Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Video: Voting results may be delayed in storm?s aftermath

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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/49615768/

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Port Authority reopens NY, NJ airports after storm

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China says world should support Syria mediation efforts

BEIJING (Reuters) - The world should act with greater urgency to support the mediation efforts of the U.N.-Arab League's Syria peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi as the situation is worsening, state media quoted China's foreign minister as saying on Wednesday.

Yang Jiechi also repeated a call for all sides in the Syria conflict to cease fire immediately and take steps towards forming a transitional government, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

"The international community should fully cooperate with and support envoy Brahimi's mediation efforts with a more intense sense of urgency and responsibility," the report cited Yang as telling Brahimi during a meeting in Beijing.

"Relevant parties should as soon as possible appoint authoritative representatives to come up with a roadmap for a political transition with the help of envoy Brahimi and the international community," Yang added.

"China believes that the situation in Syria is worsening by the day," he said. "The only realistic way out is to resolve the Syria issue through political channels."

Syrian warplanes bombed rebel targets with renewed intensity on Tuesday after the end of a widely ignored four-day truce between President Bashar al-Assad's forces and insurgents which had been proposed by Brahimi.

China and Russia have vetoed three U.N. resolutions condemning Assad's government for the violence.

But China has been keen to show it is not taking sides and has urged the Syrian government to talk to the opposition and take steps to meet demands for political change. It has said a transitional government should be formed.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard, Editing by Jonathan Thatcher)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/china-says-world-support-syria-mediation-efforts-110136106.html

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Tuesday, October 30, 2012

U.S. to release spending data despite government closure

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Obama cancels campaigning to monitor Sandy

Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney stands on stage with The Oak Ridge Boys as he campaigns at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Marion County Fairgrounds, in Marion, Ohio, Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney stands on stage with The Oak Ridge Boys as he campaigns at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Marion County Fairgrounds, in Marion, Ohio, Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

High winds blow sea foam onto Jeanette's Pier in Nags Head, N.C., Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012 as wind and rain from Hurricane Sandy move into the area. Governors from North Carolina, where steady rains were whipped by gusting winds Saturday night, to Connecticut declared states of emergency. Delaware ordered mandatory evacuations for coastal communities by 8 p.m. Sunday. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

(AP) ? A strengthening Hurricane Sandy disrupted the race for the White House Monday, with President Obama cancelling two of his precious waning campaign days to get Air Force One safely back to Washington and monitor the storm.

Obama rushed out of battleground Florida ahead of a planned noon rally to beat the worst of the weather system bearing down on the East Coast. As he was in midair, the White House announced that Tuesday's trip to Green Bay, Wis., also was off.

Republican nominee Mitt Romney was campaigning in the Midwest Monday out of the storm's path, but called off events scheduled in Virginia Sunday and New Hampshire Tuesday. He told supporters in the storm's path to bring in their yard signs so they don't damage property.

Obama, mindful of his need to show command in crisis while in the final throes of a tough re-election campaign, met with federal emergency officials Sunday before flying to Florida that night ahead of a rally scheduled for Monday. But the intensifying storm heading to the East Coast took priority, with the president signing emergency declarations for New England states in the middle of the night from his Orlando hotel room.

By dawn the White House decided to call off the politicking.

"Due to deteriorating weather conditions in the Washington area, the president will not attend today's campaign event in Orlando," spokesman Jay Carney said in a written statement. "The president will return to the White House to monitor the preparations for and early response to Hurricane Sandy."

About an hour after the statement went out, Obama slipped into his black armored limousine and his motorcade sped toward the airport under sunny Florida skies. The president jogged up the steps, and Air Force One quickly lifted off for the two-hour flight to Washington. Most of the White House press corps was left behind after the pilots of their separate chartered plane determined it was unsafe to follow Air Force One back.

Obama's aides considered moving the Orlando event even earlier Monday morning but were told that would put Air Force One back too late to land safely. Nearly all commercial flights had already been canceled in the Washington area as heavy rains soaked the capital ahead of Sandy's expected landfall Monday night.

With eight days before Election Day, neither campaign could afford to fully shut down its political activity in a race that remains tight. Four critical election states are affected by the storm ? North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio and New Hampshire ? but there was still unthreatened ground to cover across the rest of the country.

While the impact of the storm had yet to be seen, at the very least it was a distraction as both sides were looking to make their final appeals and millions of ballots were already being cast in early voting. It threatened to dilute Romney's efforts to close the deal with voters while giving Obama a platform to show leadership in the time of crisis. And power outages could end up cutting off their message in television ads and automatic phone calls in the eastern swing states.

Romney was staying far from campaign battlegrounds in the path of the storm, and concentrating on interior states seen increasingly as critical to his chances at the presidency. But another type of storm was awaiting him in Ohio.

The United Auto Workers announced recently a deal with Ford that promises to create 600 new jobs in nearby Brook Park, and keep 1,800 jobs in Avon Lake. The Avon Lake jobs are the product of Ford moving its commercial truck business from Mexico to Ohio.

The development not only gives Obama a chance to stoke his call for returning jobs to the U.S. from overseas, but reminds voters in auto-heavy Ohio of the auto bailout that Romney opposed.

Obama and his campaign have tirelessly jabbed at Romney's auto industry position, seen as a barrier to the Republican in Ohio and nearby northern industrial states. Romney's visit to Avon Lake will no doubt provide another reminder.

Romney also was scheduled Monday to campaign in Iowa and Wisconsin, trying to force Obama to play defense in a state where the president has been leading in the polls despite the addition of native son Paul Ryan on the GOP ticket.

"I know that right now some people in the country are a little nervous about a storm about to hit the coast, and our thoughts and prayers are with people who will find themselves in harm's way," Romney told supporters in Ohio on Sunday.

Former President Bill Clinton still planned to appear before voters at the Orlando rally in Obama's absence. Later Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden were appearing together in Youngstown, Ohio. Biden was originally supposed to campaign in New Hampshire Monday, but diverted to Ohio to replace Obama after the president canceled his appearance to stick to Washington.

But the abrupt cancellation meant Obama's trip to Florida was essentially a waste. The campaign bumped up the rally by two hours and rescheduled his flight to Orlando from Monday morning to Sunday night to get ahead of the storm.

The president made an unannounced stop at a campaign office Sunday night, where he told supporters the storm meant he wouldn't be able to campaign as much over the next few days.

"You guys need to carry the ball," he told the volunteers.

Polls suggest Obama has an advantage in reaching the required 270 Electoral College votes. But Romney's campaign is projecting momentum and considering trying to expand the playing field beyond the nine states that have garnered the bulk of the candidates' attention.

A senior Republican official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to disclose private deliberations, said Romney's team was discussing sending the GOP nominee, Ryan or both to traditionally left-leaning Minnesota during the campaign's final week.

Obama was briefed Sunday on the government's response at the headquarters of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and spoke by phone to affected governors and mayors.

"Anything they need, we will be there," Obama said. "And we are going to cut through red tape. We are not going to get bogged down with a lot of rules. We want to make sure that we are anticipating and leaning forward."

Obama has declared emergencies in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia, authorizing federal aid to supplement state and local response efforts.

Both campaigns used social media to urge supporters to donate to the Red Cross and said they would stop sending fundraising emails on Monday to people living in areas in the storm's path.

Romney staffers in North Carolina, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Virginia were collecting storm-relief supplies at campaign offices to be delivered via one of Romney's campaign buses. In an email, Romney encouraged supporters in the storm's path to help neighbors get ready.

"For safety's sake, as you and your family prepare for the storm, please be sure to bring any yard signs inside," the email read. "In high winds they can be dangerous, and cause damage to homes and property."

___

Pickler reported from Washington. Associated Press reporters Steve Peoples in Mansfield, Ohio, and Ken Thomas in Washington contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-10-29-Presidential%20Campaign/id-08c9071e48ce44e0b25ca0a8f4c81f22

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Crane dangling from NYC high-rise

NEW YORK (AP) ? A construction crane atop a $1.5 billion luxury high-rise in midtown Manhattan collapsed in high winds Monday and dangled precariously, prompting plans for engineers and inspectors to climb to the top to examine it as a huge storm bore down on the city.

Some buildings, including the Parker Meridien hotel, were being evacuated as a precaution and the streets below were cleared, but there were no immediate reports of injuries. City officials didn't have a number on how many people were told to leave.

Authorities received a call about the collapse at around 2 p.m. as conditions worsened from the approaching Hurricane Sandy. Meteorologists said winds atop the 74-story building could have been close to 95 mph at the time.

The nearly completed high-rise is known as One57 and is in one of the city's most desirable neighborhoods, near Carnegie Hall, Columbus Circle and Central Park. It had been inspected, along with other city cranes, on Friday and was found to be ready for the weather.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said later Monday it wasn't clear why the accident happened.

"It's conceivable that nobody did anything wrong and there was no malfunction, it was just a strange gust of wind," Bloomberg said.

Engineers and inspectors were planning to hike up 74 flights of stairs to examine the crane. The harrowing inspection was being undertaken by experts who are "the best of the best," city Buildings Department spokesman Tony Sclafani said.

The crane was owned by Bovis Lend Lease, one of the largest construction companies in the city. Bloomberg was careful not to blame the company, and said it would be days before officials figured out what happened.

A spokeswoman for Bovis Lend Lease said the company was working with city officials to secure the structure but the weather remained severe. There was no immediate response to a message left with the developer, Extell Development. Phone numbers for several people whose names appear on permits for the crane rang unanswered.

The New York Times recently called the building a "global billionaires' club" because the nine full-floor apartments near the top have all been sold to billionaires. Among them are two duplexes under contract for more than $90 million each.

Shannon Kaye, 96, lives in the building next door.

"We heard a noise, but we didn't know what it was," she said. Minutes later, she and her neighbors were told to leave.

"I never liked that building, looking down into my bedroom," she said. "I always had the feeling that something would come falling down from it."

The Buildings Department had suspended work at the building at 5 p.m. Saturday. It reminded contractors and property owners across the city to secure construction sites and buildings.

City Department of Buildings records show a Sept. 21 complaint that a crane at the site was leaking oil onto the roof of an adjacent building; inspectors said a loose fitting was responsible. The fitting was being repaired and a cleanup was under way by the time inspectors arrived.

In April, the agency got a complaint that the heavy ball at the tip of a crane at the site came loose and hit the materials it was trying to lift, knocking some of them onto an adjacent building's scaffolding. Officials stopped work at the site for a day and issued a violation notice, records show.

Construction cranes have been a source of safety worries in the city since two giant rigs collapsed within two months of each other in Manhattan in 2008, killing a total of nine people.

Those accidents spurred the resignation of the city's buildings commissioner and fueled new safety measures, including hiring more inspectors and expanding training requirements and inspection checklists.

Another crane fell and killed a worker this April at a construction site for a new subway line. That rig was exempt from most city construction safety rules because it was working for a state-overseen agency that runs the subway system.

Like Monday's accident, one of the 2008 crane collapses also centered on the rig's long, mobile arm, known as a boom. In the May 2008 accident, the boom broke off a roughly 200-foot-tall rig, crashed into a nearby building and plummeted to the ground.

Prosecutors blamed that collapse on what they called a penny-pinching repair to a crucial component that lets the boom swivel. Lawyers for that crane's owner, who ultimately was acquitted of manslaughter charges, said the operator made a mistake that tipped the boom over backward and snapped it.

___

Associated Press writer Jennifer Peltz contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/crane-dangles-nyc-high-rise-clearing-streets-192109191.html

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Monday, October 29, 2012

Iran has pictures of restricted Israeli areas: Iran MP

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran holds pictures of Israeli bases and other restricted areas obtained from a drone launched into Israeli airspace earlier this month, an Iranian lawmaker was quoted as saying on Monday.

Earlier this month, Israel shot down a drone after it flew 25 miles into the Jewish state. Lebanese militant group Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the aircraft, saying its parts had been manufactured in Iran and assembled in Lebanon.

The drone transmitted pictures of Israel's "sensitive bases" before it was shot down, said Esmail Kowsari, chair of parliament's defence committee, according to Iran's Mehr news agency. He was speaking to Iran's Arabic-language Al-Alam, Mehr reported on Monday.

"These aircraft transmit their pictures online, and right now we possess pictures of restricted areas," Kowsari was quoted as saying.

Israeli air space is closely monitored by the military and, except for commercial air corridors, is restricted, with special attention paid to numerous military and security installations.

Israeli threats to bomb Iranian nuclear sites if diplomacy and sanctions fail to stop Tehran's nuclear programme are a flashpoint for tensions in the Middle East. The West suspects the programme is designed to develop a nuclear weapons capability, something Tehran steadfastly denies.

Iran's military regularly announces defence and engineering developments though some analysts are sceptical of the reliability of such reports.

On Sunday Iranian Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi said the downed drone did not represent Iran's latest know-how in drone technology, according to Mehr.

In April, Iran announced it had started to build a copy of a U.S. surveillance drone, the RQ-170 Sentinel, captured last year after it came down near the Afghan border.

(Reporting By Yeganeh Torbati; Editing by John Stonestreet)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iran-pictures-restricted-israeli-areas-iran-mp-073034612.html

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Apple announces departure of SVP of iOS, Scott Forstall and SVP of retail, John Browett

Apple announces departure of SVP of iOS, Scott Forstall and SVP of retail, John Browett

Apple announced today that Scott Forstall, senior vice-president of iOS, and John Browett, recent SVP of retail, are leaving the company. Forstall, who came to Apple from NeXT when Steve Jobs returned to the company, will stay on until next year as an advisor to Tim Cook. John Browett sounds like he's leaving far more immediately. Jony Ive, Eddy Cue, Craig Federighi, and Bob Manfield will be divvying up a lot of their duties. Apple's CEO, Tim Cook, said in the press release:

We are in one of the most prolific periods of innovation and new products in Apple?s history. The amazing products that we?ve introduced in September and October, iPhone 5, iOS 6, iPad mini, iPad, iMac, MacBook Pro, iPod touch, iPod nano and many of our applications, could only have been created at Apple and are the direct result of our relentless focus on tightly integrating world-class hardware, software and services.

While it's impossible to separate fact from fiction from simple politicking, Forstall had reportedly been a strong personality at Apple, and was rumored to have been butting heads with Jony Ive, among others, over the direction of Apple design. He was also in charge of the troubled launches of both Siri, which suffered repeated network and reliability problems, and iOS 6 maps, whose geographical data issues turned into a public relations problem for Apple. The press release certainly reads more as a welcome for Ive in his new roll than anything resembling a grateful farewell to Forstall for his work to date.

Jony Ive, longtime SVP of Industrial Design, will take over Human Interface across Apple.

His incredible design aesthetic has been the driving force behind the look and feel of Apple?s products for more than a decade.

Eddy Cue, promoted to SVP of Internet and Services following the ill-fated MobileMe launch, which take on Siri and Maps.

This organization has overseen major successes such as the iTunes Store, the App Store, the iBookstore and iCloud. This group has an excellent track record of building and strengthening Apple?s online services to meet and exceed the high expectations of our customers.

Craig Federighi, who took over OS X following the departure of Bertrand Serlet, will also take on iOS.

Apple has the most advanced mobile and desktop operating systems, and this move brings together the OS teams to make it even easier to deliver the best technology and user experience innovations to both platforms.

Bob Mansfield, who left his post as SVP of Hardware Engineering, only to return as SVP of [nothing specified] will now lead a new group called Technologies.

[Technologies combines] all of Apple?s wireless teams across the company in one organization, fostering innovation in this area at an even higher level. This organization will also include the semiconductor teams, who have ambitious plans for the future.

Apple will conduct a search to replace Browett as the head of retail. Browett was the subject of controversy recently when cuts to Apple store staff and rumored shifts in priority led to some embarrassing publicity and backpedaling.

[In] the interim, the Retail team will report directly to Tim Cook. Apple?s Retail organization has an incredibly strong network of leaders at the store and regional level who will continue the excellent work that has been done over the past decade to revolutionize retailing with unique, innovative services for customers.

Source: Apple PR



Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/XOV0PlXCdQs/story01.htm

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Verizon officially announces Nokia Lumia 822, coming this Fall

Verizon officially announces Nokia Lumia 822, coming this Fall

Ahead of the big Windows Phone soiree later today, Nokia has now confirmed that Verizon will be getting the Lumia 822, which will its 4G portfolio in the coming months. While the fact that a Big Red version of Nokia's second Windows Phone 8 device wasn't the best-kept secret, Nokia's proud press release (after the break) finally confirms it -- although it neglects to mention any prices or dates. The phone will arrive in black, white and grey options -- all LTE-ready, with those interchangeable covers also incoming. That slightly modest 4.3-inch screen WVGA screen will also try to make the most of those colorful tiles -- and we'll likely get play with one very soon.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/29/verizon-officially-announces-nokia-lumia-822/

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Protests over chemical factory resume in China

NINGBO, China (AP) ? Protests resumed Sunday in an eastern Chinese city where thousands of residents had clashed with police a day earlier while demonstrating against the proposed expansion of a petrochemical factory over pollution fears.

Several hundred citizens of Ningbo, which is in Zhejiang province, set off from a city square and headed for the offices of the municipal government on Sunday morning. Hundreds were stopped at the gate of the offices by a circle of uniformed police. They shouted for the release of people they believed had been detained by police a day earlier, for the protection of Ningbo and for the city's mayor to come out.

"We can only depend on ourselves now, we can't count on the government to think about us," said one protester, a 40-year-old woman surnamed Jing.

On Saturday, residents reported that protests involved thousands of people and turned violent after authorities used tear gas and arrested participants. Authorities said "a few" people disrupted public order by staging sit-ins, unfurling banners, distributing fliers and obstructing roads. Authorities said that the proposed project was under evaluation and that the public was being given opportunities to offer its input.

There have been a series of protests in China this year over fears of health risks from industrial projects, as members of the rising middle class become more outspoken against environmentally risky projects in their areas.

A week earlier, hundreds protested for several days in a small town on China's Hainan island over a coal-fired power plant.

Such protests are exactly what the Chinese leadership does not want ahead of next month's once-a-decade transition of power, with stability being paramount.

The demonstrations are a reminder to the incoming generation of leaders that they face a public increasingly unwilling to accept the environmental and health hazards as an inevitable consequence of breakneck, unbridled economic growth.

A 30-year-old woman surnamed Wang said officers took her to a police station Saturday and made her sign a guarantee that she would not participate in any more protests, but she came back Sunday anyway.

"They won't even let us sing the national anthem," Wang said. "They kept asking me who the leader of the protests was and I said that this is all voluntary. We have no leader."

Marchers included the elderly and children, as well as some pet poodles. People held up smartphones and tablet computers recording the protest and tried to send information to others through mobile Internet connections.

In a sign that censors were at work, the name "Zhenhai" ? the city district where the factory is located ? was blocked on China's popular microblogging site Sina Weibo and searches for "chemical expansion project" were greeted with the line that "Some search results are not shown according to regulations." Those that were visible included postings from media sites that said authorities were holding meetings to hear public opinion.

Some protesters wore face masks and shouted slogans including "Protect Ningbo" and "Return my health" while pumping their fists in the air. Cars were forced to stop as a long stretch of people marched along roads.

"We have to do this for our future and our family's future," said protester Jing as she pointed to the smoggy air. "The sky was so clear when I was a child. Look at it now."

Another protester, Yu Yibing, said he wanted the factory to be closed, not expanded, and his 7-year-old son to grow up in a clean environment.

"As the common people, we need to live in a green environment. This is a reasonable request," said Yu, 38. "But the government only puts out some statement and refuses to see us and also suppresses us. I don't know how else we can express our views."

The Zhenhai district government, which comes under the Ningbo government, said Ningbo's Communist Party chief, Wang Huizhong, and mayor, Liu Qi, had held discussions with local residents Saturday night.

A statement posted on the district government's website Sunday said that the opinions and advice of the people who attended "are very helpful" to the party committee and municipal government's decision-making and that the expansion project was "at an early stage."

"We will further solicit opinions and respond to people's concerns and actively respond to people's reasonable requests and demands," the statement said.

The Zhenhai government earlier said it would organize public hearings attended by residents and experts to assess the environmental impact of the project.

The official Xinhua News Agency said the planned project is designed to produce 15 million tons of refined oil and 1.2 million tons of ethylene per year and belongs to Sinopec Zhenhai Refining & Chemical Company, which has invested 55.87 billion yuan ($8.9 billion).

Calls to Zhenhai police and the propaganda department of Ningbo police rang unanswered Sunday.

___

Associated Press writer Louise Watt and researcher Henry Hou contributed to this report from Beijing.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/protests-over-chemical-factory-resume-china-021655961.html

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Obama, Romney, 'We're Not Illegal,' Says Undocumented Immigrant

Pulitzer Prize-winner Jose Antonio Vargas tells MTV News he wants to see the candidates do the immigration issue justice.
By Kimberly Reynolds


Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama
Photo: Getty Images

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1696364/barack-obama-mitt-romney-immigration.jhtml

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Huge deposit of Jurassic turtle remains found in China

ScienceDaily (Oct. 29, 2012) ? ?Bones upon bones, we couldn?t believe our eyes,? says Oliver Wings, paleontologist and guest researcher at the Museum f?r Naturkunde in Berlin. He was describing the spectacular find of some 1800 fossilized mesa chelonia turtles from the Jurassic era in China?s northwest province of Xinjiang. Wings and the University of T?bingen?s fossil turtle specialist, Dr. Walter Joyce, were working with Chinese paleontologists there in 2008.

The results of their further work in 2009 and 2011 have just been published in the German journal Naturwissenschaften.

?This site has probably more than doubled the known number of individual turtles from the Jurassic,? says Walter Joyce. ?Some of the shells were stacked up on top of one another in the rock.? It is what paleontologists call a ?bone bed? ? in this case consisting only of turtle remains.

Wings, Joyce and their team have made several expeditions to the arid region since 2007, finding fossil sharks, crocodiles, mammals and several dinosaur skeletons. Today one of the world?s driest regions, 160 million years ago Xinjiang was a green place of lakes and rivers, bursting with life. Yet the scientists have shown that even then, conditions were not always ideal, with climate change leading to seasonal drought ? and this remarkable fossil find.

The turtles had gathered in one of the remaining waterholes during a very dry period, awaiting rain. Today?s turtles in Australia for instance do the same thing. But for the Xinjiang turtles, the rain came too late. Many of the turtles were already dead and their bodies rotting. When the water arrived, it came with a vengeance: a river of mud, washing the turtles and sediments along with it and dumping them in one place, as the paleontologists read the site and its layers of stone.

The large number of turtles allows the researchers to make a first statistical analysis of Asian turtles in the Jurassic period. Their simultaneous death and preservation makes it possible to compare variability, growth, and morphological differences among the species. The scientists are looking for sponsors to support further field studies and research into the dinosaur finds.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Universitaet T?bingen.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Oliver Wings, M?rton Rabi, J?rg W. Schneider, Leonie Schwermann, Ge Sun, Chang-Fu Zhou, Walter G. Joyce. An enormous Jurassic turtle bone bed from the Turpan Basin of Xinjiang, China. Naturwissenschaften, 2012; DOI: 10.1007/s00114-012-0974-5

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/hrlkEfcApVA/121029111229.htm

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Saturday, October 27, 2012

Video: Police: Nanny killed kids then stabbed herself

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

Source: http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/49566398/

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The Best Halloween Cocktail | Devour The Blog: Cooking Channel's ...

Oct 25

Start your Halloween weekend with Alie and Georgia?s post-apocalyptic boozy punch that will ?liven?-up your cocktail hour for the undead. This sinfully sweet elixir is a real no-brainer: just squeeze the fleshy, pulpy insides of a blood orange and mix with orange-scented triple sec, fizzy black cherry soda, fragrant bitters and a generous amount of vodka. Rim the punch glasses with dripping red grenadine and you?ve got yourself a terrifying brew that will make mortals run (ahem, good luck).

Boo-ttoms up, folks.

Zombie Gut Punch Cocktail

Recipe courtesy Alie Ward and Georgia Hardstark

Ingredients:

10 ounces vodka
5 ounces triple sec
2 ounces bitters
1 cup fresh squeezed blood orange juice
2 cups black cherry soda
Grenadine, for rim

Directions:

In a large punch bowl filled with ice, pour vodka, triple sec, bitters, blood orange juice and black cherry soda. Laugh as though you are an evil zombie and stir. Rim each glass with grenadine before filling with punch mixture, and serve. Stagger around menacingly, and threaten to eat strangers? brains.

Watch how they make it:

Check out our complete cocktail guide for more spiked punch recipes, plus bartending tips, easy appetizers and more.

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Tags: blood orange Halloween halloween cocktail recipes thirsty thursday

Source: http://blog.cookingchanneltv.com/2012/10/25/best-halloween-cocktail-recipe/

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Does gender pay gap exist? Right out of college, says new study.

The study focused on recent college graduates with few of the differences that can eventually explain some gender pay gaps ? such as children, marriage, and different work experience.

By Gloria Goodale,?Staff writer / October 24, 2012

Vice President Joe Biden meets employees of Catanzaro's Pizza and Subs where he stopped to pickup pizzas for campaign volunteers at the local Obama For America office on N. Bechtle Avenue in Springfield, Ohio, Oct. 23. Equal pay for women has been a focal point in the 2012 presidential election.

Barabara J. Perenic/AP

Enlarge

At the second debate between President Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney on Oct. 16, 24-year-old teacher Katherine?Fenton asked the candidates?for their positions?on?equal pay for women.

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She was unprepared for the shower of online criticism that began even as the debate?aired live.

?Katherine Fenton, questioner, brings up the feminazi leftist lie that women don?t get paid equally,? tweeted conservative author Matthew Vadum.

Despite ongoing criticism that the gender pay gap does not exist, a report released Wednesday cites new research indicating that the gap is stubbornly persistent.

The research, by the American Association of University Women (AAUW), narrowly focused on recent college graduates with few of the differences that can eventually explain some pay gaps ? such as children, marriage, and different work experience. It showed that female graduates make 18 percent less than their male counterparts one year out of college.

Even adjusting for differences such as career choices, the study, ?Graduating to a Pay Gap,? finds what it calls ?an unexplained seven percent pay gap.?

?This report goes behind the pay gap to fully understand its causes,? said Catherine Hill, the AAUW director of research and a study author, in a statement. ?We hope the new figures will help employers understand the problem and implement measures to pay their workers fair and honest wages.?

What makes the study particularly important is that it focused in narrowly on men and women one year out of higher education, says Francine Blau, a professor of industrial and labor relations at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.

Most studies focus on the overall labor force, which contains many factors that influence differences in pay, such as career choices, college majors, children, and marriage. But, Professor Blau noted in a conference call with reporters, ?this study focuses on a relatively homogeneous group: all recent graduates and all young.?

Other factors that influence pay, such as previous experience, also are less important here, she says.

?This pay gap is not merely the result of women?s choices,? say Ms. Hill and co-author Christianne Corbett in the study.

Lower earnings have an immediate effect after college, setting into motion a chain of disparities that will follow women throughout their careers, the authors say, adding that ?women experience the consequences of the pay gap from their very first paycheck to their very last Social Security check.?

A study that has such extensive controls for the type of school, the majors they took, even their grades, and what occupation they work in now, notes Blau, ?is quite significant.?

The unexplained seven percent pay gap is important, she notes, adding it seems to fit in with a broader pattern of research results to suggest that discrimination is still a factor. While this doesn?t mean it is conscious or overt, ?it still is a problem,? she adds.

The report targeted 2008 college graduates, looking at what each group was paid a year into their work after college.

On average, women made $35,296, compared with $42,918 for men. The figures were culled from a US Department of Education survey of some 15,000 graduates, conducted via phone and the Internet.

There were differences within the various fields. While worker pay scales were relatively equal in health care and education, the fields of business, science, engineering, and technology had pay gaps of from 12 to 23 percent between the genders.

Business schools have been tracking this for over 10 years, says Patricia Werhane, a professor of business ethics at DePaul University in Chicago. Their discovery, she notes, is that after earning their MBAs, women and men earn starting salaries that are pretty much even, but within 5 years men are receiving at least 20 percent more than women as well as better promotions.

?This is true even of women who do not have families,? she says, adding via e-mail, ?the glass ceiling is alive and well.? This is unfair, she says, ?particularly in the 21st century.?

The study authors have assembled a list of recommendations to deal with the pay gap.

Individuals are encouraged to learn to value their work, familiarize themselves with pay scales in their field, and learn to negotiate. Businesses are urged to offer transparent pay information to employees as well as hire and pay without bias. And legislators are enjoined to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, which is widely seen as a necessary update to the nearly 50-year-old Equal Pay Act.

The study results have also been sent to both the Romney and Obama campaigns.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/pnfrUlv0Cqc/Does-gender-pay-gap-exist-Right-out-of-college-says-new-study

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Ash fungus seen in UK countryside

A disease that has the potential to devastate the UK's ash tree population has been recorded for the first time in the UK's natural environment.

Chalara dieback, caused by a fungus called Chalara fraxinea, was confirmed at two sites in East Anglia.

Until now, the disease had only been recorded in a few nursery specimens.

Ash trees suffering with C. fraxinea have been found across mainland Europe, with Denmark reporting the disease has wiped out about 90% of its ash trees.

Experts say that if the disease becomes established, then it could have a similar impact on the landscape as Dutch elm disease had in the 1970s.

This outbreak resulted in the death of most mature English elm by the 1980s. Elms have recovered to some extent, but, in some cases, only through careful husbandry.

The East Anglia outbreak was confirmed by plant scientists from the Food and Environment Research Agency (Fera) at the the Woodland Trust's Pound Farm woodland in Suffolk, and Norfolk Wildlife Trust's Lower Wood reserve, in Ashwellthorpe.

In a statement, the Trust said that the fungal infection had been found in "mature ancient woodland and woodland creation areas on our estate".

It added: "We are currently carrying out further investigations at other sites."

Visible symptoms include leaf loss and crown dieback in affected trees, and it can lead to tree death.

In Europe, affected trees are not just in woodlands but are also being found in urban trees in parks and gardens, and also nursery trees.

Chalara dieback of ash has been listed as a quarantine pathogen under national emergency measure and the Forestry Commission has produced guidance, including help on how people can identify possible signs of infection.

John Milton, Norfolk Wildlife Trust's head of nature reserves said that "it is likely we will now see further cases".

"Tracking the disease is going to be difficult with the imminent autumnal leaf fall, so the true extent of the disease in the UK may be difficult to establish until the spring," he said.

Experts are urging people to report suspected cases of dieback in order to prevent the spread of the disease to the wider environment becoming established.

A government consultation on whether to ban imports of ash trees in the UK is set to close on Friday, and it is widely expected that legislation will be passed in time for a ban to be in force by mid-November.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20079657#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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Friday, October 26, 2012

Radioactive Fish Near Fukushima Suggest Ongoing Contamination

Bottom-dwelling fish continue to be found with high levels of radioactive elements, potentially coming from leaking radioactive water or contaminated sediments


greenling RADIOACTIVE FISH: Some source of radioactive contamination is causing bottom-dwelling fish, like the greenling pictured here, to absorb high levels of radionuclides. Image: Flickr.com / Brian Gratwicke

The fish off Fukushima remain radioactive more than a year after the earthquake and subsequent tsunami triggered three meltdowns at the Daiichi nuclear power plant. In fact, bottom-dwelling greenling fish caught in August 2012 bore the highest levels of radioactive particles seen to date?25,000 Becquerels per kilogram. (A becquerel is a unit of the rate of radioactive decay?or radiation emitted by a substance.) That is 250 times higher than current Japanese safety standards, a key reason fishing off Fukushima remains prohibited.

The findings suggest that contaminated water is still leaking from the stricken power plant, the sea bottom itself is now laced with radionuclides, or both. Concentrations in the ocean water itself remain below any human health concern but they do pass into fish that swim through those waters.

"When fish 'drink' they take [cesium] and other salts up from the water they are swimming in, that accumulates in the muscle tissue," explains marine chemist Ken Buessler of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, who compiled the analysis of publicly released Japanese fisheries data and published it in Science on October 26. But the fish also shed that cesium if they swim in uncontaminated waters, as has been seen in tuna that migrated from near Japan to near San Diego, suggesting that levels in fish should decrease over time. For this reason, most of the fish caught off Japan's northeastern coast are not radioactive. But roughly 40 percent of fish caught off the coast adjacent to Fukushima bear radionuclides above the Japanese food safety standard of 100 becquerels per kilogram; the concentration is highest among bottom dwellers, such as halibut.

According to a response to questions from Scientific American that was prepared by staff at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, ingesting fish at that level "would only produce a dose that is a small fraction of the dose that people receive from natural levels." For example, as Buessler notes, fish caught off Japan in June 2011 boasted levels of potassium-40?a naturally occurring radionuclide?10 times higher than those of radioactive cesium from Fukushima.

Radioactive cesium decays by emitting what's known as a beta radiation, a negatively charged particle that is easily blocked by metal, plastic or wood?but not skin. In particular, ingesting beta-emitting radioactive elements is "a concern," according to the NRC. "Beta particles released directly to living tissue can cause damage at the molecular level, which can disrupt cell function." Plus, beta particles are small enough to travel far in the body, causing damage far and wide.

U.S. safety guidelines from the Food and Drug Administration permit foods to bear 1,200 becquerels per kilogram of radioactive cesium, but the FDA declined to comment for this article. "The more restrictive action taken by the Japanese seems reasonable for the population living close to Fukushima because they receive radiation doses from other sources, including non-fish food, drinking water and land surface contamination," the NRC staff writes. "Based on the FDA and [World Health Organization] recommendations, eating fish contaminated at 100 Bq/kg would result in a small and acceptable exposure to radioactive cesium."

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=f18f3090e9dedcc8390bf3f9f97e55a8

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Jac o' the North: Holiday Homes, Tourism, Borrowing Powers


My previous post was reasonably well received, and provoked a number of interesting comments. The mainstream media also picked up on the ONS figures, but with mixed results. A good example would be this piece on the BBC website's News Magazine, by Tom de Castella. The title - 'Do Ceredigion people have the most second homes?' - and the first part of the article seem to be premised on the idea that many Ceredigion people have holiday homes. But then, half way through, it's almost as if someone whispered in his ear, 'It's the English students, Tom, distorting the figures', for the article changed tack.

?

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Inevitably, I suppose, most media outlets concentrated on the figures for holiday homes, and the alarming statistics for Gwynedd. (Or, quite acceptable statistics, depending on how you view holiday homes.) On Tuesday morning someone tipped me off about a Radio Wales programme that was to discuss the issue, so I tuned in. (Here's a link, but it won't last long.) To begin with, the prog was hosted by Jason Mohammad, who belongs to that coterie of Welsh 'journalists' believing that Welsh identity is defined and exemplified by a Shane Williams try or a Catherine Zeta Jones frock. So I've always had difficulty taking him seriously; and I was alienated further by the holiday home owner who was allowed to spout his self-justifying nonsense unchallenged, before I was finally turned off - as was Radio Wales - when we were subjected to a hesitant and totally unconvincing spokesman for Cymdeithas yr Iaith. So let us consider holiday homes, and the manifest bollocks that to them attach.?
? Among the predictable nonsense we heard from the English holiday home owner on Jase's show was, ' . . . derelict . . . no local wanted it . . . I spend a lot of money locally . . . lucky to have me . . . '. While elsewhere, a spokesperson for the Welsh Government reminded us that holiday homes play an important role in Welsh tourism. Well, you can either buy all that, or you can give the matter some thought. The second option will, I guarantee, bring you to different conclusions.


First, let's deal with this 'no one wanted it' defence for holiday homes, suggesting that they've all lain derelict out in 'the wilds' for years. Truth is, most holiday homes are within established communities. In the village where I live virtually all the English-owned holiday homes are terraced - former quarrymen's - properties of the kind that would be ideal for first-time buyers . . . if the demand from holiday home buyers and English colonists did not push the prices beyond the financial reach of those young locals. The advantages of a terraced property as a holiday home are obvious. Less garden to keep in order, and grass to cut. Easier to keep warm in winter, thereby reducing the risk of burst pipes. Greater security from burglary or other attack.


Then there's the 'I spend a lot of money in this area' argument. Maybe; but there's no way a property used as a holiday home can be putting more money into the local economy than that same property if it was lived in all year round by a Welsh family. Which leads me to consider another aspect of holiday homes' economic value. Because I know that those coming here for holidays appreciate that in rural Mid Wales prices are higher than in the English Midlands. So most stock up with petrol, food, and just about everything they'll need, before leaving home. Of course they spend money when they're in Wales, but that amount is overstated.

? ???????????????????????????????????????????????????? *********************************************

Holiday homes are part of the wider problem of an unregulated, alien and damaging tourism industry. Consequently, what I've said about holiday homes is true for caravans (mobile homes), chalets and all self-catering accommodation. In addition, they sustain few jobs. A caravan park with hundreds of trailers (the upkeep of which is the responsibility of the owners) can tick over with few employees beyond the family owning the site or, in the case of larger sites, the (usually imported) management team. Because that's the suppressed truth about caravan sites and chalet developments - they make a lot of money for those owning them, but put little into the wider economy in terms of spending, or the community in terms of employment.


For Wales to have a tourism industry that benefits us Welsh, rather than disadvantages us, as at present, we need to question just about everything that currently passes for accepted wisdom in the field. Most fundamentally, the raison d??tre for 'Welsh' tourism, which was always developed to serve English needs and interests. This was true when the railways first reached 'Wild Wales' and it has recently taken on the renewed necessity we see with the UK government's call for 'staycations'. That's because most of the money spent by English tourists in Wales will make its way back to England, in taxes, purchases and by other routes
. It doesn't seem to matter how much tourism harms Welsh identity, Welsh communities, the Welsh language, the environment . . . this is acceptable collateral damage.

From a Welsh perspective, then, we have the worst possible kind of tourism. For in addition to all I've written above, most of the businesses parting tourists from their money are English-owned. Making tourism in Wales blatantly colonialist. We do not have Welsh tourism; we have an English tourism industry that just happens to be based in Wales.


?????????????????????????????????????????????????????? *********************************************

Thoughts of tourism bring me, by a roundabout route, to the subject of the Welsh Government acquiring powers to borrow money. Those of you with lives so empty that you have followed this debate will know what I'm talking about; so what follows is for those out there who are not losing the will to live and have better things to do than heed the vacuous and self-serving utterances of those deadbeats down Cardiff docks. Or, for that matter, their counterparts in London

As things stand, our tribunes down in Nick Edwards Bay are not allowed to borrow money. (Perhaps due to the very real fear that they'll waste it on Third Sector shysters.) Unfortunately, this gives them yet another excuse to blame someone else for the mess Wales is in. However, it now looks like their bluff may be called. For it is being mooted that borrowing powers might be granted by the Silk Commission (currently looking into the Welsh devolution settlement).? According to the piece in today's Wasting Mule (here's the WalesOnline version),?agreement has been reached between Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander; Secretary of State for Wales, David Jones; both representing the UK government; and Finance Minister, Jane Hutt, representing the Cardiff docks deadbeats Welsh Government. In her selling of the deal to an expectant nation Ms Hutt referred to " . . . the needs of a maturing country like Wales . . .". In which way is Wales a "maturing country"? Wales is, by European standards, a very old country. So is Hutt referring to the Welsh Assembly, or her Government? If so, why confuse devolution with the interests of the Welsh nation? The two are almost completely divorced, as we are learning to our cost, almost daily.? But let's look ahead and assume that in the near future the Welsh Government is given power to raise funding through borrowing, what options might it have? Imposing a tax on holiday homes would be one popular option, that could be extended to static caravans and chalets. Also worth considering would be the kind of tourist tax levied elsewhere in Europe, and not just in independent countries, for Cornwall has discussed the idea. Even English cities have toyed with imposing a tourist tax. A few years ago, writing in Cambria magazine, I had this to say about a tourist tax in Wales:?

"The money raised should be spent in the areas from which it has been levied to alleviate the problems suffered by the indigenous population. It could be used in grants to help locals in the private housing market, or to help locals compete for the business opportunities that now go to wealthier buyers from over the border. A larger portion could go to local authorities to repair the damage done to local infrastructure or to reduce council tax charges. Thus funded, councils might even be able to build new council houses.

To argue that such a tax would reduce the numbers coming to Wales is no argument at all. Many more Welsh are disadvantaged by tourism than benefit from it, so how can we as a people lose out if fewer tourists come? Five million tourists paying the tax is better than twenty-five million untaxed tourists. Five million people staying an average of seven nights and paying two pound a head per night amounts to ?70,000.000 every year."

????????????????????????????????????????????????????? *******************************************?

If we are serious about tourism, if we are to make it serve Wales, then we need to do what other countries do. The first step is for our politicians to realise that the form of tourism we are lumbered with was never designed to serve Welsh interests. It simply uses our homeland as England's playground. This was insulting enough before we had a Welsh Government, now that we have a body so designated, it is intolerable. Reform can no longer be delayed.?
  • ?Phase out all large caravan parks, especially those disfiguring our coastline. Aim for small, well screened sites on farms and other locations where a) they will benefit Welsh site owners and b) be less intrusive.
  • ?Replace the caravan parks by encouraging the growth of locally-run small hotels and bed and breakfast establishments. Because serviced accommodation generates a) more income than caravan sites and b) more jobs.
  • Introduce a tourism tax of ?2 per head per night.?
  • Double the council tax on all holiday homes and put a limit on the percentages allowed in each community, but never more than 15 per cent. In communities currently suffering higher percentages, no further properties will be allowed to be used as holiday homes until the figure falls below 15 per cent.?
  • Use the money raised by the above measures to benefit the communities affected. Improve infrastructure, reduce council tax, provide training and funding for local people to start up new tourism enterprises and buy existing ones.
  • Underpin these and other changes with the realisation that it is in Wales' interests to go for quality over quantity. That is, fewer, but higher spending visitors rather than millions upon millions of tourists who bring their own food with them.
'Playground Wales' tourism and the English colonisation that accompanies it have done great harm to Wales, the Welsh language, and to Welsh identity generally. Today one can spend a week in a tourist 'hotspot' like Llandudno or St David's and hardly realise one is in Wales. Unless checked, the damage inflicted by tourism can only increase until it becomes fatal.

The Welsh Government may soon have the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. For it can fund its borrowing requirements by revenue raised from a reformed tourism industry serving Wales and the Welsh people. Alternatively, it can underwrite those borrowing requirements by taking yet more money from us Welsh. If it chooses the second option then we shall have further proof that this is a Welsh Government in name only.

Source: http://jacothenorth.blogspot.com/2012/10/holiday-homes-tourism-borrowing-powers.html

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Home Based Business Goals - 4 Goals To Aim For

home based business goals

Image courtesy of mack2happy / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Home Based Business Goals

Congratulations on taking your business seriously and deciding to set some home based business goals for yourself.? Kudos!

Did you know that 90% of all entrepreneur in the home based business industry don't set goals?? They talk a talk.? They say they want to achieve this or that, yet they never reduce that writing.? I find that amazing.

So good for you for doing it!

I'm not sure what caused you to search and find this article, so I'm not exactly sure what you're looking for in terms of information about home based business goals.?

I will be sharing 4 different types of home based business goals in this article:

  • Income goals
  • Productivity goals
  • Skillset goals
  • Personal Development goals
    ?

I can say this however, setting and achieving your goals can be simplified if you know what you want to accomplish, work within a time frame and establish a game plan.?

Simple enough?

I know, you're saying,

"Yeah, Debbie, sounds great?. I kinda get that but I really don't know what's reasonable or what kind of goals I should set."

Okay, fair enough.?

Here's some ideas about working with your home based business goals.

?

Home Based Business Income Goals

home based business goalsThis is a goal where you want to achieve a specific income within a specific time.?

Nothing wrong with this as it gives you a game plan for a time line to be able to make plans to scale up your business, take that vacation, buy that house, afford that car, fund a retirement account or replace your job.?

And while these are great goals and you want to have them, sometimes it's easy to be more lazy about working your business if you simply stop at this.? I recommend also having production goals which I share below.?

Image courtesy of digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The way you determine how much money you need to achieve your income goals is to do the math.

For example, if you want to reach $10K a month, take that amount and divide it by the commission you make on your product or service upon a sale.? That's how many sales you need each month.?

Then break that down into how many sales that will be a week, or a day.

Then ask yourself how many prospects you need to talk to to get a sale.? This will tell you how many leads you need to generate.?

After you do that, it's time to get to work generating those leads.?

The best systems for lead generation is MyLeadSystemPro.? If you have a network marketing or mlm business and would like a step by step blueprint for generating leads for your business, I recommend you check it out.

In evaluating your income goals, and you're very serious about cracking a big nut, you may need to reconsider what you're selling.?

Do you have a funnel with low to high ticket commissions?? Or are you just doing low ticket?? I'm asking because it does make a difference.

For example, I have products and services that start as little as $10/mo.? I have some at $25 a month.? I also have several around the $1K and $3K area and I even have a $7700.?

So you can see it will take 770 sales at $10 a month to make $7700 or I can make ONE sale and make the same $7700.?? It depends on how hard you want to work and now leveraged you want to be.

If you don't have a funnel with a high conversion product, you want to consider Empower Network.? it offers $25 and $100 monthly residuals, plus one time pops of $500, $1K and $3K.

?

Home Based Business Production Goals

home based business goalsThis is a more tangible way to work towards your home based business goals and its something very measurable.?

What you do with this goal model is actually set goals to produce.?

For example, you may set a goal that looks like this:

  • Every week I will write and publish 5 blogs.
  • I will syndicate each of those blog posts through Tribe Pro.
  • I will post these blogs on Facebook.
  • I will take 3 of these blogs posts and repurpose the content and make videos.
  • I will publish and syndicate my videos.
  • I will create 1 Squidoo Lens.
  • I will do this for the next 90 days.

The only way you can fail and not achieve your home based business goals with this style is if you're lazy and just don't do the work.

?

Home Based Business Skillset Goals

When you're first getting started in your home based business, it's easy to think you will be learning many new ways to market all at the same time.? But if you attempt that, you're going to crash head first into the ground.?

What you want to do is choose 2 marketing strategies, say a paid and a free strategy.? And focus on those.

A good goal would be to focus on these two strategies until you are getting results, then add one additional strategy and master that one.?

You can attempt to put a time frame on yourself but be warned, this could cause some frustration.? I found that you can't just say, "Ok, I'm going to learn how to do Facebook Marketing and I'll have it mastered in 30 days at which time I'll add in solo ads."?

The time and budget you have will determine how fast you succeed.? So play this one by ear.?

Having said that, it's still a good goal to know what the strategy is but be committed to keep on keeping on.

?

Personal Development Goals

It's critical to set home based business goals for personal development.? The truth of the matter is that you're business will grow as fast as you grow yourself.?

And, YOU are your greatest home based business goalsasset.?

Image courtesy of Tina Phillips/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I know first hand how easy it is to skip this.? I know you get busy, get sidetracked, get pressed for time.? I know what it's like going down the "to do " list and looking at the clock and saying, "well something has to give.. I won't read today."?

Yet it's this very reading that will keep us in the game, keep us growing as entrepreneurs and keep us filled so we can help ourselves and others.

This is why it has to be a goal that you deliberately with full intention work on.


Here's some ways to help you accomplish your personal development goals if you're a busy person.

Get up 20 minutes earlier or go to bed 20 minutes later.

Listen to audios while

  • ???? Showering and preparing for work.
  • ???? Driving, even with kids in the car? it's great stuff for their brain download also.
  • ???? Working out at the gym or walking around the block
  • ???? Fixing dinner
  • ??? working in the yard
  • ??? working in your hobby
  • ??? cleaning the house

Keep a personal development book with you at all times.?

How many times have you been delayed at the doctors office, a traffic jam, stuck in the office for lunch, waiting on someone?? These moments can be turned into valuable brain food rather than stewing about your situation.? Take advantage of it!

Set a goal to read at least 15 minutes a day and listen to audio for 15 minutes a day.? Most people have a longer drive than 15 mintues to and from work so it's quite possible that you can get in 30-45 minutes, if not an hour, each day, just driving to and from work, not to mention driving the kids around town.

I believe that if you are determined and committed, then finding the time and sticking with it will be a breeze.

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Home Based Business Goals ? Your Decision

The greatest thing about setting your home based business goals is this.? YOU DECIDE whether you will reach them.?

When you sit down to write your goals, put a time frame on them.? Break them down into daily bite size pieces and then DECIDE you WILL achieve them.? There's power behind decisions.

If you need an accountability partner, find one.? If you need a support, get it.? If you need a running buddy (working buddy), find one.?

Keep your end result in mind.??

So for example, if you're goal is to go on a production goal? why??

What do you want to accomplish??

And by accomplishing THAT, what is the reward?

I wish you much success in all your goals setting and I'm here to be your biggest cheerleader.

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Are You Seeking a Home Based Business?

If you are thinking about starting a home based business but are not sure what you want to do, track me down on Facebook or fill out the contact me form on this blog and let's have a quick chat about what you want.? Maybe I can help or point you in a direction that will meet your home based business goals.

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To Your e-Lifestyle

debbie turner

PS: Looking for serious cashflow while learning HOW TO build ANY Business Online? CLICK HERE to discover why people will LOVE buying stuff from you. I've generated over $60K my first 10 months from this EXACT System. (... and it's stellar stuff.. and it's generic... so you can build ANY business with it!)

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Source: http://debbieturner.com/home-based-business-goals-4-goals-to-aim-for/

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