are nothing more than a fear or unarticulated dislike of same-sex couples.?
In the Defense of Marriage Act case, up next, Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have decided to no longer defend the federal law, as they are required.
Kevin Snider of the Pacific Justice Institute asserts that should Obama succeed in overturning DOMA, the broader implications are staggering.
?This would give the executive branch a constructive veto over any law,? he said.
Whatever already is on the books as a law of the U.S., when challenged, simply could be allowed to fall, he said.
Snider warned of the ?enormous power? such a precedent would grant presidents.
For example, a president who objects to the income tax could order the IRS to stand down and not defend any tax laws. Default judgments would follow, and the tax laws would be struck.
Snider?s organization also is filing ethics complaints against federal attorneys who were involved in DOMA disputes and were defending their clients, the American taxpayers. As Snider sees it, the attorney?s simply got up from the defense table and walked over to the prosecution?s table by filing briefs that call for the courts to rule against their own clients.
"Natalie Bouader Shook came into this world Saturday, March 23rd at 5 p.m. sharp, weighing in at 6 lbs. 12 oz. [and] 20.5 inches," Appleby tells PEOPLE.
Without his partnership with Mark Zuckerberg, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie wouldn?t have had his first?Oprah moment. The Facebook founder?s $100 million donation to Newark, N.J., schools was the subject of a 2010 episode that?positively?portrayed the conservative governor, along with Newark Mayor Cory Booker, on national television.
So now that Zuckerberg is?co-starting a political advocacy group, could he provide the same benefit for other Republicans??
Zuckerberg and Joe Green, his close friend and college roommate, are establishing a 501(c)4 organization that will initially focus on comprehensive immigration and education reform, according to a source familiar with the group?s?plans.
The group is wading into topics conducive to?bipartisanship. Immigration reform has made Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., unlikely allies. Education, another issue ripe for bipartisan efforts, brought the?liberal Bookerand?conservative?Christie together.?
?When you?re thinking conservatives or liberals or progressives, or Democrats and Republicans, education reform has been [where] the partisan or ideological labels don?t apply,? said Hari Sevugan, a former Democratic National Committee spokesman who later worked for Michelle Rhee?s StudentsFirst education-reform lobbying group. ?While they might apply in nearly every other issue, they don?t necessarily carry into this space.?
?These are interesting issues because they tend to be coalition-driven rather than party driven,? said Christie strategist Mike DuHaime, who added he expects the group to be a major player in politics. ?It?s great to have ? an outside group, pulling the coalition together.?
There?s a political benefit for Republicans to engage on education reform. Passage of the No Child Left Behind law helped President George W. Bush, who made it the hallmark of his "compassionate conservative" agenda. And in the midst of current-day Republican soul-searching, GOP leaders are looking to education reform as a way to show off their softer side. It?s become a focal point of?House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's strategy to recast the GOP as a kinder, gentler party, as he often talks up his experience spending time with a D.C. father who struggled to get his child into a good school. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has argued reforming failing urban public schools will help Republicans make inroads with minority voters.?
And for a party that?s perceived as unhip, technophobic, and overly partisan, it?s a boost to have common ground with Zuckerberg, a young, successful entrepreneur with Silicon Valley connections.
Although Christie already enjoys solid support across the aisle in New Jersey, DuHaime said being associated with Zuckerberg was helpful: ?It?s beneficial politically, but that?s kind of a byproduct of good policy.?
Despite Zuckerberg?s political foray, he?s not a partisan. While Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg?hosted a fundraiser?for President Obama and Facebook cofounder Chris Hughes (now the publisher of?The New Republic) worked on the president?s campaign, Zuckerberg doesn?t?publicly?identify as a Democrat or Republican. He?s friendly with Obama and hosted a Facebook town hall for him in 2011, but he also held a fundraiser for Christie earlier this year at his Palo Alto home.
?It?s turned into a very good friendship, but it was driven by their similar views on education reform,? DuHaime said. ?It was issue-driven, and then it became a friendship.?
Further proof of Zuckerberg's bipartisan bent: the?prominent inside-the-Beltway advisers?he's brought on board to run his new political group. The roster includes?former National Republican Senatorial Committee Executive Director Rob Jesmer, former Clinton press secretary Joe Lockhart, and Republican strategist Jon Lerner, a longtime consultant for the antitax Club for Growth.
Lerner has worked for a number of conservative clients, including South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and former Gov. Mark Sanford in his gubernatorial campaigns. A 2010 McClatchy profile?written about Lerner?said he displayed an "unwillingness to work for candidates whose views don't match his own hard-line conservative beliefs."?
Now Lerner, whose work includes an ad describing Howard Dean as a "latte-drinking, sushi-eating, Volvo-driving, New York Times-reading? liberal, will be partners with a hoodie-wearing Silicon Valley icon.
ROSWELL, N.M. (AP) ? An FBI report of "flying saucers" in New Mexico sent to then-Director J. Edgar Hoover in 1950 has become the most popular file in the bureau's electronic reading room.
The Roswell Daily Record reports (http://bit.ly/1647qm6) the memo sent by FBI Washington, D.C.- field office chief Guy Hottel has been viewed nearly a million times.
The document is about a report of three flying saucers allegedly recovered in New Mexico, each occupied by three small human-shaped bodies. It says an informant told officials that the UFOs had ended up there because a government radar in the area interfered with their controlling mechanisms.
The FBI never followed up on the report.
The memo is available in the "The Vault," an electronic reading room launched by the FBI in 2011 that contains around 6,700 public documents.
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Online:
'The Vault' memo, http://vault.fbi.gov/hottel_guy/Guy%20Hottel%20Part%201%20of%201/view
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Information from: Roswell Daily Record, http://www.roswell-record.com
The first earnings report from BlackBerry since its new phone launched is mostly good news?the company reported $94 million in profit and $1.2 billion in revenue?but there is one alarming figure: the 3 million customers the company has lost over the last three months. Even with a million Z10 devices sold, the company "lost about a million more subscribers" than analysts were expecting,?according to analyst?Jefferies analyst Peter Misek.?Now that they see the numbers, their theory is that loyal BlackBerry?subscribers?with old devices didn't upgrade to new BlackBerry ones, instead ditching the Canadian phone company for competitors?even though BlackBerry launched a new gadget just for those people this quarter. In other words, the phone that was supposed to save BlackBerry, the Z10, hasn't done so yet.
RELATED: The Future of BlackBerry 10 Sales Looks Hazy
To be fair, the catch-up gadget was only announced at the end of January, and there's been a slow roll out since then, debuting first in the United Kingdom around February 4. So, this quarter's earnings, which ended March 2, only represent about a month of phone sales. But even so, a reported 1 million Z10 devices sold in one month doesn't look too promising for the wannabe comeback story?especially since the former keyboarded phone king launched in some of its strongest markets first. Say the phone maker kept up those sales for three months in a row, it would only break even, adding as many customers as it lost, which is better than shrinking and dying forever, but not quite good enough.?
RELATED: The Nerd Who Is Supposed to Make BlackBerry Cool Again
Though, some analysts are more optimistic that the new device additions could counterbalance the losses. "The numbers suggest that they're on a recovery path," Misek added. "Obviously the bigger issue is BlackBerry 10 sales going forward, but if you do look back at the February quarter, I think you had more positives than negatives," said another analyst.?The Z10 just launched in some markets and because of its very different operating system could take some getting used to. This report does not include U.S. sales, for example. (Though, it saw a "tepid" U.S. launch, if store lines are any metric.) Also, BlackBerry hasn't released its other?new phone: The Q10. It's possible that people haven't lined up for the keyboardless iPhone-ish clone because they're holding out for a more familiar looking device. The Q10, which doesn't come out until April or May, looks more like BlackBerry best-sellers of yore with its physical keys. So, there's still hope.?
RELATED: BlackBerry's Rumored Music Service Sounds Underwhelming
The new Society Bottle is almost ready to go ? sorry for the delay. ? As I said in the Newsletter it is a Springbank 15 year old from a Madeira cask. ? The cost for UK customers is ?65 plus postage and packing. ? The bottles can be sent to our Cadenhead shops in Europe, as far as I know there are dispatches going out to these shops early in April, so if you would like to order please let me know as soon as possible so that I can arrange to have them included with the next shipment. ? If we miss this shipment it may mean waiting until about June or July. ? We will also be shipping to the USA and hopefully Canada but I don?t have dates for these ones as yet.
We also have a little of the Society Springbank 14 year old @ ?50 plus p&p and the Longrow 10 year old @ ?45 plus p&p, so if anyone would like any of these two bottles please let me know. ? For UK members the postage and packing is ?8 per bottle but between 3 and 6 bottles it?s ?20, so cheaper to buy more!!
Kiln Dinner
Mairi has a few places left for the Kiln Dinner on Wednesday 22nd May, so if you are going to be here and would like to be part of this unique experience please contact Mairi by emailing mairi@springbankwhisky.com ? Closing date for bookings has been extended to 5th April.
Open Day
There are only a few places left on the Masterclass for Frank & Gavin so if you would like to book, please be quick. ? We do have some places left for all the other Masterclasses. ? You can book by contacting mairi@springbankwhisky.com
Society Open Golf Competition
If you wish to book places for the Open Golf competition please contact me ? you don?t have to have a team of 4, we will team you up with others who are not entering full teams. ? I am threatening to play in this year?s competition but I pity the team who get stuck with me.
That?s all the news for now, I look forward to hearing from you.
Regards from a very cold Campbeltown.
Janet
For the Springbank Society
Please contact Janet at society@springbankwhisky.com for your chance to join the Springbank Society?.
J & A Mitchell and Co Ltd, The Tasting Room, 9 Bolgam Street, Campbeltown, Argyll, PA28 6HZ
Ever been in your local Federal Way grocery store and had one of those shopping carts ? you know the one with a messed up wheel that wobbles like crazy. Your cart shakes and pulls to one side ? if you?re not careful it?s clean up on aisle three.
Wheel alignment on your truck is a lot like that. One or more of your wheels can get out of alignment; you feel a vibration in your steering wheel ? which may also be off-center. Your truck might pull to one side and your tires start to wear unevenly ? you could chew through a tire in a few months.
Sometimes wheels get knocked out of alignment by something big like hitting a curb on a bumpy Auburn road or slamming into a pothole. But everyday driving takes a toll and trucks lose alignment over time. That?s why vehicle manufacturers recommend an alignment check at regular intervals. At NorthShore Automotive & RV Repair, we offer a full menu of quality auto repair and maintenance services including wheel alignment.
In your alignment inspection, your knowledgeable NorthShore Automotive & RV Repair technician will check your tires and your suspension system for damage. He?ll test your alignment to see if it?s within vehicle manufacturers specifications. If not, he?ll make necessary adjustments to get your truck wheels all pointing the same direction again.
If your truck pulls to one side, you feel a vibration in the steering wheel or your tires seem to be wearing abnormally, talk with your knowledgeable NorthShore Automotive & RV Repair service advisor. You may need to put an alignment inspection at NorthShore Automotive & RV Repair into your shopping cart.
Give us a call
NorthShore Automotive & RV Repair 253.838.9142 35406 21st Ave SW Federal Way, WA 98023
At NorthShore Automotive & RV Repair in Federal Way WA (98023) we install quality NAPA replacement parts. Give us a call at 253.838.9142. To learn more about NAPA AutoCare, visit www.NAPAAutoCare.com.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 27th, 2013 at 6:45 pm and is filed under Alignment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Russell Ivanovic, Philip Simpson, and Matt Kelsh of Shifty Jelly talk to Marc, Seth, and Rene about being indie in Australia, making Pocket Weather, and why they decided to go Android first for Pocket Casts. Note: All accents in this show are, we assume, fake.
Quite often, one yearns for the ocean, especially in such a landlocked place as Kentucky. The big blue ? which is, indeed, big and blue ? contains an irresistible allure. It is a sight to behold, a truly unimpeded sight of the horizon, stretching seemingly infinitely off into the distance, so far and clear that you can literally see the curve of the Earth. It is truly awe-inspiring. It is also a significant source of recreation, a tourist draw for those who wish to swim or fish or boat. Or surf.
Surfing has a culture all its own, and this is what filmmaker Jack McCoy explores with his documentary A Deeper Shade of Blue. The film explores the roots of the sport, as well as the evolution of surfing culture and surfboard technology. It also focuses significantly on the role of women in the history of surfing, including how Hawaiian princess Kaiulani resurrected the sport in the 1800s. The film is supplemented by an all-star musical soundtrack, including songs by Coldplay, Foo Fighters, Angus and Julia Stone, Jack Johnson, Iggy Pop, and Paul McCartney.
Tomorrow, Thursday, Fathom Events presents a special one-night screening of A Deeper Shade of Blue at various theaters nationwide, including two here in the Kentuckiana area. The broadcast will begin with a musical performance from Kaukahi and Jack Johnson from the red carpet premiere in Hawaii. Following the documentary, the presentation continues as director McCoy is joined by a bevy of famous surfers, including Kathy Kohner (?Gidget?), Tom Wegener, and the Marshall Brothers, among others, to further discuss the evolution of surfing and its culture. McCoy will also present the music video to Paul McCartney's ?Blue Sway,? which he wrote specifically for the film.
It all happens tomorrow at 7:30. This event can be seen at Stonybrook 20 IMAX, located at 2745 S. Hurstbourne Pkwy, or at New Albany Stadium 16, located at 300 Professional Court. Complete event information and advance ticket sales can be found at the Fathom Events website.
?The first time our real estate agent took us to visit the house we refused to get out of the car. The dated pink paint, the brown window frames and wildly overgrown garden said it all. This house was in need of a major renovation and, with our second baby due soon, we just weren?t interested.
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Three months later, still desperate to find a bigger home we?agreed to look round. Much to our surprise, and despite the terrible first impression, this house checked all the boxes.
It had a private, sunny?position, ocean views, a big flat lawn for the kids to play on plus plenty of space to raise a family and work from home.
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Those things are hard to find on Waiheke Islan in New Zealand where we lived unless you have more than a million dollars to spend ? which we didn?t.
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So we bought that dated, unloved house, spent six months renovating it and lived there happily for five years.
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Although the house looked like a lemon it had that all important great location and, because it was the worst house in the best street, it turned out to be a great investment that turned into a tidy profit when we sold it.
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So how can my real estate experiences help you improve your blog design?
1. First?impressions?count
A major blog redesign we created for Marybeth Bond at The Gutsy Traveler. The fresh new look was created to?instantly establish her as the trusted travel professional she is?and appeal to readers and the brands Marybeth works with.
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First impressions are made in the blink of an eye but once made they?re hard to change. It?s true in real life and online.
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If you were meeting a prospective client you?d put on smart clothes, brush your hair and look lively.?But in a?web-wise?world many people won?t meet you in person, they will meet you and your?brand?online at your website or blog.
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There they?ll assess how trustworthy, competent and reliable you are based solely on the first impression they get from your website.
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To create a winning first impression online make sure your website has immediate appeal.
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It?s common sense but it?s the reason many small business owners never find out?how blogging can help grow business?and why their web marketing fails.
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When I design a new website for someone or update an existing blog most clients report an immediate up turn in business because the new site makes them look professional, appeals to their?target audience?and persuades people to buy now or get in touch.
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If you?re not getting new business online your website or blog design is probably letting you down. Can you honestly say your website makes you proud? Or does it look cheap? Thrown together? Unfinished??
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A badly?designed?blog or website will be costing you in lost business.
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If your blog or website looks amateur, confusing or cheap people won?t even get out of the car and give you a chance.
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Which is why good web design is worth paying for because, in time, you?ll get an excellent return on that investment in your business and online marketing.
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2. Give your blog readers what they want FAST
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As Seana Smith?s blog grew and evolved so did her niche so we redesigned her blog header to reflect that and make it easy for new readers to know what to expect.
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Just like you, your clients and blog readers are busy.?
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So busy that most of them will only spend five seconds looking at your blog before deciding?whether?to read on or click away.
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If you pass the first impressions test above next they?ll be looking to see if you?re the right person to help them with their problem.?Are you an accountant who helps people with end of year taxes? Are you a personal trainer who can help women get fit in record time?
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Blog readers and your target audience have problems that need to be solved and they?re hoping you can help.
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The question you need to answer fast is:?What do you do and how will you help your readers and clients?
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Make sure you tell people who you are, how you can help them and why they should give you their time using as few words as possible. Here are a few suggestions:
A photo of you with a slogan should do the trick.
Add a?one sentence testimonial or your unique selling point if you wish.
Consider creating three to eight topics for your blog to?emphasise?the type of things you blog about and can help with.
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Maybe that real estate agent could have asked me what I was looking for and mentioned that doer upper was the only house that checked all our boxes within our budget. I?d have bought it a lot quicker and paid more too.
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By giving your readers the information they want fast you?ll be helping them make a quick decision that you?re the best person for them to work with.
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3. Use your most valuable blog real estate wisely
The term above the fold applies to newspapers and the content which people can see before they pick the newspaper up. That?s the lead content which makes them want to buy the newspaper and read on.
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On your blog the most important real estate is the content readers can see as soon as they get to your site without scrolling down.
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That?s because they may never see what lies below and, if they don?t see what they?re looking for immediately, they?ll probably just click away ? that?s the Internet equivalent of driving by without getting out of the car.
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Prime real estate on my travel blog Get In the Hot Spot ? this is what readers see before they scroll down.
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The most valuable real estate on my travel blog Get In the Hot Spot?includes a professional logo, a slogan to tell readers what the blog?s about, a photo of me to personalise it and a?subscription?box to encourage people to become regular readers. Every color, font and image has been chosen to?emphasize?the fun content and reader experience readers can expect on the site.
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The size of that prime real estate will vary depending on what computer your readers are using and if people are reading your blog on their mobile or iPad you need a good mobile blog design.
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Your blog designer will be able to advise you on best practice but if you?re working alone do some research to find out what percentage of Internet users are viewing on the various different screen sizes and mobile devices so you can choose the right size for your audience.
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Blog Design Dos and Don?ts for your prime online real estate ? the content that users can see without scrolling down:
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Do make sure your site is professional?with a clean design and clear navigation structure.?
Do include a photo of you;
Do have a meaningful slogan;
Do tell your reader who you are, what you do and how you can help them in as few words as possible;
Do make sure you?ve got an email subscribe box so people can subscribe in one click;
Do make sure?people?can see your latest (or greatest) blog posts immediately;
Do include social proof such as how many readers or subscribers you have (as long as it?s 1,000+), an ?as seen on? box or a punchy testimonial.
Don?t give your valuable blog real estate away to other brands, for example with banner ads or by immediately giving people the option to click away to your Facebook page or other social media outposts.
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Me and the Candy kids in 2005 ? the two youngest were actually born in that house I refused to check out because it looked so terrible.
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Remember that ugly old house I ended up buying? We fixed it up to create a great first impression and renovated it fast so we could enjoy living there ? I loved that kitchen you see in the photo up top.
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We took a risk but ended up reaping the benefits of investing in prime location real estate. Our second baby boy was born in that house. Three years later I gave birth there again, this time to a baby girl with a beautiful home?water-birth.
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Then five years later we sold the house by private sale for a chunky profit.
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As with real estate when you invest in blog or website design that does your business justice you?ll see the return on that investment.
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A great blog design will:
create an online presence to be proud of;
make people want to hang out with you;
build trust so they?ll want work with you.
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If your website?s uniform and uninspiring then it?s letting you and your business down. Bad website design will lose you money.
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The time for dabbling with Internet marketing is over. It?s not enough for people to find your site through good search engine optimisation, you need to win them over once they get there.
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So now?s the time to sort out your website and?design a blog that you and your clients will love.
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Just like buying an old house and doing it up good web design takes time and money but it?s the only way to get exactly what you want.?
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Need help with your blog or website design?? Speak to our expert team at www.1-to-1.org.uk.
Russell Ivanovic, Philip Simpson, and Matt Kelsh of Shifty Jelly talk to Marc, Seth, and Rene about being indie in Australia, making Pocket Weather, and why they decided to go Android first for Pocket Casts. Note: All accents in this show are, we assume, fake.
