Sunday, March 31, 2013

MIDEAST STOCKS - Factors to watch - Mar 31

DUBAI, March 31 (Reuters) - Here are factors that may affect

Middle East stock markets on Sunday. Reuters has not verified

the press reports and does not vouch for their accuracy.

INTERNATIONAL/REGIONAL

* GLOBAL MARKETS-Record Wall Street boosts sentiment, US

holds key in Q2

* Oil settles higher, U.S. crude up 5.9 percent in Q1

* MIDEAST STOCKS-Saudi shares slip

* MIDEAST DEBT-Gulf's Islamic banks pressed to diversify

money market deals

* Gold falls, down for quarter as safe-haven bid fades

* First commercial flight between Egypt and Iran for 34

years

* Palestinians, Israeli Arabs mark "Land Day" with muted

protests

* Palestinian journalist gets jail term for Abbas insult

* Jordan's king swears in new reformist government

* Iran criticises Qatar for giving embassy to Syrian

opposition

* Mortar strike kills 15 in Damascus University-state media

SAUDI ARABIA

* Saudi Arabia to allow women's sports clubs - paper

* Saudi Arabia may try to end anonymity for Twitter users -

paper

EGYPT

* Prosecutor general orders arrest of well-known satirist

* Egypt blames power cuts on funding squeeze

* Cairo airport to partly close in summer to save power

* Egypt to get help from US, European wheat exporters -

minister

* White House condemns assaults on women at Egyptian

demonstrations

* Suez Canal revenue drops 7.4 pct in Feb vs Jan

* Egypt's Islamic authority asserts role, clashes with

Brotherhood

* Egypt calls in favours as credit crunch hits key imports

* Yields on Egypt T-bills climb at Thursday's auction

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

* UAE c.bank agrees to soften plans for mortgage caps -

sources

* UAE's Al Dahra to invest $400 mln in Serbian agriculture

* Exxon in talks to sell 5 pct of Iraq field to Mubadala

fund

* Kuwait PM says two Kuwaitis among 94 accused in UAE plot

trial

QATAR

* Qatar economy grew 6.2 percent in 2012, 6.6 pct in last

quarter

* Qatari investors to buy 100 pct of Printemps

* Qatar's QInvest plans range of Islamic funds on new

platform

BAHRAIN

* Bahrain-based bank buys stake in Leeds United

KUWAIT

* Kuwaiti telco Wataniya appoints new CEO

(Compiled by Dubai newsroom)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mideast-stocks-factors-watch-mar-31-041432110--sector.html

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The South: A near-solid block against 'Obamacare'

ATLANTA (AP) ? As more Republicans give in to President Barack Obama's health-care overhaul, an opposition bloc remains across the South, including from governors who lead some of the nation's poorest and unhealthiest states.

"Not in South Carolina," Gov. Nikki Haley declared at the recent Conservative Political Action Conference. "We will not expand Medicaid on President Obama's watch. We will not expand Medicaid ever."

Widening Medicaid insurance rolls, a joint federal-state program for low-income Americans, is an anchor of the law Obama signed in 2010. But states get to decide whether to take the deal, and from Virginia to Texas ? a region encompassing the old Confederacy and Civil War border states ? Florida's Rick Scott is the only Republican governor to endorse expansion, and he faces opposition from his GOP colleagues in the legislature. Tennessee's Bill Haslam, the Deep South's last governor to take a side, added his name to the opposition on Wednesday.

Haley offers the common explanation, saying expansion will "bust our budgets." But the policy reality is more complicated. The hospital industry and other advocacy groups continue to tell GOP governors that expansion would be a good arrangement, and there are signs that some Republicans are trying to find ways to expand insurance coverage under the law.

Haslam told Tennessee lawmakers that he'd rather use any new money to subsidize private insurance. That's actually the approach of another anchor of Obama's law: insurance exchanges where Americans can buy private policies with premium subsidies from taxpayers.

Yet for now, governors' rejection of Medicaid expansion will leave large swaths of Americans without coverage because they make too much money to qualify for Medicaid as it exists but not enough to get the subsidies to buy insurance in the exchanges. Many public health studies show that the same population suffers from higher-than-average rates of obesity, smoking and diabetes ? variables that yield bad health outcomes and expensive hospital care.

"Many of the citizens who would benefit the most from this live in the reddest of states with the most intense opposition," said Drew Altman, president of the non-partisan Kaiser Family Foundation.

So why are these states holding out? The short-term calculus seems heavily influenced by politics.

Haley, Haslam, Nathan Deal of Georgia and Robert Bentley of Alabama face re-election next year. Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant is up for re-election in 2015. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is term-limited at home but may seek the presidency in 2016. While they all govern GOP-leaning states, they still must safeguard their support among Republican voters who dislike large-scale federal initiatives in general and distrust Obama in particular. Florida's Scott, the South's GOP exception on expansion, faces a different dynamic. He won just 49 percent of the vote in 2010 and must face an electorate that twice supported Obama.

A South Carolina legislator put it bluntly earlier this year. State Rep. Kris Crawford told a business journal that he supports expansion, but said electoral math is the trump card. "It is good politics to oppose the black guy in the White House right now, especially for the Republican Party," he said.

Whit Ayers, a leading Republican pollster, was more measured, but offered the same bottom line. "This law remains toxic among Republican primary voters," he told The Associated Press.

At the Tennessee Hospital Association, president Craig Becker has spent months trying to break through that barrier as he travels to civic and business groups across Tennessee. "It's really hard for some of them to separate something that has the name 'Obamacare' on it from what's going to be best for the state," he said, explaining that personality driven politics are easier to understand than the complicated way that the U.S. pays for health care.

Medicaid is financed mostly by Congress, though states have to put in their own money to qualify for the cash from Washington. The federal amount is determined by a state's per-capita income, with poorer states getting more help. On average in 2012, the feds paid 57 cents of every Medicaid dollar. It was 74 cents in Mississippi, 71 in Kentucky, 70 in Arkansas and South Carolina, 68 in Alabama. Those numbers would be even higher counting bonuses from Obama's 2009 stimulus bill.

Obama's law mandated that states open Medicaid to everyone with household income up to 138 percent of the federal poverty rate ? $15,420 a year for an individual or $31,812 for a family of four. The federal government would cover all costs of new Medicaid patients from 2014 to 2016 and pick up most of the price tag after that, requiring states to pay up to 10 percent. The existing Medicaid population would continue under the old formula. In its ruling on the law, the Supreme Court left the details alone, but declared that states could choose whether to expand.

Hospital and physician lobbying groups around the country have endorsed a bigger Medicaid program. Becker said he explains on his road show that the Obama law paired Medicaid growth with cuts to payments to hospitals for treating the uninsured. Just as they do with Medicaid insurance, states already must contribute their own money in order to get federal help with those so-called "uncompensated care" payments.

The idea was instead of paying hospitals directly, states and Congress could spend that money on Medicaid and have those new beneficiaries ? who now drive costs with preventable hospital admissions and expensive emergency room visits ? use the primary care system. But the Supreme Court ruling creates a scenario where hospitals can lose existing revenue with getting the replacement cash Congress intended, all while still having to treat the uninsured patients who can't get coverage.

Becker said that explanation has gotten local chambers of commerce across Tennessee to endorse expansion. "These are rock-ribbed Republicans," he said. "But they all scratch their heads and say, 'Well, if that's the case, then of course we do this.'"

In Louisiana, Jindal's health care agency quietly released an analysis saying the changes could actually save money over time. But the Republican Governors Association chairman is steadfast in his opposition. In Georgia, Deal answers pressure from his state's hospital association with skepticism about projected "uncompensated care" savings and Congress' pledge to finance 90 percent of the new Medicaid costs.

Altman, the Kaiser foundation leader, predicted that opposition will wane over time.

Arkansas Republicans, who oppose Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe's call for expansion, have floated the same idea as Haslam: pushing would-be Medicaid recipients into the insurance exchanges. Jindal, using his RGA post, has pushed the Obama administration to give states more "flexibility" in how to run Medicaid.

Deal convinced Georgia lawmakers this year to let an appointed state board set a hospital industry tax to generate some of the state money that supports Medicaid. That fee ? which 49 states use in some way ? is the same tool that Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer is using to cover her state's Medicaid expansion. Georgia Democrats and some hospital executives have quietly mused that Deal is leaving himself an option to widen Medicaid in his expected term.

"These guys are looking for ways to do this while still saying they are against 'Obamacare,'" Altman said. "As time goes by, we'll see this law acquire a more bipartisan complexion."

-----

Follow Barrow on Twitter (at)BillBarrowAP.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/south-near-solid-block-against-obamacare-191744666.html

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Report: Saudi Arabia may try to end anonymity for Twitter users

Saudi Arabia may try to end anonymity for Twitter users in the country by limiting access to the site to people who register their identification documents, the Arab News daily reported on Saturday.

Last week, local media reported the government had asked telecom companies to look at ways they could monitor, or block, free internet phone services such as Skype.

Twitter is highly popular with Saudis and has stirred broad debate on subjects ranging from religion to politics in a country where such public discussion had been considered at best unseemly and sometimes illegal.

Early this month, the security spokesman for Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry described social networking, particularly Twitter, as a tool used by militants to stir social unrest.

The country's Grand Mufti, Saudi Arabia's top cleric, last week described users of the microblogging site as "clowns" wasting time with frivolous and even harmful discussions, local newspapers reported.

"A source at (the regulator) described the move as a natural result of the successful implementation of (its) decision to add a user's identification numbers while topping up mobile phone credit," Arab News reported.

That would not necessarily make a user's identity visible to other users of the site, but it would mean the Saudi government could monitor the tweets of individual Saudis.

The English-language daily and sister paper to the Saudi-owned pan-Arab Asharq al-Awsat newspaper did not explain how the authorities might be able to restrict ability to post on Twitter. Both newspapers belong to a publishing group owned by the ruling family and run by a son of Crown Prince Salman.

Internet service providers are legally obliged to block websites showing content deemed pornographic.

One of the big investors in Twitter is Saudi Arabian billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a nephew of King Abdullah who also holds significant stakes in Citi Group, News Corp and Apple through his Kingdom Holding Company.

The country's telecom regulator, Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) did not immediately responded to requests for comment on the report. Last week it did not comment on the report it was seeking to restrict Skype use.

A spokeswoman for Kingdom Holding said Prince Alwaleed was not available to comment.

"There are people who misuse the social networking and try to send false information and false evaluation of the situation in the kingdom and the way the policemen in the kingdom are dealing with these situations," said Major General Mansour Turki, the security spokesman, at a news conference on Mar 8.

At a separate interview with Reuters this month, Turki argued that a small number of supporters of al Qaeda and activists from Saudi Arabia's Shi'ite minority used social media to stir wider sympathy for their goals and social unrest.

However, he also argued against banning the site.

Two weeks ago one of Saudi Arabia's most prominent clerics, Salman al-Awdah, who has 2.4 million followers on the site, used Twitter to attack the government's security policy as too harsh and call for better services. He warned it might otherwise face "the spark of violence".

Two leading Saudi human rights activists were sentenced to long prison terms this month for a variety of offences including "internet crimes" because they had used Twitter and other sites to attack the government.

Some top princes in the monarchy now use Twitter themselves and Crown Prince Salman, King Abdullah's designated heir and also Defence Minister, recently opened an official account.

(Reporting By Angus McDowall; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653377/s/2a29c693/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Ctechnology0Ctechnolog0Creport0Esaudi0Earabia0Emay0Etry0Eend0Eanonymity0Etwitter0Eusers0E1C9144293/story01.htm

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Son of pro wrestler Ric Flair found dead

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) ? Authorities say the son of professional wrestler Ric Flair has been found dead in a North Carolina hotel room.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police says officers were called to a hotel on the city's south side around 10:30 a.m. Friday. When they arrived, they found the body of 25-year-old Reid Fliehr, who also was a wrestler.

A statement from police says there are no signs of foul play, and that the cause of death will be determined by the medical examiner's office.

Flair's agent released a statement Friday describing Reid as "an incredible son, brother, friend, and professional wrestler."

Ric Flair's real name is Richard Morgan Fliehr. The peroxide-blond wrestled for some 40 years and also was known as The Nature Boy.

The 64-year-old won many pro wrestling titles including in the WWE.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/son-pro-wrestler-ric-flair-found-dead-201734268.html

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Saturday, March 30, 2013

3 dozen indicted in Atlanta cheating scandal

ATLANTA (AP) ? In another embarrassing blow to Atlanta public schools, nearly three dozen former educators, including the ex-superintendent, were indicted Friday in one of the nation's largest test cheating scandals.

Former Superintendent Beverly Hall faced charges including racketeering, false statements and theft because prosecutors said some of the bonuses she received were tied to falsified scores.

Hall retired just days before a state probe was released in 2011. She has long denied knowing about the cheating or ordering it.

During a news conference Friday, Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard provided examples of two students who demonstrated "the plight of many children" in the Atlanta school system. He described a third-grader who failed a benchmark exam and received the worst score in her reading class in 2006. The girl was held back, yet when she took a separate assessment test not long after, she passed with flying colors.

Howard said the girl's mother, Justina Collins, knew something was awry, but was told by school officials that the child simply was a good test-taker. The girl is now in ninth grade, reading at a fifth-grade level.

"I have a 15-year-old now who is behind in achieving her goal of becoming what she wants to be when she graduates. It's been hard trying to help her catch up," Collins said.

The criminal investigation lasted 21 months and the allegations date back to 2005. In addition to Hall, 34 people were indicted: four high-level administrators, six principals; two assistant principals; six testing coordinators; 14 teachers; a school improvement specialist and a school secretary.

All of the people named in the indictment face conspiracy charges. Other charges in the 65-count indictment include false statements and writings, false swearing, theft and influencing witnesses.

The investigation involved at least 50 schools as well as hundreds of interviews with school administrators, staff, parents and students. The district has about 50,000 students.

Howard would not directly answer a question about whether Hall led the conspiracy.

"What we're saying is that without her, this conspiracy could not have taken place," he said. "It would not have taken place if her actions had not made that possible."

Hall faces up to 45 years in prison, Howard said.

Richard Deane, an attorney for Hall, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

The tests were the key measure the state used to determine whether it met the federal No Child Left Behind law. Schools with good test scores get extra federal dollars to spend in the classroom or on teacher bonuses.

It wasn't immediately clear how much bonus money Hall received. Howard did not say and the amount wasn't mentioned in the indictment.

"Those results were caused by cheating. ... And the money that she received, we are alleging that money was ill-gotten," Howard said.

The previous state investigation in 2011 found cheating by nearly 180 educators in 44 Atlanta schools. Educators gave answers to students or changed answers on tests after they were turned in, investigators said. Teachers who tried to report it faced retaliation, creating a culture of "fear and intimidation" in the district.

State schools Superintendent John Barge said last year he believed the state's new accountability system would remove the pressure to cheat on standardized tests because it won't be the sole way the state determines student growth. The pressure was part of what some educators in Atlanta Public Schools blamed for their cheating.

Hall served as superintendent for more than a decade, which is rare for an urban schools chief. She was named Superintendent of the Year by the American Association of School Administrators in 2009 and credited with raising student test scores and graduation rates, particularly among the district's poor and minority students. But the award quickly lost its luster as her district became mired in the scandal.

In a video message to schools staff before she retired, Hall warned that the state investigation launched by former Gov. Sonny Perdue would likely reveal "alarming" behavior.

"It's become increasingly clear that a segment of our staff chose to violate the trust that was placed in them," Hall said. "There is simply no excuse for unethical behavior and no room in this district for unethical conduct. I am confident that aggressive, swift action will be taken against anyone who believed so little in our students and in our system of support that they turned to dishonesty as the only option."

The cheating came to light after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that some scores were statistically improbable.

Most of the 178 educators named in the special investigators' report in 2011 resigned, retired, did not have their contracts renewed or appealed their dismissals and lost. Twenty-one educators have been reinstated and three await hearings to appeal their dismissals, said Atlanta Public Schools spokesman Stephen Alford.

Superintendent Erroll Davis said the district was focused on nurturing an ethical environment, providing quality education and supporting the employees who were not implicated.

"I know that our children will succeed when the adults around them work hard, work together, and do so with integrity," he said in a statement.

The Georgia Professional Standards Commission is responsible for licensing teachers and has been going through the complaints against teachers, said commission executive secretary Kelly Henson. Of the 159 cases the commission has reviewed, 44 resulted in license revocations, 100 got two-year suspensions and nine were suspended for less than two years, Henson said. No action was taken against six of the educators.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/3-dozen-indicted-atlanta-cheating-scandal-214241949.html

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Bungie shows off 'Destiny' characters on video

"Halo" creator Bungie has been sparing with details on the gameplay of its next big project, "Destiny," but liberal with concept art. The veil was lifted a little further Friday with the release of a video showing characters making the jump from concept to in-game model.

The video was shown at Bungie's panel at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. While it doesn't contain any actual gameplay, there's plenty of info to be extracted from the character models and animations.

For instance, the "Cabal" fighters are heavily armored and likely fill the role of tank. The three classes shown at the end ? Titan, Warlock, and Hunter ? fit neatly into the "warrior, wizard, rogue" archetypes already in place in thousands of games.

Sharp-eyed viewers will identify several influences, from "Warhammer 40K" and "Star Wars" to manga like "Appleseed" to, of course, Bungie's previous games. A batch of concept art was also released, which Kotaku has kindly collected here.

More substantial information about the game itself will likely be given out at E3 in June.

Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for NBC News Digital. His personal website is coldewey.cc.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653377/s/2a254d92/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Ctechnology0Cingame0Cbungie0Eshows0Edestiny0Echaracters0Evideo0E1C9145348/story01.htm

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Timeline: Key dates and milestones in the S&P 500's history

By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Standard & Poor's, initially known as the Standard Statistics Company, created its first stock market index in 1923. It consisted of the stocks of 233 companies and was computed weekly.

Three years later, it developed a 90-stock composite price index computed daily. That was expanded over the years.

On March 4, 1957, the Standard & Poor's 500 <.inx><.spx> was introduced.

The S&P 500 index has became synonymous with the term "U.S. stock market." It is one of the leading benchmarks for the market, even though others, including the Russell and Wilshire indexes, are broader measures of the market. Still, investors use the S&P 500 as the main index to measure their portfolios' performance against, with about $5.58 trillion benchmarked to the S&P 500.

The S&P's 500 companies represent the U.S. market more broadly than the Dow Jones industrial average, which includes the stocks of only 30 companies.

American Telephone and Telegraph was the heaviest-weighted stock in the index in 1957. The company, now known as AT&T , is the 11th-largest company in the S&P 500 index.

Today the S&P 500 index has a total market cap of $14.6 trillion. Sixty-nine of the 500 original companies remain in the S&P 500 today.

Below are some key dates and milestones in the history of the S&P 500.

1923: Standard Statistics Company, as S&P was formerly known, develops its first stock market index consisting of the stocks of 233 U.S. companies, computed weekly.

1926: Standard Statistics creates a 90-stock composite price index computed daily.

March 4, 1957: The Standard & Poor's 500 index is introduced, tracking the performance of the stocks of 500 leading U.S. companies. With a total market capitalization of $172 billion, the S&P 500 followed the performance of 425 industrial, 15 rail and 60 utility stocks.

1958: S&P 500 ends the year up 38.06 percent, its best year in terms of percentage gain.

June 4, 1968: S&P 500 closes above 100 for the first time.

August 31, 1976: Vanguard introduces the first retail index mutual fund, the Vanguard First Index Investment Trust, which tracks the S&P 500, allowing individual investors for the first time to buy into the broad market with a single purchase. The fund, now known as the Vanguard 500 Index Fund , has $125 billion in assets.

April 21, 1982: The Chicago Mercantile Exchange begins trading futures based on the S&P 500.

July 1, 1983: Options contracts based on the S&P 500 index begin trading on the Chicago Board Options Exchange.

Oct 19, 1987: S&P 500 registers its worst daily percentage loss, falling 20.47 percent. The one-day crash, known as "Black Monday," was blamed on program trading and those using a hedging strategy known as portfolio insurance. Despite the losses, the S&P 500 still ended up that year.

January 22, 1993: State Street's Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts, or the SPDR S&P 500 , an exchange-traded fund that tracks the S&P 500's performance, begins trading on the American Stock Exchange. It was the first ETF to trade in the United States. The first SPDR and the many variations that followed are commonly referred to as the "spiders." The fund currently has about $133.8 billion in assets, making it the largest exchange-traded fund in terms of assets.

September 9, 1997: CME introduces the S&P E-mini futures, which is valued at $50 multiplied by the price of the S&P 500, or one-fifth of the size of the "big" S&P futures contract. It has since become the most heavily traded futures contract on the CME.

February 2, 1998: S&P 500 closes above 1,000 for the first time.

March 24, 2000: The S&P 500 index reaches an all-time intraday high of 1,552.87 during the dot-com bubble.

March 24, 2004: Trading begins in futures on the VIX <.vix>, the CBOE Volatility Index measuring implied volatility of S&P 500 index options. The VIX is known as the market's "fear gauge." It tends to rise when stocks fall. It recently fell to levels not seen since April 2007.

March-September 2005: The index is transitioned from simply market-value weighted to float adjusted, where the market capitalization is calculated using only the number of shares available for public trading.

October 9, 2007: Index closes at a record high of 1,565.15.

October 11, 2007: S&P 500 hits intraday record high of 1,576.09.

Oct 13, 2008: S&P 500 marks its best daily percentage gain, rising 11.58 percent. It also registers its largest single-day point increase of 104.13 points.

2008: For the year, S&P 500 falls 38.49 percent - its worst yearly percentage loss. In September 2008, Lehman Brothers collapsed as the financial crisis spread.

March 9, 2009: S&P 500 closes at 676.53, its closing low after the onset of the 2008 financial crisis and the Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy.

August 20, 2012: Apple becomes the biggest U.S. company and takes over as market capitalization leader in the S&P 500, pushing Exxon Mobil into the No. 2 spot. Since then, Exxon and Apple have gone back and forth between the two spots, but Apple is currently No. 1 with a market cap of about $416 billion. Exxon has a market cap of $404 billion.

March 28, 2013: S&P 500 ends above 1,569 - setting a record closing high and surpassing the previous milestone set in 2007.

Sources: S&P Dow Jones Indices Senior Index Analyst Howard Silverblatt, the Standard & Poor's book, "Innovation & Evolution, The S&P 500," CME, CBOE, Vanguard Group Inc, State Street Global Advisors, Thomson Reuters.

(Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Jan Paschal)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/timeline-key-dates-milestones-p-500s-history-222131451--sector.html

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Friday, March 29, 2013

Exclusive: Wal-Mart may get customers to deliver packages to online buyers

By Alistair Barr and Jessica Wohl

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc is considering a radical plan to have store customers deliver packages to online buyers, a new twist on speedier delivery services that the company hopes will enable it to better compete with Amazon.com Inc.

Tapping customers to deliver goods would put the world's largest retailer squarely in middle of a new phenomenon sometimes known as "crowd-sourcing," or the "sharing economy."

A plethora of start-ups now help people make money by renting out a spare room, a car, or even a cocktail dress, and Wal-Mart would in effect be inviting people to rent out space in their vehicle and their willingness to deliver packages to others.

Such an effort would, however, face numerous legal, regulatory and privacy obstacles, and Wal-Mart executives said it was at an early planning stage.

Wal-Mart is making a big push to ship online orders directly from stores, hoping to cut transportation costs and gain an edge over Amazon and other online retailers, which have no physical store locations. Wal-Mart does this at 25 stores currently, but plans to double that to 50 this year and could expand the program to hundreds of stores in the future.

Wal-Mart currently uses carriers like FedEx Corp for delivery from stores - or, in the case of a same-day delivery service called Walmart To Go that is being tested in five metro areas, its own delivery trucks.

"I see a path to where this is crowd-sourced," Joel Anderson, chief executive of Walmart.com in the United States, said in a recent interview with Reuters.

Wal-Mart has millions of customers visiting its stores each week. Some of these shoppers could tell the retailer where they live and sign up to drop off packages for online customers who live on their route back home, Anderson explained.

Wal-Mart would offer a discount on the customers' shopping bill, effectively covering the cost of their gas in return for the delivery of packages, he added.

"This is at the brain-storming stage, but it's possible in a year or two," said Jeff McAllister, senior vice president of Walmart U.S. innovations.

Indeed, the likelihood of this being broadly adopted across the company's network of more than 4,000 stores in the United States is low, according to Matt Nemer, a retail analyst at Wells Fargo Securities.

"I'm sure it will be a test in some stores," he added. "But they may only keep it for metro markets and for higher-priced items."

LEGAL BOUNDARIES

Start-ups such as TaskRabbit and Fiverr already let individuals rent out their time and expertise to companies and people looking for small jobs to be completed.

Zipments was founded in 2010 as a crowd-sourced delivery network that allowed anyone over 18 years old with a vehicle, a text-enabled phone, and a PayPal account to bid on courier services for local businesses.

Such online match-making businesses often push legal boundaries - and a Wal-Mart crowd-sourced delivery program would be no different, according to Nemer.

Online packages delivered by customers may never reach their destination, either through theft or fraud, the analyst said.

Such a crowd-sourced delivery service may not be as reliable as FedEx or United Parcel Service, which have insured drivers, he added.

"You are comfortable with a FedEx or UPS truck in your driveway, but what about a stranger knocking on your door?" Nemer said.

ZIPMENTS EVOLVES

While Zipments started out with a pure crowd-sourcing approach, the company now does more screening of drivers before allowing them to be part of its delivery network, Chief Executive and co-Founder Garrick Pohl said in an interview. It now serves big cities including New York and Chicago.

Theft, fraud and late deliveries have never been a problem, but insurance and licenses were an obstacle, Pohl explained.

Drivers often need personal liability insurance to cover package delivery activities. Cargo insurance is also needed. Zipments self-insures this risk up to $250, but the firm encourages its couriers to buy additional coverage for higher-value packages, Pohl said.

In some areas, like downtown Chicago, people also need a courier license to deliver things, he added.

"Zipments now helps people get all these things set up before allowing them to deliver goods," Pohl said.

Still, he said the issues are not insurmountable, citing pizza restaurants, which have used part-time drivers to deliver pies for years.

"It's a great solution for large retailers like Wal-Mart," Pohl said. "We'd like to see them move quicker, but it's great that they are considering it."

Zipments is trying to provide such services to retailers, although Pohl declined to say which companies the start-up is talking to about this.

(Reporting by Alistair Barr and Jessica Wohl; Editing by Jonathan Weber, Martin Howell and Leslie Gevirtz)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-wal-mart-may-customers-deliver-packages-online-050124872--sector.html

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Large robotic jellyfish could one day patrol oceans

Mar. 28, 2013 ? Virginia Tech College of Engineering researchers have unveiled a life-like, autonomous robotic jellyfish the size and weight of a grown man, 5 foot 7 inches in length and weighing 170 pounds.

The prototype robot, nicknamed Cyro, is a larger model of a robotic jellyfish the same team -- headed by Shashank Priya of Blacksburg, Va., and professor of mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech -- unveiled in 2012. The earlier robot, dubbed RoboJelly, is roughly the size of a man's hand, and typical of jellyfish found along beaches.

"A larger vehicle will allow for more payload, longer duration and longer range of operation," said Alex Villanueva of St-Jacques, New-Brunswick, Canada, and a doctoral student in mechanical engineering working under Priya. "Biological and engineering results show that larger vehicles have a lower cost of transport, which is a metric used to determine how much energy is spent for traveling."

Both robots are part of a multi-university, nationwide $5 million project funded by U.S. Naval Undersea Warfare Center and the Office of Naval Research. The goal is to place self-powering, autonomous machines in waters for the purposes of surveillance and monitoring the environment, in addition to other uses such as studying aquatic life, mapping ocean floors, and monitoring ocean currents.

Jellyfish are attractive candidates to mimic because of their ability to consume little energy owing to a lower metabolic rate than other marine species. Additionally, they appear in wide variety of sizes, shapes and colors, allowing for several designs. They also inhabit every major oceanic area of the world and are capable of withstanding a wide range of temperatures in both fresh and salt waters. Most species are found in shallow coastal waters, but some have been found in depths 7,000 meters below sea level.

Partner universities in the project are Providence College in Rhode Island, the University of California Los Angeles, the University of Texas at Dallas, and Stanford University. Priya's team is building the jellyfish body models, integrating fluid mechanics and developing control systems.

Cyro is modeled and named after the jellyfish cyanea capillata, Latin for Llion's Manemain jellyfishJellyfish, with "Cyro" derived from "cyanea" and "robot." As with its predecessor, this robot is in the prototype stage, years away from use in waters. A new prototype model already is under construction at Virginia Tech's Durham Hall, where Priya's Center for Energy Harvesting Materials and Systems is based.

"We hope to improve on this robot and reduce power consumption and improve swimming performance as well as better mimic the morphology of the natural jellyfish," Villanueva said, adding that the project also allows researchers such as himself to better understand aquatic creatures live. "Our hopes for Cyro's future is that it will help understand how the propulsion mechanism of such animal scales with size."

A stark difference exists between the larger and smaller robots. Cyro is powered by a rechargeable nickel metal hydride battery, whereas the smaller models were tethered, Priya said. Experiments have also been conducted on powering jellyfish with hydrogen but there is still much research to be done in that area.

In both cases, the jellyfish must operate on their own for months or longer at a time as engineers likely won't be able to capture and repair the robots, or replace power sources. "Cyro showed its ability to swim autonomously while maintaining a similar physical appearance and kinematics as the natural species," Priya said, adding that the robot is simultaneously able to collect, store, analyze, and communicate sensory data. This autonomous operation in shallow water conditions is already a big step towards demonstrating the use of these creatures."

How does the robot swim? Its body consists of a rigid support structure with direct current electric motors which control the mechanical arms that are used in conjunction with an artificial mesoglea, or jelly-based pulp of the fish's body, creating hydrodynamic movement.

With no central nervous system, jellyfish instead use a diffused nerve net to control movement and can complete complex functions. A parallel study on a bio-inspired control system is in progress which will eventually replace the current simplified controller. As with the smaller models, Cyro's skin is composed of a thick layer of silicone, squishy in one's hand. It mimics the sleek jellyfish skin and is placed over a bowl-shaped device containing the electronic guts of the robot. When moving, the skin floats and moves with the robot, looking weirdly alive.

"It has been a great experience to finally realize the biomimetic and bio-inspired robotic vehicles," Priya said. "Nature has too many secrets and we were able to find some of them but many still remain. We hope to find a mechanism to continue on this journey and resolve the remaining puzzles."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Virginia Tech (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University), via Newswise.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/kLqBg1DBw1g/130328124807.htm

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Microscale medical sensors inserted under skin powered wirelessly by external handheld receiver

Mar. 27, 2013 ? Implantable electronic devices potentially offer a rapid and accurate way for doctors to monitor patients with particular medical conditions. Yet powering such devices remains a fundamental challenge: batteries are bulky and eventually need recharging or replacing. Jia Hao Cheong at the A*STAR Institute for Microelectronics, Singapore, and his co-workers are developing an alternative approach that eliminates the need for a battery. Their miniature devices are based on wireless power-transfer technology.

The research team has developed a microscale electronic sensor to monitor blood flow through artificial blood vessels. Surgeons use these prosthetic grafts to bypass diseased or clogged blood vessels in patients experiencing restricted blood supply, for example. Over time, however, the graft can also become blocked. To avoid complete failure, blood flow through the graft must be monitored regularly, but existing techniques are slow and costly.

These limitations prompted the researchers to develop a bench-top prototype of a device that could be incorporated inside a graft to monitor blood flow. The implant is powered by a handheld external reader, which uses inductive coupling to wirelessly transfer energy, a technology similar to that found in the latest wireless-charging mobile phones. The team developed an application-specific, integrated circuit for the implant designed for low power use (see image).

The incoming energy powers circuits in the device that control sensors based on silicon nanowires. This material is piezoresistive: as blood flows over the sensor the associated mechanical stresses induce a measurable increase in electrical resistance, proportional to the flow pressure.

Key to the success of the device is its ability to work with a very limited power supply. Most of the incoming energy is absorbed by skin and tissue before it can reach the implant, which may be inserted up to 50 millimeters deep.

"Our flow sensor system achieves an ultra-low power consumption of 12.6 microwatts," Cheong says. For example, the sensor transmits its data to the handheld reader passively, by backscattering some of the incoming energy. "We have tested our system with 50-millimeter-thick tissue between the external coil and implantable coil, and it successfully extracted the pressure data from the implantable device," he adds.

Cheong and his co-workers' tests showed that the prototype sensor was also highly pressure sensitive, providing pressure readings with a resolution of 0.17 pounds per square inch (1,172 pascals). "The next step of the project is to integrate the system and embed it inside a graft for [an experimental] animal," Cheong says.

The A*STAR-affiliated researchers contributing to this research are from the Institute of Microelectronics

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR).

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. Jia Hao Cheong, Simon Sheung Yan Ng, Xin Liu, Rui-Feng Xue, Huey Jen Lim, Pradeep Basappa Khannur, Kok Lim Chan, Andreas Astuti Lee, Kai Kang, Li Shiah Lim, Cairan He, Pushpapraj Singh, Woo-Tae Park, Minkyu Je. An Inductively Powered Implantable Blood Flow Sensor Microsystem for Vascular Grafts. IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, 2012; 59 (9): 2466 DOI: 10.1109/TBME.2012.2203131

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/matter_energy/electronics/~3/oPdGd-Vm3EA/130327162425.htm

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Trinidad Jame$' 'Female$ Welcomed' Video: Watch Now!

Even the devil stops by for the 'All Gold Everything' rapper's flaming-hot music video, shot in his native Trinidad.
By Driadonna Roland


Trinidad James in his video for "Females Welcomed"
Photo: Def Jam

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1704478/trinidad-james-females-welcomed-music-video.jhtml

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Thursday, March 28, 2013

AP Interview: Egypt says Iranian tourists no risk

CAIRO (AP) ? Egypt's tourism minister says Iranian tourists would help shore up Egypt's dilapidated tourism industry and would not pose security challenge to the nation.

Speaking to The Associated Press in Cairo on Thursday, Hesham Zazou says he does not worry that visiting Iranians would try to export a revolution to Egypt.

Preparations are under way to allow Iranian tourists visit at a time when the Egyptian government is looking to boost the tourism business back to pre-revolution levels when 14.7 million tourists visited Egypt in 2010.

Continued unrest since the 2011 uprising that forced longtime authoritarian president Hosni Mubarak to step down, have scared away tourists and investment.

Last year, the number of tourists climbed to more than 10 million, but most tourists go to beach resorts along the Red Sea.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ap-interview-egypt-says-iranian-tourists-no-risk-145949564.html

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Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Twitter Verification Has More To Do With Being Good At Twitter Than With Identity

Screen Shot 2013-03-25 at 2.56.54 PMTwitter has done a great job at keeping the whole "blue badge" verification process a mystery. If curiosity eats away at you like it does me, you're in luck. A new video from comedians Hari and Ashok Kondabolu, featuring Anil Dash who has around 500k followers, shows the magical transformation from start to finish. First off, it's important to know that you can't ask to be verified. Twitter only offers this blessing upon those with enough followers and popularity to deserve it. However, the company promises that follower count has no bearing.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/cOA-8Othi80/

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Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Violins can mimic the human voice

Mar. 25, 2013 ? For many years, some musical experts have wondered if the sound of the Stradivari and Guarneri violins might incorporate such elements of speech as vowels and consonants. A Texas A&M University researcher has now provided the first evidence that the Italian violin masters tried to impart specific vowel sounds to their violins.

Joseph Nagyvary, professor emeritus in biochemistry at Texas A&M, says of the various vowels he identified in their violins, only two were Italian -- the "i" and "e," while the others were more of French and English origin.

His findings published in the current issue of Savart Journal, a scientific journal of musical instrument acoustics, have the potential to change the way violins are made and how they are priced.

"I expected to find more Italian vowels, what experts call the 'Old Italian' sound actually has the mark of foreign languages," Nagyvary confirms.

Nagyvary has held for decades that the great Italian violin makers, Stradivari and Guarneri del Ges?, produced instruments with a more human-like tonal quality than any others made at the time. To prove his theory, he persuaded the famed violinist Itzhak Perlman to record a scale on his violin, a 1743-dated Guarneri, during a 1987 concert appearance in San Antonio.

For the required comparison, Nagyvary asked Metropolitan Opera soprano Emily Pulley, a former College Station resident, to record her voice singing vowels in an operatic style.

"It has been widely held that violins 'sing' with a female soprano voice. Emily's voice is lustrous and she has the required expertise to sing all vowels of the European languages in a musical scale," Nagyvary explains.

"I analyzed her sound samples by computer for harmonic content and then using state-of-the art phonetic analysis to obtain a 2-D map of the female soprano vowels. Each note of a musical scale on the violin underwent the same analysis, and the results were plotted and mapped against the soprano vowels."

Nagyvary's 25 years of research on the project proved that the sounds of Pulley's voice and the violin's could be located on the same map for identification purposes, and their respective graphic images can be directly compared.

His discoveries are significant for two reasons.

"For 400 years, violin prices have been based almost exclusively on the reputation of the maker -- the label inside of the violin determined the price tag," Nagyvary says. "The sound quality rarely entered into price consideration because it was deemed inaccessible. These findings could change how violins may be valued."

The new graphic images of the violin sound could also become an asset in teaching students to improve the quality of their tone production, he adds.

He says that in recent years, the violins of Guarneri del Ges? have surpassed those made by Stradivari: certain Guarneri violins now sell for something between $10 million to $20 million each.

Nagyvary was the first to prove that Stradivari and Guarneri soaked their instruments in chemicals such as borax and brine to protect them from a worm infestation that was sweeping through Italy in the 1700s. By pure accident, the chemicals used to protect the wood had the unintended result of producing the unique sounds that have been almost impossible to duplicate in the past 400 years, and his findings were supported and verified by the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific organization.

The retired Texas A&M professor has himself made violins that included carefully crafted woods soaked in a variety of chemicals.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Texas A&M University.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. Joseph Nagyvary. A Comparative Study of Power Spectra and Vowels in Guarneri Violins and Operatic Singing. Savart Journal, Vol 1, No 3 (2013)

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/YODBOwxZoxM/130325135302.htm

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5 Ways to Get Your Home When Housing ... - AOL Real Estate

Shopping for a homeBy Brendon DeSimone

The news is out. Real estate is back. Homebuyers are in the game again, but they're facing a huge inventory shortage in most markets. Some buyers make three or four offers on homes, only to keep losing out to other buyers. In this tight market, buyers and real estate agents need to think outside the box. You may need to go after homes that aren't listed for sale. Here are five ways to do that.

1. Look for 'expired' and 'withdrawn' listings. A good agent will scour the MLS for homes that were listed in the recent past but never sold. Many homes failed to sell because they were seen as overpriced at the time. Does their last list price seem like a valid price today? Chances are, the owner doesn't realize how much the market has picked up and might still be open to selling the home. Have your agent contact the owner with a letter expressing your interest in purchasing the property. Show the owner you're serious, and you'll likely get a response.

2. Search for 'make me move' prices. Do you feel like cattle being herded through a busy open house with dozens of other buyers? Scouring the Zillow app while on the Sunday open house circuit? You might want to filter listings by searching for homes with a Make Me Move price in the neighborhoods where you want to own.

Owners who have set a Make Me Move price have gone out of their way to indicate a price that would make them sell. Some would-be sellers are unrealistic in their pricing. But others may have listed their property months or years ago, and their price may in fact be doable. Reach out to them with an offer. It often works.

3. Check rental listings. Why would a buyer go after rental listings? Here's why: The owner may have lived in the home at some point but had to move for a job transfer, divorce or life change. At that time, their home could have been underwater or the market simply wouldn't support the asking price. Instead of listing it with an agent, they just decided to rent it and "ride it out" for a couple of years. Their current tenant might have given notice and, without knowledge of the changing market, the owner simply wants to rent it again. Go see the home. If you like it, find out if the owner would be open to selling. Make it easy, and they may be on board.

4. Don't ignore overpriced listings. The No. 1 complaint among real estate agents everywhere is working with a seller who's unrealistic about their home's price, especially in this tight market. But as a buyer, you might use it to your advantage. After six weeks or less in some markets, an overpriced home loses its luster. The seller doesn't clean as often. Weeds grow in front. And it just may not show as well. The fading curb appeal, along with an unrealistic price, will keep buyers away.

How is this good for the buyer? Many sellers won't list their home at a lower price but will sell it at a lower price. Go in with an offer before the first price reduction, if possible. Once they do drop the price, other buyers will take notice again, and you may have competition.

5. Off-market or pocket listings. Some homeowners want to sell but don't want to or can't list. Maybe they simply don't want the hassle of keeping a clean home and dealing with showings. Or perhaps they're just very private. Especially in the luxury market, some owners just don't want to publicly list their homes.

In many markets, real estate agents regularly network with each other about potential deals. Some areas have dedicated websites for agents to share off-market properties, also known as "pocket" listings. Also, brokerage firms generally release upcoming listings to their agents a few weeks before they hit the MLS. Work with a well-connected agent and make sure you're privy to these potential opportunities.

Most active buyers spend months looking for a home the traditional way. Until prices rise enough to bring more sellers and inventory into the market, these buyers will likely keep facing tight housing inventory. That's why it's important to make sure your agent is trying every way possible to uncover opportunities for you. Be open to using non-traditional methods to beat the competition and take advantage of low interest rates and favorable pricing.

See more on Zillow:
How to Buy or Sell a Home That's Off the Market
3 Tips for Avoiding House-Hunt Heartbreak
Ways to Get Creative in a Real Estate Transaction

More on AOL Real Estate:
Find out how to
calculate mortgage payments.
Find foreclosures in your area.
Find homes for rent in your area.
See more celebrity real estate.

Follow us on Twitter at @AOLRealEstate or connect with AOL Real Estate on Facebook.

Source: http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2013/03/25/low-housing-inventory-home-buying-advice/

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Hornets snap Nuggets' 15-game win streak

Denver Nuggets guard Andre Miller (24) and New Orleans Hornets forward Anthony Davis (23) battle for a loose ball in the first half of an NBA basketball game in New Orleans, Monday, March 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Bill Haber)

Denver Nuggets guard Andre Miller (24) and New Orleans Hornets forward Anthony Davis (23) battle for a loose ball in the first half of an NBA basketball game in New Orleans, Monday, March 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Bill Haber)

New Orleans Hornets guard Brian Roberts (22) gets fouled by Denver Nuggets forward Kenneth Faried (35) in the first half of an NBA basketball game in New Orleans, Monday, March 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Bill Haber)

New Orleans Hornets forward Al-Farouq Aminu (0) and Denver Nuggets center Kosta Koufos (41) reach for a loose ball in the first half of an NBA basketball game in New Orleans, Monday, March 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Bill Haber)

Denver Nuggets forward Kenneth Faried (35) falls while reaching for a rebound in front of New Orleans Hornets center Robin Lopez (15) in the first half of an NBA basketball game in New Orleans, Monday, March 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Bill Haber)

(AP) ? Ryan Anderson scored 23 points, Brian Roberts doubled his career high with 18 assists and the short-handed New Orleans Hornets beat Denver 110-86 on Monday night, ending the Nuggets' 15-game win streak.

New Orleans, playing without its starting backcourt of Eric Gordon and Greivis Vasquez, won its third in a row and was in control all the way. The Hornets led by nine at the end of the first quarter, by 21 at the half and by 18 entering the fourth.

Roberts, a rookie making his second start, had 11 assists by halftime, two more than his previous best. Anderson was 5 of 11 on 3-pointers, and the Hornets sank 14-of-25 3s as seven players scored in double figures.

Danilo Gallinari had 24 points for the Nuggets, who were without starting point guard Ty Lawson (right heel injury) for the third consecutive game. Denver lost for the first time since Feb. 22 against Washington after matching its 1969-70 ABA team's record of 15 straight victories.

The Hornets answered every Nuggets run, the last of which closed the gap to 96-84 when Kenneth Faried hit a tough bank shot and was fouled with 6:07 left. New Orleans' Anthony Davis followed with two free throws, Darius Miller drained a face-up 3-pointer and Davis leaped high to jam in a rebound follow, extending the lead to 103-84.

The closest Denver came in the second half was 67-58 after a 16-4 spurt midway through the third quarter. But the Hornets' Roger Mason Jr. immediately hit back-to-back 3-pointers, and New Orleans was up by double digits the rest of the way.

This one was never close.

The Hornets went ahead 25-11 in the first quarter, getting back-to-back, wide-open 3-pointers from Anderson to cap the early run against the sluggish Nuggets. No one picked up Anderson, who led the NBA in 3-point baskets last season, when he shot from straightaway on the first one. Denver left him unguarded again as he made another 3 the next time down the court.

Denver never cut the deficit to fewer than eight points for the rest of the half, and Anderson responded to that mild run with another uncontested 3.

The Hornets responded to every Nuggets' challenge early. Right after Andre Iguodala slammed home an alley-oop, Al-Farouq Aminu dunked at the other end. When Gallinari sank his first 3-pointer, Anderson immediately hit his fourth 3.

New Orleans then stretched its lead to 59-38 with an 11-1 run to end the half. Denver's point total was only two more than its season low for the first half.

New Orleans scored 16 points off 10 Denver turnovers in the first half, while the Nuggets managed only three points off seven Hornets miscues.

Denver missed Lawson, who had averaged 21.8 points in his last 18 games, much more than New Orleans missed Vasquez or Gordon. Wilson Chandler returned for the Nuggets after missing two games with a left shoulder injury and finished with 11 points. Faried added 13 points.

Gordon, who is tied for the team lead in scoring with 16.5 points per game, sat out with a sore left ankle. Vasquez sat out with a sprained left ankle after starting the first 70 games.

NOTES: Nuggets reserve guard Julyan Stone left with a hyperextended right knee injury in the first half and did not return. . The Hornets started a big week of home games. They face the Los Angeles Clippers and former New Orleans point guard Chris Paul on Wednesday, and the Miami Heat on Friday. The Heat extended their winning streak to 27, beating Orlando on Monday. . A sign of the Nuggets' lack of aggressiveness: They picked up their first foul in the second quarter at the 3:49 mark and their first foul of the third quarter with 3:08 left.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-03-25-Nuggets-Hornets/id-418c69f30987451cab37b369179c3253

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Sunday, March 24, 2013

Choosing a Good SEO Company - Top Internet Gossip

The volume of individuals operating e-commerce company provides significantly enhanced from the the past few years. To stand up to the hard opposition in virtually any business enterprise segment, e-commerce stores utilize several impressive procedures. The easiest method to promote your business online using different search engine optimization techniques. Skilled Oklahoma City SEO services may improve rating on the distinct web page. As a result, this type of promotion can help not just website merchants but also individuals who own on line information sites as well as people making MFA web sites.

To optimize an online site in order that it might offer a respectable revenue, you need exclusive understanding. In fact, not every person is competent to expert many tips for seo. Consequently, to prevent disappointments and acquire ideal results, it is recommended to deal with an expert Oklahoma SEO services company.

Looking for a Seo company just isn?t complicated. The key is to find a organization providing fantastic companies that can help raise the internet site previously some other opposition. To make the right selection you?ll want to consider several important factors. You must know in which reasonable search engine ranking on your web site means more significant visitors and better income. Hence steer clear of building race choices. Allow me to share some tips that will aid locate the best Search engine optimization firm.

First off, it is advisable to determine whether or you cannot optimization is right for your blog or even company. If you need to offer your site into a greater quantity of website visitors, along with customers, the reply is without a doubt.

Just before offering you rates, an experienced Seo company will certainly evaluate your website. When the agency omits this specific point, you?d better carry on pursuit. To offer an adequate search engine campaign, a business has got to discover the peculiarities with the web site it must have to advertise or perhaps ranking.

Stay clear of firms that guarantee quick results. Excellent, and what is more vital, continual benefits won?t can come instantaneously. Other than, many agencies encouraging quick final results commonly make use of dark-colored illegitimate strategies. You have to realize that black-hat techniques offer momentary effects and could detrimentally impact your web web page. One day you may simply find that your site is penalized and even suspended out of google search.

Examine accreditation. In case a Search engine optimisation corporation is usually identified by self-sufficient specialists and has already been awarded for nice expert services, you can rest assured you?ll get an outstanding end result. Reviews are usually one more evidence a new business?s excellence. So, ensure you read through whether people are happy with this given remedies.

Compare prices. The costs recharged intended for Search engine marketing answers are usually varied. Consequently, if you want to pay less it is recommended to compare prices. A significant amount evaluation may help chose the most inexpensive charges and so spend less to get various other publicity strategies.

Source: http://vivaquiva.com/choosing-a-good-seo-company-general-recommendations/

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Fantastic Strategies To Becoming A Effective Cook | Le Monde de L ...

Always use an airtight box to hold preparing components like glucose or flour.Maintaining your meals in airtight containers will cease them from spoiling or becoming contaminated with little bugs. It is simple to discover affordable storage containers and therefore are really worth the small amount of cash. It?s quite common for people to provide too much salt before tasting a sauce, but there are ideas to travel this concern. Peel and minimize up a couple of uncooked potatoes, and permit them to simmer inside the marinade for approximately fifteen minutes. The sliced up potatoes will experience any additional sodium. If your dish is tomato-based, it really is only a matter of incorporating extra tomatoes and allowing them to prepare food straight down, and prepare food them until finally sore. Planning the identical dishes each week can get boring quickly. Cooking food can be more than simply cooking it is really an always-fertile discipline of exciting setting up a meal and possibly a pleasant pastime. The below report supplies some superb cooking recommendations to get you started. Refer to the instructions meticulously whenever you are creating macaroni and cheeses.The macaroni turns out excellent using this method and is also to pass away for after the appealing cheese is dissolved on top of the noodles. Make use of a solid table spoon when you assist to successfully get lots of dairy products scooped track of the macaroni. Enhance the plate with many pepper! Boiling your veggies may force you to miss out on a lot of the benefits as well as other long preparation approaches usually remove important nutrients and vitamins within your dinner. To maintain the vitamins and minerals in tact, elect to prepare food meals in quick techniques like steaming, or take pleasure in them unprocessed. Are you planning keen on making use of new basil? Retail store basil in the bottle. Make sure the basil?s stems are paid by an adequate quantity of water. You can keep it around the cooking area kitchen counter and it will surely keep refreshing for a number of days. The basil may actually grow parking modlin roots should you at times alter the h2o. Cut the basil from time to time therefore it expands more and it will be possible to enjoy refreshing basil! Don?t mixture unknown wine into the foods that you simply wouldn?t drink. You can find wines available which can be utilized only for preparing food. To make your French fries crispier, attempt making the natural carrots in certain cool water for half an hour prior to deciding to fry them. This too enhances the flavors of anything you are food preparation. Consider to ensure that you prepare food your cake on the proper temperature and you should not to overcook or undercook a dessert. 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The mixture needs to be additional slowly to ensure that it does not make the marinade too thick. One efficient way to make new flavors inside your foods are to improve the spices and marinades you can expect to use. One way to get special sauces and spices or herbs that isn?t recognized is store shopping at local unfamiliar food retailers in your neighborhood. Attempt making your very own refreshing tomato plants. You can do this by cutting ripe tomato plants into 1/2 inch heavy slices, or ripe tomatoes sliced regarding a one half in . thick. Dehydrated tomatoes may be kept in a jar with clean herbal treatments and olive oil. The jars might be held in your refrigerator for up to two weeks. You have begun utilizing the needed techniques to be a great at-property-cook. Enable your creativity run crazy to make your entire dishes delicious tests with new dishes. The level of imagination and range in preparing food is almost countless because of the several meals from several ethnicities. An ice pack trays are amazing for very cold sauces. This will make it easier for you to make a fast dinner by reheating the sauce by using a saute pan. The frosty marinade can keep extremely well till the trays. This could cause body fat lotnisko modlin to congeal on top. You can then quickly pluck the hardened extra fat and dispose of it before ingesting. This can help you save to take out a huge selection of calorie consumption effortlessly. Include lots of sea salt to the normal water for cooking food pasta. This can help to provide flavor for the sea salt to become absorbed by the pasta. Salting noodles following cooking will never possess the flavoring. Acquire excess weight off of stew. Place some an ice pack cube in your table spoon and skim it through the area. The surplus excess fat will adhere to the ice-cubes. You might work with a normal document towels to absorb the fat. It is very important have distinct knives will always be sharp. Uninteresting kitchen knives are hard to reduce with and the surely make chopping challenging. You may well be very stressed about making a sizable food for loved ones by doing a few of the work nicely before you begin food preparation. As an alternative to panicking, a terrific way to relieve a few of that pressure would be to take care of the vast majority of preparation function the evening (or possibly a handful of times) well before. Set out sizes, utensils and spices or herbs the night time just before, and assemble ingredients. Fruit performs wonderfully in the grill. You are able to fill up a skewer with peach or nectarine slices, melons or peaches and set them with a prod or skewer. Put them with a bbq grill which has been washed until you see barbeque grill markings are noticeable.Provide these grilled fresh fruit with pound birthday cake or frozen goodies for example. They react such as a sponge that soaks up all of the normal water. Clean the mushrooms off manually using a thoroughly clean wet fabric to put together them for food preparation. Use clean substances, while they bring out the ideal flavoring of your meal, plus they might cost significantly less over the long run. Depart the bone with your roast when you are pressed for time. Your roast will likely be carried out much faster by doing this because the bone shift heating to your roaster.

Source: http://www.lemondedelinfo.com/2013/03/23/fantastic-strategies-to-becoming-a-effective-cook/

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