calisthenic sawdust

Saturday, May 19, 2012

US supply trucks cross Afghan-Pakistan border: officials

[ [ [['A picture is worth a thousand words', 5]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/why-facebook-bought-instagram-4-theories-160400376.html', '[Related: Why Facebook bought Instagram: 4 theories]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['He was in shock and still strapped to his seat', 9]], 'http://contributor.yahoo.com/join/yahoonews_virginiabeach', '[Did you witness the jet crash? Share your story with Yahoo! News]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['A JetBlue flight from New York to Las Vegas', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/GV9zpj', '[Related: View photos of the JetBlue plane in Amarillo]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['Dick Clark', 11]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/dick-clark-dies-at-82-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/c/21/c217c61aa2d5872244c08caa13c16ec5.jpeg', '500', ' ', 'Reuters', ], [ [['the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 15]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/white-house-stays-out-of-teen-s-killing-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120411/martinzimmermen.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['Titanic', 7]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/titanic-anniversary/', ' ', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/b/4e/b4e5ad9f00b5dfeeec2226d53e173569.jpeg', '550', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['He was in shock and still strapped to his seat', 6]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/navy-jet-crashes-in-virginia-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120406/jet_ap.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['xxxxxxxxxxxx', 11]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/russian-grannies-win-bid-to-sing-at-eurovision-1331223625-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/1/56/156d92f2760dcd3e75bcd649a8b85fcf.jpeg', '500', ' ', 'AP', ] ]

[ [ [[' the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 4]], '28924649', '0' ], [ [['because I know God protects me', 14], ['Brian Snow was at a nearby credit union', 5]], '28811216', '0' ], [ [['The state news agency RIA-Novosti quoted Rosaviatsiya', 6]], '28805461', '0' ], [ [['measure all but certain to fail in the face of bipartisan', 4]], '28771014', '0' ], [ [['matter what you do in this case', 5]], '28759848', '0' ], [ [['presume laws are constitutional', 7]], '28747556', '0' ], [ [['has destroyed 15 to 25 houses', 7]], '28744868', '0' ], [ [['short answer is yes', 7]], '28746030', '0' ], [ [['opportunity to tell the real story', 7]], '28731764', '0' ], [ [['entirely respectable way to put off the searing constitutional controversy', 7]], '28723797', '0' ], [ [['point of my campaign is that big ideas matter', 9]], '28712293', '0' ], [ [['As the standoff dragged into a second day', 7]], '28687424', '0' ], [ [['French police stepped up the search', 17]], '28667224', '0' ], [ [['Seeking to elevate his candidacy back to a general', 8]], '28660934', '0' ], [ [['The tragic story of Trayvon Martin', 4]], '28647343', '0' ], [ [['Karzai will get a chance soon to express', 8]], '28630306', '0' ], [ [['powerful storms stretching', 8]], '28493546', '0' ], [ [['basic norm that death is private', 6]], '28413590', '0' ], [ [['songwriter also saw a surge in sales for her debut album', 6]], '28413590', '1', 'Watch music videos from Whitney Houston ', 'on Yahoo! Music', 'http://music.yahoo.com' ], [ [['keyword', 99999999999999999999999]], 'videoID', '1', 'overwrite-pre-description', 'overwrite-link-string', 'overwrite-link-url' ] ]

jeff foxworthy the bachelor finale march madness bracket south by southwest i want to know what love is courtney mercury retrograde

3 Offbeat Ways To Market Your Business Online | Online Business ...

With the advent of the internet and its thousands of benefits, business owners have taken to virtual marketing to promote their businesses. And why not, when it costs much less than offline advertising, it?s easy to use, and quite accessible to all? Not only is it available for various markets to see, its reach is global and unlimited.

Other than Facebook and Twitter ads, there are also other various ways to market your business online.

LinkedIn. Just by creating a LinkedIn group, you can generate an amazing number of leads from high-end decision makers. How would you react when you have successfully created a sales funnel than brought in approximately 50 to 100 fresh and highly targeted leads every day? Wouldn?t that assure your family of food on the table for the next few weeks?

The secret to using LinkedIn to market effectively are the following:

Add keywords in your description to increase ranking in LinkedIn?s search section

Add keywords in the title of the group, for easy searching via Google

Add your company website or blog to the LinkedIn group to drive traffic to your website

Add your blog RSS feed to the group so every new article is automatically posted to the home page of every group member.

Connect people in the group by making introductions to those who could potentially do business with one another.

All these guarantee that you will get more leads for your business. Just make sure you create a group that really targets your wanted market, in your niche. Be selective also so that you eliminate all unwanted and un-influential leads from your list/group.

Banner Advertising. Placing banner ads is still an effective way to market your business on the Internet, especially is you are aiming to promote your brand. Each impression is a visual presentation of your product or service. If you target placements of your banner ads campaigns well, they will be very effective in promoting your business.

Here are some tips when using banner advertising:

Do not blindly place ads. Practice careful selection in posting them, with your target audience in mind, so to avoid wastage of money and other resources.

After making a shortlist of sites where to place your ads, get prominent ad spots ? not some bottom space which merits little or no attention.

Make your ads stand out from the rest of your competition who are most likely selling similar products ? without irritating visitors with irritating colors or content which do not make sense.

Do some testing ? post different types of ads, and test each one for effectiveness. Test ad spots also, and see which works best. Once you?ve determined which ones are the best, then you?re off to creating your most effective banner ad campaigns!

Email blasts. An email blast is the process of contacting a huge number of potential clients through email. Very similar to direct mail, an email blast differs hugely with the fact that you may personalize each message you send out ? which is a huge thing in terms of building business relationships.

How does it work, first, you must have a list of recipients ready ? maybe gathered through referrals, database purchase (although not recommended because of the lack of controlled standards), or by gathering all the email addresses of former clients. Design a template, working the content so that it answers the need of the recipients.

Then merge the email body with the contact list ? and voila, your email blast is sent in one go.

How can email blasts be effective? First, you can send your potential clients regular updates and emails to promote your products or your brand. This can also be effective in increasing repeat sales from past customers. The point is, emails remind people of the existence of your business. The truth is, there are so many people out there who are wondering ?if you?re still in business,? so remind them that you are still there to fill in their need. Sending regular emails keeps you on top of mind recall ? allowing no or very little opportunity for your competition to creep up on a former client?s need and demand.

There are various ways to get your brand going virtually. Try any one of these techniques, and notice how marketing for the now generation is much more thorough and easier. No excuse for you not to succeed!

Michael Griffiths is the CEO and Founder of My Small Business Marketing Guru. Helping small business owners generate more leads, clients and increase profits with relationship based marketing strategies. We invite you to get your free black mask marketing resources to help you business grow today, when you visit http://www.mysmallbusinessmarketingguru.com.au

protect ip act jim caldwell internet blackout jessica capshaw seattle times seattle times walker recall

Caught in another 'question trap' on the job? ? Business ...

questionmark-in-mousetrap Sarah spent the afternoon working on a quarterly report for her boss, only to hear this when she delivered it at day?s end: ?This isn?t a final version, is it? It won?t be a problem for you to work overtime today and fix this, will it??

Her boss just de??livered a question trap?a leading question to which the ?right? answer is agreement.

If Sarah gives the ?right? answer, she feels manipulated. Even if she doesn?t mind working overtime, she may resent the way she was asked. She may also feel that the wrong answer could upset her boss?and she may be right.

Here?s what to do with leading questions:

1.??Recognize them by their phrasing, such as ?don?t you think?? or ?can?t we?? Also learn to recognize how they make you feel or respond. Are you more or less likely to agree with someone who asks a leading question?

2.??See the question, not the person, as pushy. That perspective will help you handle the situation more constructively, instead of viewing others as domineering or closed-minded.

Next, you can reframe the person?s leading question in one of three ways:

1.??Focus on the opinion. For ex??ample, Sarah might have said, ?It sounds like you think I should make some additional changes to the document. Correct??

2.??Center on the question. Restate the question you were asked.

Example: ?You want to know whether I can stay late today to do some additional changes. Is that right??

3.??Concentrate on the person?s opinion and his question, to check your understanding.

Example: ?It sounds like you?d like for me to stay late today and finish up this document, and you?re wondering whether I can do that. Do I understand that right??

In some cases, you may want to go with tactic No. 3.

That way, you can focus the discussion on the person?s point of view, without feeling obligated to respond right away.

For example, imagine someone says, ?I think we?re rushing this de??cision, don?t you?? You can first focus on his opinion??It sounds like you think we?re rushing the decision??then ask him to clarify. ?Could you tell me why you think that??

In any case, the more you practice, the better you?ll get. And the more likely you?ll ?train? other people to avoid setting question traps in the first place.

? Adapted from Conversation Transformation, Ben E. Benjamin, Amy Yeager and Anita Simon

Like what you've read? ...Republish it and share great business tips!

Attention: Readers, Publishers, Editors, Bloggers, Media, Webmasters and more...

We believe great content should be read and passed around. After all, knowledge IS power. And good business can become great with the right information at their fingertips. If you'd like to share any of the insightful articles on BusinessManagementDaily.com, you may republish or syndicate it without charge.

The only thing we ask is that you keep the article exactly as it was written and formatted. You also need to include an attribution statement and link to the article.

" This information is proudly provided by Business Management Daily.com: http://www.businessmanagementdaily.com/30932/caught-in-another-question-trap-on-the-job "

megyn kelly richard hamilton richard hamilton paris jackson paris jackson howard stern americas got talent china aircraft carrier

Romney rejects using Rev. Jeremiah Wright against Obama

pittsburgh pirates mariners mets shades of grey pittsburgh penguins record store day jennie garth

Friday, May 18, 2012

Inside Syria rebel stronghold: 'The city is on mute'

NBC News

A United Nations convoy makes its way through Douma, Syria, on Tuesday.

By Charlene Gubash, NBC News

DOUMA, Syria -- Surrounded by ancient olive groves, Douma is just ten miles from Damascus but it feels like another world.?It is a city under occupation.?

In Damascus,?vehicles slow to a halt due to traffic jams. In Douma, there is no traffic. Only a few empty cars are parked on the roadside.?

Shoppers crowd the capital's sidewalks and restaurants do a brisk business. But in neighboring Douma, sidewalks are empty and most of the shops are shuttered with corrugated metal sheets or padlocked steel doors.?

NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin answers Syria questions

A few people walk quickly down the empty streets on what must be only the most necessary of errands. They stare straight ahead or look down as they walk.?

Except for the noise of our three-vehicle convoy speeding through town, there is silence.?

ITV's Bill Neely reports from both sides of the frontlines in Syria. ?Each side accuses the other of the same crimes and neither is willing to stop fighting.

On Tuesday, we drove behind two vans of United Nations observers on a mission to Douma and Harasta to monitor the cease-fire.?

Both cities have been bastions of resistance against the regime where residents stage flash demonstrations even after months of brutal crackdowns.?

Report: Syria rebels get better weapons as US boosts support

However, there isn't much of a cease-fire left to monitor. Syria is wracked by mounting violence and the U.N. teams have been caught up in two explosions and a shooting.?

Opposition activists said the Syrian security forces have even opened fire on a funeral procession, killing at least 21 people. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports.

So it's no surprise they speed down the streets and get out of their vans only twice in violence-prone Douma.

Some residents seem worried that the U.N. presence will spur attacks. A man standing with his little daughter and son pulls the girl inside and yanks his unwilling and crying son behind the metal door of his house as we pass. He slams the door shut.

Our driver points out snipers in the tall building in front of us.?

Every few blocks we pass through military checkpoints, with armed troops behind sand-bagged barricades.

Little interaction
Led by a Moroccan, the U.N. monitors stop briefly at checkpoints to ask Syrian security if there has been any violence. A U.N. 'blue cap' shakes hands with a tiny child in a car stopped at a checkpoint. Otherwise, we do not see the U.N. interact with or talk to civilians.

They get out of their vans at a main checkpoint and the team leader waves us away as he goes to talk with a plainclothes officer in private. As we wait, police, soldiers and plainclothes security look nervously around.?

Fifty-five people were killed and 372 were wounded when two cars exploded in Damascus, Syria earlier on Thursday. NBC's Richard Engel reports.

A soldier explains why they are on edge. "They shoot at us from here and there," he says as he points to neighboring buildings.

He claims the opposition still manages to evade the tight security cordon to spirit in weapons and ammunition. But the military shoots back.?

Syria violence spills into streets of Lebanon's Tripoli

According to activists, a civilian was killed in Douma the day we visited and YouTube video which NBC News cannot verify later showed snipers shooting randomly at the city's streets.??????

We cross into Harasta, a much livelier town. It is market day. A few shoppers check out vegetables heaped on trays.?

We jostle for position with other cars. Some stores are open and a few shoppers buy bread from a functioning bakery.

Oddly, the town is still silent. There is no chatter or laughter as people go about their business.?

It is as if the city is on mute.?

We pass back through the tense quiet of Douma on our way to the main highway to Damascus.?

We are rejoined by a car full of Syrian intelligence and three carloads of journalists from pro-regime Syrian TV and Al Dunya TV who accompanied us to Douma. They had elected to wait outside the city, unwilling to risk the anger of local residents.?

Our visit, however fleeting, revealed a part of Syria normally seen only in grainy activist video.

More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:

Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world

roseanne barr president green party day 26 gronkowski new hunger games trailer sasquatch david choe

'Superflares' from stars counted

17 May 2012 Last updated at 09:37 ET

By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News

Nasa's Kepler space telescope has provided fresh insight on the colossal explosions that can afflict some stars.

These enormous releases of magnetic energy - known as superflares - could damage the atmosphere of a nearby orbiting planet, putting at risk any lifeforms that might reside there.

Fortunately, Kepler shows superflares to be much less frequent on slow-rotating stars like our Sun.

The new observations are reported in the journal Nature.

The biggest recorded flare on the Sun was probably the "Carrington event" of 1 September 1859.

Described by the English astronomer Richard Carrington, this outburst sent a surge of electromagnetic radiation and charged particles towards the Earth.

The magnetic fields embedded in the bubble of matter buffeted the Earth's own magnetic field, producing spectacular auroral lights. Electric fields generated in telegraph wires disrupted communications.

Remarkably, a Carrington flare is puny compared to some of the events witnessed by Kepler. These superflares can be 10,000 times more energetic.

The US space agency telescope is currently staring at 100,000 stars in a patch of sky about 600 to 3,000 light-years from Earth.

It is looking for tell-tale dips in light that might indicate orbiting planets have just moved across the face of those stars. But in making those observations, Kepler is also gathering information on the sudden brightening that might be associated with flares.

Hiroyuki Maehara from Kyoto University, Japan, and colleagues have now reviewed the data to compile the best statistics yet on the frequency and size of superflares.

Kepler saw a total of 365 superflares during an observation period lasting 120 days.

The numbers confirm that very few (only 0.2%) Sun-like stars experience monster flares.

That may be explained by current models which indicate superflares could be caused by magnetic interactions with closely orbiting giant planets - not something we see in our Solar System, where the largest worlds, Jupiter and Saturn, circle far away from the Sun.

But, this is a situation seen in some distant planetary systems where worlds even bigger than our gas giants orbit extremely close to their host stars.

One other interesting observation Kepler makes is that the stars which have superflares display extremely large starspots.

These are regions of the star's surface that are relatively cooler than the typical surface temperatures around them.

Carrington famously sketched the spot group on the Sun associated with his big flare, but according to Kepler this group would be dwarfed by the sort of spots on a superflare star.

Scientists have long speculated about the impact of a superflare on our Sun might have on Earth. The expectation is that it would strip away the ozone layer, leading to increased radiation at ground level. Widespread extinctions could result.

There is a flip side to this, however. In some distant planetary systems, superflares might actually be life-enabling by providing sufficient energy in the atmospheres of these worlds to initiate the chemistry necessary for biology to get going.

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter

cate blanchett drew brees drew brees tim tebow jets katy perry part of me video photoshop cs6 beta nfl news

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Source: HP Layoffs Are Going To Be Huge - Business Insider

It's no secret that HP is considering layoffs and soon.

Meg Whitman has even publicly hinted at them. Question is, how many employees will be axed?

One source at HP claims the job cuts are going to be massive.

While this is just one source, we know that tension inside the company is running high and so is the rumor mill.

Here's what our source told us:

Layoffs are going to be significant. At least, they'll be bigger than what Whitman has said so far. She's said that layoffs would NOT be "broad-based" at least in China (whatever that means), but she didn't say anything about the rest of the worldwide workforce.
Our source said HP wants to trim its workforce by 10%-15%. Given that HP has 320,000 employees, a 10% reduction would be 32,000 workers gone. However, that would include an early retirement program. We'd guess that this would include attrition, too, where new hires don't come in when employees leave. That number sounds high and we don't expect HP to promise it next week, because HP will also want to shift some jobs offshore. So, HP's total workforce numbers won't reflect all of the cuts.
We're hearing that manufacturing staff won't be hit as hard as others. That makes sense to us given that HP is more of a product company than a software or services company.
Speaking of services, keep an eye out for HP Services results, which one insider said is expected to have another abysmal quarter. HP's outsourcing units could be particularly hit hard with whatever layoffs come and many of their jobs moved offshore. We're hearing that people with 8-10 years of experience?or are at the top of the salary charts -- are the most vulnerable.

We'll find out in one week what HP is officially planning on doing. Given Whitman's constant speeches about HP needing time, we might also hear that HP is not going to rip the bandage off in one fell swoop, but will do one modest layoff in 2012, shift more work to offshore workers, and trim the workforce more over time.

HP had no comment.

Don't miss: The 7 Biggest Ways Meg Whitman Is Struggling At HP

Are you an HP employee with insight to share? We want to hear it. We are discreet. jbort@businessinsider.com.

panasonic lumix dmc lx5 ucla football deliverance pentatonix nicki minaj barbie doll nicki minaj barbie doll black dahlia