Monday, December 31, 2012

Seattle's MOHAI opens at its new home on S. Lake Union

SEATTLE - Millions of local memories are now officially on display as the Museum of History and Industry opened the doors at its new South Lake Union location on Saturday.

The opening came after years of preparation. It's our state's own "Smithsonian" - a museum that seeks to create a new wave of Pacific Northwest history buffs.

"You can come out and do something fun that is hopefully a little bit educational," said Kathleen Schwegel, who came out for Saturday's ribbon cutting.

Mayor Mike McGinn did the honors - with some help from the next generation.

Inside the museum, each wall is decked in historic Seattle artifacts.

"We have some of the great icons of Seattle's history, including Boeing's first-ever commercial airplane," says MOHAI's executive director, Leonard Garfield. "We've got the first sign of Starbucks. We've got that famous Rainier 'R' we used to see on I-5."

The museum moved into the Naval Reserve Armory after outgrowing its old location just off of Highway 520.

Suzanne Estey, who attended the opening ceremony, says, "I went to the old MOHAI as a kid quite a bit, and we're just really excited to see the next lifespan of a museum that tells the history of our region."

The museum's new home has 50,000 square feet of interior space that will be used to display nearly 4 million artifacts - the past kept alive to help carry us into the future.

"When you live in a place like this that has a lot of history, it's something that connects you to the place - and that's what I want to do for my kids," Schwegel said.

Source: http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Seattles-MOHAI-opens-at-its-new-home-on-S-Lake-Union-185173632.html

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Saturday, December 29, 2012

Things to Pay Attention to Increase Sales Rate on Online Stores ...

28 12 b Things to Pay Attention to Increase Sales Rate on Online StoresIn this internet era, most businessmen expand their offline business to online one. Besides, many business newbies open online stores to earn money. Research shows that there are hundreds or even more online stores that can be found at this time. Those online stores provide various products, such as: clothes, jackets, smartphones, notebooks, kitchen cabinets, flooring, car, motorcycle, and many more and services, such as: cleaning service, online tutoring, online traffic course, essay writing, drainage service, etc.

Talking about online store, do you plan to run this online business too? If you do, you need to know that running an online store is not easy as you ever heard because when you cannot get customers and/or you only have low sales rate continuously, be ready to see your online store dies. You definitely don?t want to experience this problem, right? That is why, before you open an online store, you have to make good plans well. Besides, it is better for you to pay attention to several things to get potential customers and increase sales rate below:

  1. Web design
    You need to know that most potential customers don?t like visiting online store sites which designs are crowded (there are many irrelevant banners or images). Thus, you have to design your online store site as simple and as well as possible. If you doubt you can do this yourself or you want to get good result, use web design service. This company helps you design site simply in order to make your site look nice and professional.
  2. Loading time
    Based on some reliable researches, potential customers will leave online store sites in a few seconds if those sites are not accessible. That is why you have to make your site accessible and have fast loading time. How? You have to buy paid web hosting services from reliable and well-knows web hosting providers which guarantee your online store site is accessible worldwide and 24/7. To ensure getting unlimited access, you have to pick web hosting service that gives unlimited bandwidth. Thus, although your site have thousands visitors a day, your site can still be loaded fast at the end of the months because there?s no bandwidth limit.
  3. Products? quality
    Believe it or not, potential customers will go back to your online store site continuously if you provide high quality products for them. Because of this, if you want to get many loyal customers and increase your sales, you really have to pay attention to your products? quality.
  4. Promotion
    Three points above will never work optimally if your site and products are not known by customers. That is why you have to promote your online store site and products. How? There are many ways that you can do to promote them, such as:
    • Email. By sending email to your email lists, you can promote both your site and products. In contrast, if you don?t have email lists yet, you can buy email lists that you need from reliable email list providers.
    • Social networking sites. Use your social networking sites, such as: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare, or MySpace to introduce and promote your site and products.
    • SEO (Search Engine Optimization). This way is quite difficult to do but don?t worry about it because as long as you use local SEO services from ?Leads by Web, your online store site will stand on the top ranking of search engines result page, especially on Google. Besides, these SEO services guarantee that you will get many potential customers. Do you want to try?

In addition, you have to pay attention to customer service and payment options on your online store site. Make sure that you provide customer service which is operated 24/7 and give some payment options, such as: credit card, PayPal, Visa, MasterCard, and so on. The latter will reduce the number of buyers who cancel the order because they get difficulties in making the payment.

By knowing this information, hopefully your online store site can get many potential customers and increase your sales rate rapidly. Good luck.

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SEO, Service, Store

Source: http://www.faact.org/2012/12/things-to-pay-attention-to-increase-sales-rate-on-online-stores/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=things-to-pay-attention-to-increase-sales-rate-on-online-stores

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Friday, December 28, 2012

Bumper Pack Of Goal Setting/ Self Improvement Plr ? Video ...

Bumper Pack Of Goal Setting/ Self Improvement Plr
ll4.me Bumper Pack Of Goal Setting/ Self Improvement Plr Bumper Pack of Goal Setting Information- 2 PLR eBooks and PLR articles! All you need to start marketing to the profitable personal development/ self improvement niche. Book 1- Your Guide to Successfully Setting Goals- 60 page eBook Contents include; How to choose the right goals to focus on Key points to goal setting How things can go wrong Setting health/ fitness goals Setting relationship goals Getting motivated to achieve your goals- and much more Comes complete with sales page, cover image and product source files in Word and PDF format. Rights; You are free to resell this ebook and change it as you see fit. The only restrictions are that you may not give it away. Book 2- Goal Realization- 156 page eBook Contents include; Dating and goal realization Achieving in life Self help guide in goals Fighting to win Motivation leading to goal realization- and much more Comes complete with sales letter, all images and source files in Word and PDF format. Also includes list of keywords and a set of PLR articles (approximately 50) Rights; YES Sell Private Label Rights YES Claim Full Copyright YES Sell Master Resale Rights YES Edit/Alter the Sales Materials YES Added to Paid Membership Sites NO Added to Free Membership Sites YES Can be Broken Down Into Articles YES Can be Packaged with Other Products YES Sell at Auction Sites (priced at $9.99 and up) NO Offered Through Dime Sale Events YES Offered as Free Bonus NO Given Away ?From:ClintonPaigeViews:0 0ratingsTime:00:15More inPeople Blogs

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Source: http://www.consciousevolution.tv/personal-development/bumper-pack-of-goal-setting-self-improvement-plr-video.php

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Japan's new government sticks to three-year nuclear safety goal

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's new government said on Friday it hoped to stick to a three year deadline to decide whether to restart all nuclear reactors after safety checks, despite the country's newly formed nuclear regulator saying the deadline was impossible to meet.

Economy Minister Toshimitsu Motegi, who is also responsible for energy policy, said reactors would be restarted as units received the all-clear from the atomic regulator.

"We will rely on the NRA (Nuclear Regulation Authority) to judge safety from an expert point of view and will not restart ones as long as safety is not confirmed," Motegi told a news conference.

NRA Chairman Shunichi Tanaka said in an interview in the Asahi newspaper on Friday that completing safety checks within the three-year timeframe set by new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will be impossible to meet.

All but two of Japan's 50 reactors remain switched off after an earthquake and tsunami caused meltdowns and explosions at the Fukushima Daiichi station in northeastern Japan in March 2011.

Atomic energy supplied about 30 percent of Japan's needs before Fukushima, but since the disaster support for nuclear power has plummeted.

Abe's government, which was installed on Wednesday after a landslide election victory, has said it will take 10 years to decide on the best energy mix for Japan.

"We have not decided on the policy of going zero-nuclear by the 2030s," Motegi said, referring to the previous government's policy.

An order from former Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda to restart the two reactors now operating in western Japan prompted the biggest demonstrations in the country in decades and contributed to his election defeat this month.

The NRA, which still needs to draft new rules on safety, has signaled it will take a tougher stance on nuclear stations situated over possible seismic fault lines and prevent risky plants from restarting.

If a review of a faultline under the operating reactors at the Ohi station shows it is active, the NRA will request a halt for the units, operated by Kansai Electric Power Co, Tanaka said in the interview.

A panel of NRA experts this week confirmed its assessment that there are active faults under the Higashi Dori nuclear plant in northern Japan, which is owned by Tohoku Electric Power Co. The assessment means the NRA is unlikely allow the plant to restart.

(Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; Editing by Aaron Sheldrick and Michael Perry)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/japans-government-sticks-three-nuclear-safety-goal-033702883--business.html

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Thursday, December 27, 2012

New laws address gays, children, immigration

Measures on gay rights and child safety are among the top state laws taking effect at the start of 2013, along with attempts to prevent identity theft and perennial efforts to restrict abortion and illegal immigration.

In many states, new laws take effect on Jan. 1, while in others they do so 90 days after a governor's signature.

Voter-approved laws allowing same-sex couples to marry take effect in Maryland in January and in Maine on Saturday. California also approved a law exempting clergy members opposed to gay marriage from performing same-sex marriage ceremonies.

In California, a first-of-its-kind law bans a form of psychotherapy aimed at making gay teenagers straight but is on hold during a court challenge. The law would ban what is known as reparative or conversion therapy for minors; such therapies are widely discredited by medical professionals.

A number of laws seek to protect children from bullying and abuse. Pennsylvania school employees in contact with children, who already must report suspected abuse, must now be trained to recognize the warning signs, their legal obligations and what are considered appropriate relationships with children.

That law was being debated and voted on in June as a jury was finding former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky guilty of 45 counts for sexually abusing 10 boys over 15 years.

California coaches and administrators in K-12 schools, as well as higher education employees who have regular contact with children, will be required to report suspected child sexual abuse. Oregon will require school employees to report acts of bullying, harassment and online bullying. Oregon schools must also adopt a policy on teen dating violence.

In Florida, the Safe Harbor Act includes provisions that require police to turn over to the Department of Children and Families any children who are alleged to be sexually exploited or dependent for assessment and possible shelter.

States continue to wrestle with illegal immigration. Pennsylvania will include a requirement that contractors on public works projects make sure through the federal E-Verify system that their employees are legal U.S. residents, while a Montana ballot measure taking effect denies illegal immigrants of state services.

Supporters say the Montana law will prevent illegal immigrants from obtaining services and prevent them from taking jobs at a time of high unemployment. Opponents argued there is no proof illegal immigrants are using state services in Montana.

Also in Montana, voters overwhelmingly passed a measure requiring parental notification for minors' abortions, while in Georgia a new law will prohibit doctors from performing an abortion 20 weeks after an egg is fertilized unless a pregnancy is determined to be medically futile, meaning it would result in the birth of a child unlikely to survive because of a serious defect. Georgia became the seventh state in the country to approve the so-called fetal pain act.

"Today, we are reaffirming Georgia's commitment to preserving the sanctity of all human life," Gov. Nathan Deal said in a statement released shortly after he signed the bill in May.

The measure passed over the objection of many female lawmakers, including Sen. Valencia Seay, who said the bill's passage and signing was "unconscionable, but not surprising" and typical of the male-dominated General Assembly.

New Hampshire enacts a ban on a type of late-term abortion procedure sometimes called "partial birth abortion" after lawmakers overrode the veto of Gov. John Lynch, who said the measure was unnecessary because federal law already prohibits such procedures. Supporters of the ban say they don't trust the government to prosecute the law.

In Maryland, parents will be able to freeze their child's credit at any time if the child becomes a victim of identity theft. "This just freezes the information to ensure that it's not used for ill purposes," said Delegate Craig Zucker, a Democrat who sponsored the bill in the Maryland House of Delegates.

In Delaware, state officials must request an annual credit report for every child in foster care.

Among other new laws:

? Alabama begins cracking down on the state's 900,000 uninsured drivers with a new system that allows instant checks by police, license plate offices and the state Revenue Department.

? A pair of laws in Georgia and Pennsylvania address the shortfalls faced by some states from the cost of unemployment benefits by raising employers' contributions to unemployment compensation trust funds.

? In New Mexico, drivers registering their car or truck will be able to donate $1 or $5 to a state fund that supports programs and services to veterans, such as assistance in finding a job or treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. In Utah, U.S. military personnel will be exempted from having to pay a full year's property taxes after their return from 200 days of active duty in any calendar year.

? In Florida, it will no longer be illegal to flash your headlights to warn oncoming drivers that police are lurking on the roadside ahead. The legislation was introduced after drivers were ticketed for warning other motorists that officers may be trying to catch speeders on the highway.

? A California law bans the use of dogs when hunting bobcats or bears, while Wisconsin's expansion of its hunting seasons to a month in autumn and another in April was a scaled-back version of a proposal that would have allowed hunting across a seven-month period from mid-October to late May. Residents reacted to the longer proposal with thousands of angry letters and emails.

Most people who opposed the measure said they would stop bringing their families to state parks if there were a chance of being struck by a stray bullet or of a pet straying into an animal trap. Supporters countered that hunting has long been a Wisconsin tradition and that hunters were well-versed in practicing safe techniques.

___

Welsh-Huggins reported from Columbus, Ohio.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-12-26-New%20Laws/id-83082bcbdae74433bc2b9d4a1bba4e81

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Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Central African Republic rebels seize central town, defying foreign troops

BANGUI (Reuters) - Rebels in Central African Republic seized the central town of Kaga Bandoro on Tuesday despite the presence of foreign troops meant to support the government, a government official said.

The fall of the town, 333 km (207 miles) north of the capital Bangui, came hours after the Seleka rebel alliance said they would suspend their push and means they now have a firm grip on the north and east of the fragile nation.

"They took the town after a short battle despite the surprising lack of action from the Chadian (soldiers)," Rigobert Enza, who works in Kaga Bandoro's mayor's office, told Reuters after he fled to Sibut, the next town to the south.

Foreign soldiers in Kaga Bandoro include Chadians dispatched in the last few weeks to help Bangui tackle the latest rebellion as well as members of a regional stabilization force made up of soldiers from across Central Africa.

Neither rebel nor government officials were available for comment. But the daughter of a second local government official in the town said she had received a call from her father confirming the town had been occupied by rebels.

CAR, a mineral-rich but land-locked former French colony, has been plagued by insecurity since independence in 1960.

President Francois Bozize came to power in 2003 after a brief war and has won two elections since then.

But facing several internal rebellions and the spill-over from conflicts in neighboring Chad and Sudan, he has struggled to stabilize the nation.

"The situation has become very serious," a senior official in the president's camp told Reuters, asking not to be named.

The rebels are made up of fighters from several previous rebel groups and complain that Bozize has failed to stick to the terms of a 2007 peace deal.

(Reporting by Paul-Marin Ngoupana; Writing by David Lewis; Editing by Tom Pfeiffer)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/car-rebels-seize-central-town-defying-foreign-troops-194831130.html

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Monday, December 24, 2012

LaPierre refuses to back new gun curbs

For the first time since the Connecticut shootings, NRA Chief Wayne LaPierre answers questions from NBC's David Gregory about his organization's stance on gun violence in America.

By Tom Curry, NBC News national affairs writer

Updated 10:50 a.m. ET:?On NBC?s Meet the Press, National Rifle Association chief Wayne LaPierre on Sunday refused to support new gun control legislation and maintained his support for putting armed guards and police in schools in response to the Dec. 14 school shootings in Newtown, Conn.

See the Meet The Press page

?If it?s crazy to call for putting police in and securing our schools to protect our children, then call me crazy,? LaPierre told NBC?s David Gregory. ?I think the American people think it?s crazy not to do it. It?s the one thing that would keep people safe and the NRA is going try to do that.?

He added that the United States is now spending $2 billion to train police officers in Iraq and asked why federal funds could not be spent to train school guards to protect schools in the United States.

Asked about restricting the size of ammunition magazine or clips, LaPierre said, ?I don?t believe that?s going to make one difference. There are so many different ways to evade that, even if you had that. You had that for 10 years when (Sen.) Dianne Feinstein passed that ban in ?94. It was on the books. Columbine occurred right in the middle of it ? it didn?t make any difference.?

Feinstein, D-Calif., was the author of the 1994 ban on certain types of semiautomatic firearms which expired in 2004. She has announced that she will introduce new legislation early next year. Semiautomatic firearms, including semiautomatic weapons sometimes called ?assault weapons,? fire one round per pull of the trigger.

The Atlantic's Jordan Weissmann has an inside look at the organization that made big news this week.

?I know there?s a media machine in this country that wants to blame guns every time something happens,? LaPierre said, but he insisted that an armed guard might have been able to stop Adam Lanza, the killer in Connecticut.

?If I?m a mom or a dad and I?m dropping my child off at school I?d feel a whole lot safer? if there were trained armed security guards or police protecting the school from people such as Lanza, LaPierre said, although he conceded that ?nothing is perfect? as a deterrent against crime.

LaPierre also said, ?We have a mental health system in this country that has completely and totally collapsed. We have no national database of these lunatics? and complained that de-institutionalization of the mentally ill had put too many dangerous people on the streets of America. ?We have a completely cracked mentally ill system that?s got these monsters walking the streets,? LaPierre said.

And he said many states do not put their records of those adjudicated to be mentally ill into the national instant check system that is designed to screen out convicted criminals and the mentally ill from buying guns.

The NRA CEO also argued that the federal government had invested far too little effort into enforcing the longstanding federal law that makes it illegal for convicted felons to possess guns. The federal effort to enforce existing restrictions on gun possession, he said, is ?pitiful.?

He said, ?If you want to control violent criminals, take them off the street.?

But he firmly opposed curbs on private gun sales and contended that the advocates of stringent restrictions on such sales want to put ?every gun sale under the thumb of the federal government.?

LaPierre called Feinstein?s bill ?a phony piece of legislation? which he predicted would not become law.

After a week of silence following the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School the NRA responded, saying armed guns in schools is the answer. "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," said Wayne LaPierre, NRA's executive vice president. NBC's John Harwood reports.

President Barack Obama has tasked Vice President Joe Biden with the job of consulting with members of the Cabinet and outside organizations to come up with legislative proposals by next month.

When asked about this initiative, LaPierre said, ?if it?s a panel that?s just going to be made up of a bunch of people that for the past 20 years has been trying to destroy the Second Amendment, I?m not interested in sitting on that panel?. The NRA is not going to let people lose the Second Amendment in this country.?

Following LaPierre on Meet the Press, Sen. Charles Schumer, D- N.Y., said that the NRA leader is ?so extreme and so tone deaf that he actually helps the cause of us passing sensible gun legislation in the Congress?. He is so doctrinaire and so adamant that I believe gun owners turn against him as well.?

Schumer said that LaPierre believes ?the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is good gun with a gun. What about trying to stop the bad guy from getting the gun in the first place? That?s common sense. Most Americans agree with it.?

But Sen. Lindsey Graham, R- S.C., said killers such as Lanza were ?non-traditional criminals? people who are not wired right for some reason. And I don?t know if there?s anything Lindsey Graham can do in the Senate to stop mass murder from somebody that?s hell bent on doing crazy things? -- apart from better security in schools. The South Carolina Republican also called for getting ?mass murders off the streets before they act, by better mental health detection.?

After a week of calls for tighter gun restrictions, the National Rifle Association called for putting more armed security officers in the nation's schools and expressed concerns about violence portrayed in video games, movies and music. NBC's Pete Williams reports.

Graham said that while he was out Christmas shopping in South Carolina this weekend, people ?have come up to me (and said) ?Please don?t let the government take my guns away.? And I?m going to stand against the assault (weapons) ban because it didn?t work before and it won?t work in the future.?

LaPierre?s appearance on Meet the Press followed the strong reaction over his defiant stand during a Friday press briefing about the NRA?s response to the Connecticut school shootings.

Amid a national debate over what security measures school administrators should take to ensure the safety of students, gun-control advocates reacted with disbelief Friday to LaPierre?s call for armed guards in every school and his blaming of Hollywood films, video games, and popular music for school shootings such as the one in Connecticut.

How firmly the NRA?s allies in Congress will oppose any new legislative initiatives from Obama, Feinstein or others remains an open question.

In a test of the NRA?s legislative influence, the House of Representatives late last year passed the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act, which has not yet been acted on by the Senate.

In the House vote, 229 Republicans and 43 Democrats voted for the NRA-backed bill.

The House bill allows a person with a photo identification card and a valid permit to carry a concealed firearm in one state to carry a concealed handgun in another state in accordance with the restrictions of that second state.

Related content from NBCNews.com:

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Source: http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/23/16101856-after-reaction-to-its-defiant-stance-nra-prepares-for-2013-battles?lite

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Rebels threaten to storm 2 Syrian Christian towns

BEIRUT (AP) ? Rebels have threated to storm two predominantly Christian towns in central Syria if residents do not "evict" government troops they say are using the towns as a base to attack nearby areas.

A video released by rebels showed Rashid Abul-Fidaa, who identified himself as the commander of the Ansar Brigade for Hama province, calling on locals in Mahrada and Sqailbiyeh to rise up against President Bashar Assad's forces or prepare for an assault.

"Assad's gangs in the cities are shelling our villages with mortars and rockets destroying our homes, killing our children and displacing our people," said Abdul-Fidaa, who wore an Islamic headband and was surrounded by gunmen. "You should perform your duty by evicting Assad's gangs," he said. "Otherwise our warriors will storm the hideouts of the Assad gangs."

Abdul-Fidaa accused regime forces of taking positions in the two towns in order to "incite sectarian strife" between Christians and the predominantly Sunni opposition. Assad belongs to the Alawite minority sect, an off-shoot of Shiite Islam.

The threat comes just two days after a U.N. team investigating human rights abuses in Syria accused anti-Assad militants of hiding among the civilian population, triggering strikes by government artillery and the air force.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the activist group which reported the rebel ultimatum on Saturday, said such an attack by rebels could force thousands of Christians from their homes.

Russia's foreign minister, meanwhile, said that Moscow would welcome any country's offer of a safe haven to Assad, but underlined that Moscow itself has no intention of giving him shelter if he steps down.

Sergei Lavrov also said that Syria has consolidated its chemical weapons into one or two locations to protect them from a rebel onslaught. Russia, which has military advisers training Syria's armed forces, has kept close watch over Damascus's chemical arsenal, Lavrov added.

Syria refuses to confirm or deny if it has chemical weapons but is believed to have nerve agents as well as mustard gas. It also possesses Scud missiles capable of delivering them.

Concerns over the arsenal have escalated as the Assad regime suffers losses on the battlefield. U.S. intelligence officials have said it may be readying chemical weapons and could be desperate enough to use them. Both Israel and the U.S. have also expressed concerns the weapons could fall into militant hands if the regime crumbles.

Syria's conflict started 21 months ago as an uprising against Assad, whose family has ruled the country for four decades. But the bloody crackdown that followed led rebels to take up arms, and the ensuing fighting transformed into a civil war. According to activists, more than 40,000 people have been killed since March 2011.

Christians, who make up about 10 percent of Syria's population, say they are particularly vulnerable to the violence sweeping the country of 22 million people. They are fearful that Syria will become another Iraq, with Christians caught in the crossfire between rival Islamic groups.

Clashes between troops and rebels in the central city of Homs, Syria's third largest, have already displaced tens of thousands of Christians, most of whom either fled to the relatively safe coastal areas or to neighboring Lebanon.

Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads the Observatory, said some Christians and Alawites have also left Hama province in the past several days to escape violence. He said some of them found shelter in the coastal city of Tartus.

In Damascus, the new head of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch said that Christians in Syria had deep roots in the country and were not part of the conflict. Speaking to reporters in the capital, Patriarch John X. Yazigi, urged rival factions to negotiate a settlement.

Violence continued elsewhere in the country on Saturday.

The Observatory said a car bomb went off in the Damascus neighborhood of Qaboun, killing at least five people and wounding others. A Syrian official in the capital confirmed the blast but had no immediate words on casualties.

Elsewhere, the Syrian army said in a statement carried on state-run TV that it had repelled a rebel attack on a military base that killed a regimental commander in the Damascus suburb of Chebaa.

And in Damascus, the state-run news agency SANA said gunmen assassinated Haider al-Sammoudi, a cameraman for the government's TV station. Several journalists working for state media have been assassinated over the past months.

In another development, 11 rebel groups said they have formed a new coalition, the Syrian Islamic Front.

A statement issued by the new group, dated Dec. 21 and posted on a militant website Saturday, described the group as "a comprehensive Islamic front that adopts Islam as a religion, doctrine, approach and conduct."

Several rebel groups have declared their own coalitions in Syria, including an "Islamic state" in the embattled northern city of Aleppo.

The statement said the new group will work to avoid differences or disputes with the other Islamic groups.

Syrian authorities meanwhile handed over to Beirut three Lebanese citizens who were killed last month in a clash with Syrian troops shortly after they crossed the border. Syria has so far returned 10 bodies to the Lebanese authorities and says it has no more.

____

Associated Press writer Maamoun Youssef in Cairo and Alblert Aji in Damascus contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rebels-threaten-storm-2-syrian-christian-towns-111223888.html

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Sunday, December 23, 2012

Oswego County Recreation Trail - Fishing & Hunting in Oswego ...

By Spider Rybaak
Central New York played a key role in the economic development of our nation. Today, the original routes that carried the Industrial Revolution to every corner of the country have been covered over by pavement, submerged under the Empire State?s canal system, or left to nature. Fortunately, the builders of this massive ancient infrastructure did their jobs well--so well, in fact, it?s gonna take natural succession a long time to hide the evidence in the portions that were simply abandoned.

And while that might goad the sensibilities of purist environmentalists who feel smug sitting around thinking and talking a lot, it?s a God-send for average folks looking for cheap ways to recreate and exercise in the open air. You see, nowadays these forgotten routes etch the state in a web of paths lined in natural splendor, offering folks scenic avenues through the historical record.

Take the Oswego County Recreation Trail, for instance. ?Running the bed of the New York Ontario & Western Railroad (abandoned in 1957), it?s the easiest, most convenient path you can take through our past. Stretching for roughly 26 miles, from Maple Avenue in Fulton to a little east of North Street in Cleveland, its gentle grade is ideal for hiking, biking and snowmobiling.

The OCRT is actually two trails: the western arm reaches from Fulton to Central Square, where it?s blocked by Interstate 81 (the highway was built after the railroad was abandoned, and no one thought of tunneling the trail under it); the eastern stem picks up on the other side of the interstate, about 1000 feet west of CR 37, and runs all the way to the county line in Cleveland, beyond which it becomes rutted and beat as it continues for a short distance into Oneida County.

In Oswego County, the well-maintained path slices through a patchwork of developed and natural areas. And while the scenery along its entire length is worth the trip, the eastern section is longest and offers the most diverse habitats.

Spawned on its west end at a dented guardrail preventing vehicles from going over the edge of the demolished railroad bridge over Little Big Bay Creek, the east branch cuts through agricultural fields and pastures, skirts woods and small parks and crosses creeks and brooks, offering a menu of splendid scenery, including golf courses, Toad Harbor Swamp, the dam on Scriba Creek, (just upstream of the Oneida Lake Fish Hatchery), thick, dark forests, scenic back-country beaver meadows, even a backyard pond in Cleveland that sports its own bridge over a feeder brook, and a cannon protecting it.

Access is easy. From CR 37 to the edge of Constantia, roads heading south off NY 49 cross the OCRT; and there?s parking at the shoulder of Toad Harbor Road. On the east side of the village, the trail crosses NY 49 and, from here to its end, is accessible by all roads heading north from the highway.

In Constantia, shoulder parking for about 10 cars is off Hatchery Road, a few hundred feet north of the NY 49 intersection. East of the hamlet, parking is allowed on the shoulder of some cross-roads and North Street.

The trail gets a little tricky in Cleveland. On the east side of its junction with Center Street, the OCRT widens, turning into Sand Street. But a few hundred feet later, on the other side of North Street, it assumes the charm of a trail agaiin.

Snowmobiling, cross-country skiing and horseback riding are also allowed on the trail. ?Motor vehicles, other than snowmobiles, trail groomers, Oswego County highway equipment, and authorized emergency vehicles, are prohibited from the trail. ATVs are only allowed on the eastern-most section of the trail between Toad Harbor Road and the Oswego-Oneida county line.

At press time, coils of gray and white rolled over the barren, late autumn landscape lining the OCRT. Soon, hopefully before Christmas, winter will shroud this natural canvas in sparkling snow

Merry Christmas.







Source: http://fishingandhuntinginoswego.blogspot.com/2012/12/oswego-county-recreation-trail.html

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Friday, December 21, 2012

Hundreds honor Ravi Shankar at California memorial

Conductor Zubin Mehta pays his respects during a memorial service for Indian Sitar maestro Ravi Shankar in Encinitas, Calif., Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012. Shankar was a master of the Indian sitar who collaborated with and influenced George Harrison, John Coltrane and other Western music icons. He lived in Encinitas for two decades and died last week at age 92. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Conductor Zubin Mehta pays his respects during a memorial service for Indian Sitar maestro Ravi Shankar in Encinitas, Calif., Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012. Shankar was a master of the Indian sitar who collaborated with and influenced George Harrison, John Coltrane and other Western music icons. He lived in Encinitas for two decades and died last week at age 92. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Indian Sitar maestro Ravi Shankar's wife Sukanya Rajan, right, daughter Anoushka Shankar, center, and stepdaughter Nora Jones, left, leave after a memorial service for Indian Sitar maestro Ravi Shankar in Encinitas, Calif., Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012. Shankar was a master of the Indian sitar who collaborated with and influenced George Harrison, John Coltrane and other Western music icons. He lived in Encinitas for two decades and died last week at age 92. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Usher Kritagyata Nicholls stands next to white flags during a memorial service for Indian Sitar maestro Ravi Shankar in Encinitas, Calif., Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012. Shankar was a master of the Indian sitar who collaborated with and influenced George Harrison, John Coltrane and other Western music icons. He lived in Encinitas for two decades and died last week at age 92. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Indian Sitar maestro Ravi Shankar's wife Sukanya Rajan, right, is comforted by daughter Anoushka Shankar as they leave after a memorial service for Shankar in Encinitas, Calif., Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012. Shankar was a master of the Indian sitar who collaborated with and influenced George Harrison, John Coltrane and other Western music icons. He lived in Encinitas for two decades and died last week at age 92. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

An usher holds flowers during a memorial service for Indian Sitar maestro Ravi Shankar in Encinitas, Calif., Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012. Shankar was a master of the Indian sitar who collaborated with and influenced George Harrison, John Coltrane and other Western music icons. He lived in Encinitas for two decades and died last week at age 92. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

(AP) ? Hundreds of friends and family on Thursday remembered sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar as an unfailingly generous teacher with a gentle spirit and sense of humor whose music fostered understanding between East and West.

Olivia Harrison said Shankar helped her late husband George Harrison achieve a more meaningful life when he was a young Beatle.

"They were like father and son as well as brothers," Harrison said on an outdoor stage decorated with garlands of white flowers at the Self Realization Fellowship center in Encinitas, the oceanfront suburb north of San Diego where Shankar lived for the last two decades.

Conductor Zubin Mehta said he felt like a "little crumb" listening to Shankar play and credited his close friend with introducing India to the world.

Shankar died last week in San Diego at age 92.

His wife, Sukanya Rajan, and daughters ? singer Norah Jones and Grammy-nominated sitarist Anoushka Shankar ? sat in the front row as speakers paid tribute. The audience listened to clips of Shankar's music and recorded voice.

"Music is the only language I really know," Shankar said in one clip.

Under blue skies on a warm Southern California morning, a family friend read messages from political and cultural luminaries including musicians Phillip Glass and Peter Gabriel, who thanked him for teaching them. The audience heard excerpts from newspaper stories that trumpeted Shankar's enormous influence.

Labeled "the godfather of world music" by Harrison, Shankar helped millions of Westerners ? classical, jazz and rock lovers ? discover the centuries-old traditions of Indian music. From Harrison to John Coltrane, from Yehudi Menuhin to Andre Previn, he bridged the musical gap between East and West.

Pirashanna Thevarajah, one of his students, said Shankar was the reason he pursued a music career and that his teacher sometimes believed more in him than he believed in himself. He called Shankar "a very simple soul with a wonderful sense of humor."

Thevarajah said Shankar followed his puns with the line, "That's why the call me a pundit."

Film director Joe Wright, Shankar's son-in-law, recalled a risky medical operation that Shankar's family was unsure he would survive. Though he made it through, Wright thought he might never again see Shankar alive as he was rolled into the operating room.

Wright saw Shankar's fingers moving as he was wheeled away.

"I never at any moment saw his fingers not playing, not beating a rhythm," Wright said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-12-20-Shankar%20Memorial/id-4eacbfbc33ba43b9812d26bc80846ddd

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Thursday, December 20, 2012

Cruz: Meeting Pinto family was "toughest by far''

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) ? Victor Cruz hopes meeting with the family of a 6-year-old boy killed in the Connecticut school shootings has helped them cope with the tragedy.

The New York Giants receiver on Wednesday somberly recounted his hour-long visit with Jack Pinto's family a day earlier, and says he was most affected when asked about their decision to bury their son in his No. 80 jersey.

Cruz stopped for a moment, his eyes becoming watery: "You never go through some circumstances like this. This was definitely the toughest by far."

Pinto's family said Cruz was their son's favorite player. Cruz was one of 20 first-graders and six adults killed in the shootings at the Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Cruz wrote Jack Pinto's name on his cleats and gloves before the Giants' 34-0 loss to the Falcons. He presented them to the family Tuesday.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cruz-meeting-pinto-family-toughest-far-194316238--nfl.html

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Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Century-old fight for Budweiser name hits new snag

CESKE BUDEJOVICE, Czech Republic (AP) ? They've been arguing about a name for 106 years. A small brewer in the Czech Republic and the world's biggest beer maker have been suing each other over the right to put the word Budweiser on their bottles in what has become a David versus Goliath corporate saga.

A deal, it seems, will have to wait a bit longer because settlement talks between state-owned Budejovicky Budvar and Anheuser-Busch, a U.S. company now part of AB InBev, have collapsed, according to Budvar's director general, Jiri Bocek.

The dispute is over exclusive rights ? when only one of the companies is allowed to use the Budweiser name in any given country. As a larger company, AB InBev is particularly keen to expand its exports and market its beers under the Budweiser brand. But Budvar says that giving up its exclusive rights to the name would threaten to wipe out its own brand from the market.

Budvar recently rejected a proposal for a global settlement by AB InBev, which in turn refused a counteroffer. Bocek said negotiations on these proposals, details of which he could not provide, were over.

"Any new deal proposed by Anheuser-Busch wouldn't be working for us," he told The Associated Press in a rare interview with a major foreign news organization. AB InBev declined to comment on the details of the talks.

The brewers last agreed on a global settlement in 1939 in a pact that gave Anheuser-Busch sole rights to the name Budweiser in all American territories north of Panama. But the peace did not last long as the two companies expanded exports to new markets.

Though AB InBev is far larger than Budvar ? it produces 270 times more beer ? the Czech company has been punching above its weight in the legal arena. It won 88 of 124 disputes between 2000 and 2011 and holds exclusive rights in 68 countries, mostly in Europe, preventing AB Inbev from entering some key markets such as Germany with the Budweiser brand.

When the companies do not have exclusive rights to the Budweiser brand in a country, they resort to using slightly altered names. AB Inbev sells its Budweiser as Bud in many European countries. Budvar sells its lager as Czechvar in the U.S.

One of the issues, Bocek said, is that AB Inbev is not satisfied with sharing the brand name.

"Their goal is to gain exclusivity for their Budweiser all around the world," said Bocek, who as head of Budvar for the past 21 years has raised the heat on the larger rival.

Co-existence is possible, however. In fact, the two companies already share the Budweiser name in one country, Britain.

Both brewers were granted the right to use the name in 2000 after a British court ruled that drinkers were aware of the difference between the two beers. An appeals court this summer rejected AB InBev's request to have Budvar's trademark declared invalid.

AB InBev is not happy with the situation.

"Our concern is that coexistence on the U.K. market with the Budweiser brand will lead to consumer confusion," said Karen Couck, the spokeswoman for AB Inbev. "We want to make sure that when our customers order a Budweiser that they receive the clean, crisp taste of the global brand we have created."

But most beer drinkers would easily spot the difference, says Iain Loe, former research manager for Britain's Campaign for Real Ale, a consumer rights organization.

Budvar has "a full bodied taste" while "AB's Budweiser has little taste, or in the words of AB InBev, a clean taste," said Loe. "Customers know which beer is which."

The companies' claims to the Budweiser name are built on two main arguments ? geography and history.

Budejovicky Budvar was founded in 1895 in the southern city of Ceske Budejovice ? called Budweis at the time by the German-speaking people who formed about 40 percent of the area's population. Beer has been brewed here since 1265 and has been known for centuries as Budweiser.

Budvar argues that only beer that is brewed in this corner of the Czech Republic can be called Budweiser.

The founders of Anheuser-Busch in St. Louis used the name for their product because it was so well-known. The brewer, founded in 1852, began producing Budweiser, America's first national beer brand, in 1876 ? 19 years before Budvar was founded.

The two companies have been in a legal battle since 1906. Today, the dispute is being waged through 61 suits in 11 countries.

Budvar has some leverage in the dispute in that AB InBev may be missing out on a larger bulk of sales until a settlement is found, since its operations are so much bigger. It brewed 349.8 million hectoliters last year compared with Budvar's 1.32 million hectoliters. That's the equivalent of 73.9 billion pints against 279 million pints.

"Budvar blocks the markets where AB InBev, due to its trading power, marketing and distribution potential, would likely gain significantly more," said Karel Potmesil an analyst at stock brokerage Cyrrus AS. "The dispute limits the development of the brands that the company considers the most valuable in the industry."

If the issue is frustrating AB InBev, the company is not showing it.

"The dispute has not hindered our global expansion," said Couck, the spokeswoman.

She cited figures showing AB InBev's global sales were up 3.1 percent in 2011 and 6.2 percent in the first nine months of 2012. The U.S. Budweiser is brewed in more than 15 countries and sold in more than 80 others. Its key markets are the United States, China, Canada and Britain.

Budvar holds rights for Germany and other European markets as well as 11 Asian countries, including Japan, Korea, China and Vietnam.

"It's certainly quite unpleasant for AB InBev that it cannot sell the well-known brand it has developed on some key markets, especially in Germany, which is the most important market for Budvar," said Potmesil.

Budvar is also being hurt by the legal standoff: because of the legal issues, it takes seven to 10 years for the company to enter a new market.

But Potmesil noted Budvar does not gain much by entering new markets. It has a smaller marketing budget and its beer typically costs more, which hurts sales in lower-income countries like China.

In the end, the dispute mainly provides Budvar with protection against competition from AB InBev. Against such a large rival, Bocek said, it is essential that Budvar use all the legal leverage it can. "We have a right to exist," he said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/century-old-fight-budweiser-name-hits-snag-114537360--finance.html

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Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Iraqi President Talabani suffers a stroke

FILE - In this Aug 17, 2007 file photo, Iraq's President Jalal Talabani talks to reporters in Baghdad, Iraq. The office of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said Tuesday he has been admitted to the hospital for treatment of an unspecified health problem.. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban, File)

FILE - In this Aug 17, 2007 file photo, Iraq's President Jalal Talabani talks to reporters in Baghdad, Iraq. The office of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said Tuesday he has been admitted to the hospital for treatment of an unspecified health problem.. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban, File)

FILE - In this Aug 2, 2006 file photo, Iraq's President Jalal Talabani pauses after announcing new security plans in Baghdad, Iraq. The office of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said Tuesday he has been admitted to the hospital for treatment of an unspecified health problem. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed, File)

Iraqi Presidential guards walk outside the hospital where Iraqi president Jalal Talabani is receiving treatment at the Medical City in Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2012. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has been hospitalized in Baghdad after suffering a stroke and is in stable condition, a spokesman for the prime minister said Tuesday. (AP Photo/ Hadi Mizban)

BAGHDAD (AP) ? Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has suffered a stroke and was in intensive care at a Baghdad hospital Tuesday, injecting new uncertainty into the country's political future a year after the U.S. military left.

Although his official powers are limited, Talabani, 79, is respected by many Iraqis as a rare unifying figure seen as able to rise above the ethnic and sectarian rifts that still divide the country. Known for his joking manner and walrus-like moustache, Talabani has been actively involved in trying to mediate an ongoing crisis between Iraq's central government and the country's ethnic Kurdish minority, from which he hails.

Iraqi state TV and several officials, including the prime minister's spokesman and Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq, confirmed to The Associated Press that Talabani had a stroke. The severity remains unclear.

Talabani's spokesman, Nasser al-Ani, told reporters that the president is in stable condition, though he did not say what he was suffering from. Medical officials who appeared with him were just as circumspect. They did not take questions.

"The president's health is being closely followed up by our medical team. The vital organs are working and we hope that there will be no deterioration," said Dr. Ayad Abbas from the intensive care unit where Talabani is being treated. "We hope that we will see improvement in the coming hours."

The presidential office initially said Tuesday that Talabani was hospitalized the previous evening after showing signs of fatigue. A later statement cited tests showing he is suffering from a condition caused by a hardening of his arteries. It did not identify the condition.

Some local media reports suggested that Talabani had died, but Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said that was not the case.

Rifle-toting soldiers assigned to the presidential guard were deployed around Medical City, Baghdad's largest medical complex, where Talabani is being treated. A number of senior government officials and lawmakers were seen rushing to the hospital to check on his condition, though their bodyguards were mostly not being allowed inside.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was among those who stopped by to check on the president, according to his spokesman, Ali al-Moussawi.

Medical teams from Germany and Britain are expected to arrive and will decide whether the president's condition is serious enough for him to be sent abroad for treatment, al-Mutlaq said.

Neighboring Turkey offered to send an ambulance jet to Baghdad that could transport Talabani for treatment in Turkey or another country, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters.

He suggested that the Iraqis had not yet responded to the offer. "It is up to them to decide," he said, adding that the information he had received was that Talabani was "seriously indisposed."

Word of Talabani's illness trickled out exactly a year after the last U.S. troops rolled out of Iraq. Their departure on Dec. 18, 2011 ended a nearly nine-year war that left more than 100,000 Iraqis and nearly 4,500 Americans dead.

Talabani is overweight and has undergone a number of medical procedures in recent years.

He had heart surgery at the Mayo Clinic in 2008 and has returned to the Minnesota institution for treatment since, including this past March. Over the summer, he underwent knee-replacement surgery in Germany.

The Iraqi presidency is a largely ceremonial post, though it does retain some powers under Iraq's constitution, such as the ability to block executions.

Talabani has frequently used his position to mediate disputes within the government and among Iraq's sects and ethnic groups. He has recently been working to resolve a standoff between the central government and the Kurds, who have their own fighting force.

The two sides last month moved additional troops into disputed areas along the Kurds' self-rule northern region, prompting fears that fighting could break out.

Talabani last week brokered a deal that calls on both sides to eventually withdraw troops from the contested areas, though there is no timetable for how soon the drawdown might take place.

Talabani met with al-Maliki before falling ill Monday. They agreed that al-Maliki would invite a delegation from the Kurdish regional government to Baghdad to continue the talks, according to the prime minister's office.

Iraq at one point had three vice presidents at a time, though one resigned last year and the other, Sunni politician Tariq al-Hashemi, has fled the country after arrest warrants were issued against him.

In the event of the president's death, Shiite Vice President Khudier al-Khuzaie would be expected to assume the president's duties temporarily because he is the only vice president remaining in Iraq, said legal expert Tariq Harb.

Lawmakers would have up to one month to choose a permanent replacement. Iraq's Kurds would likely insist that the presidency remain in their hands, though there is no guarantee of that outcome.

Also on Tuesday, a car bomb exploded in the Shiite shrine city of Karbala, killing four pilgrims from the Muslim sect and wounding 14 others, according to police and hospital officials. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose the information.

___

Associated Press writers Sinan Salaheddin and Sameer N. Yacoub in Baghdad, and Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed reporting.

___

Follow Adam Schreck on Twitter at http://twitter.com/adamschreck

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-12-18-Iraq/id-fc9f4ac90c5f4987a99d36bb94906d1c

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Bobby Kotick Does Play Video Games - Game Informer

The New York Times recently published a large article about Activision CEO Bobby Kotick where he defends his appreciation for video games, and politely requests that people stop posting unflattering Photoshops of him online.

In the interview, Kotick says he has never been able to live down an article he did with Forbes in 2009 where he said he didn't play the video games he sold. He told the New York Times that he has blisters on his fingers from playing Defender back in the day, and these days he plays Skylanders with his daughter.

He also addresses the video game antagonist reputation he has won on the Internet. Kotick said, ?Think about what it?s like for my dating life when the first picture that comes up is me as the Devil.?

Regardless of your feelings about Kotick, you can't deny that the man seems to know what he is doing. His company has surpassed Electronic Arts as the world's largest and most profitable video game publisher.

Source: http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2012/12/16/bobby-kotick-does-play-video-games.aspx

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Monday, December 17, 2012

How To Reduce 401K Fees Through Portfolio Analysis | Financial ...

Do you know how much in mutual fund fees you are paying a year? I didn?t, so I ran my 401K portfolio through Personal Capital?s 401k fee analyzer and I?m absolutely shocked by the results! I always figured that from a percentage point of view, my mutual fund fees were small. But, when you take a small percentage multiplied by a big enough number, the absolute dollar amount startsadding up!

401k Fee Chart

As you can see in the picture above, I?ve got four main mutual funds in my 401K account after jumping back into the market post election. I?ve got another fund worth about $22,000 as part of my 401K which does not show a fee, probably because it is a hedge fund whose fees are baked into the performance. Typical hedge fund fees are 2% of assets under management and 20% of upside. This is called 2 and 20, which is egregiously high, but it?s the only way I can get short exposure to hedge my bets.

I?ve been wanting to do a 401K/mutual fund fee analysis for the longest time, but was too lazy to do the analysis until I realized I didn?t have to do the calculations myself. As the new year arrives, I want my portfolio to be as optimized as possible.

ANALYZING YOUR 401K FOR EXCESSIVE FEES

* Huge spread in expense ratios. The cheapest expense ratio is 0.19% for the Vanguard IT Index Fund and a whopping 0.74% for the Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund. 0.74% is almost 4X greater than 0.19%, supposedly because they?ve got to pay the fund manager and analysts for providing alpha and outperforming the S&P 500 index. If the fund manager(s) can indeed outperform the S&P 500 index by more than 0.5% a year, then their fee is on par with my cheapest Vanguard Index Fund. If not, I?m wasting my money.

* Fees add up over time. In 20 years, I will have paid ~$87,000 in mutual fund fees if I keep my existing portfolio. I don?t know about you, but that seems a lot, even if my 401k does grow to $1,500,000 as my 401K savings guide estimates. Just doing the math here, 67% or $58,290 of the $87,000 in fees will come from my Fidelity Growth Fund alone. Meanwhile, the Fidelity growth fund only accounts for 39.5% of total assets. Long term growth has a way of compounding into great returns for consistent investors and savers, however it sure does a number on the total amount of fees as well.

* Understanding tax cost ratio.?The Tax Cost Ratio measures how much a fund?s annualized return is reduced by the taxes investors pay on distributions. The range is usually between 0%-5%, the lower the better.?For example, if a fund had a 1.5% tax cost ratio for the three-year time period, it means that on average each year, investors in that fund lost 1.5% of their assets to taxes e.g. a 10% return is really only a 8.5% return. It?s good to see my highest fund with a 0.74% expense ratio have only a 0.11% tax cost ratio! One can simply combine the two to figure out their total expenses. The Fidelity Growth Fund is therefore 0.85% vs. 1.94% for the Vanguard Precious Metals fund! The Vanguard IT Fund is the lowest 0.31%.

* Big fan of index funds. The Vanguard family of funds have some of the lowest, if not the lowest fees in the mutual fund industry. The reason is because of their scale and also because they run passive index funds. There?s no team of analysts to pay. There are no business trips to expense to go kick the tires of the company?s they hold. The index is rebalanced usually once a quarter, or whenever there is a big index addition or subtraction to reduce variance risk. Three out of four of my funds are by Vanguard. After I finish typing this post, all of my funds will be by Vanguard!

* You can create a portfolio of index speciality funds. About 60% of my entire 401K allocation is invested in three speciality index funds: Energy, Metals & Mining, and Technology. If I wanted, I could create a portfolio of 20 speciality index funds if I wanted to. In other words, you don?t have to buy one fund that asset allocates across the industrial board. If you have conviction in particular industries which you think will outperform, there is an index fund for you.

CONCLUSION

It?s important to not only look at the expense ratio, but also the tax cost ratio to see how much your performance is getting reduced by each year. Look to invest in lower cost index funds instead of actively managed funds who have shown a poor track record of performance. There are plenty of studies showing that the large majority of actively managed funds underperform their benchmarks.

Personal Capital helped me realize that I am paying at least $1,000 more a year in mutual fund fees than I should by investing in the Fidelity growth fund. I wouldn?t have been able to see what an outlier the fee is without the 401K fee analyzer that aggregates all the data and provides a side by side comparison. Not bad for a free online financial management huh??I suggest everybody take a hard look at their finances to see where they are paying unnecessary fees.

Readers, when was the last time you checked your 401K fees? How have you found Personal Capital?s tools so far?

Step by step: If you want to figure out how much in fees you are paying in your 401K for free, sign up with Personal Capital, click the ?+? button on the top left to add/link an account. For my Fidelity hosted 401K, I typed in the search box ?401k.com? since the Fidelity pre-populated button just linked to my Fidelity rollover IRA. After your 401K account is linked, click the ?Investing? tab on the top right, then choose ?Investment Checkup? and then select the ?Cost? link. You can also click the ?401K Fee Analyzer? link under the Investment tab to give you a different look. I have a feeling you are going to be as surprised as I was about how much you are paying in fees. I?m exchanging my Fidelity Fund into a Vanguard Large Cap fund.

Regards,

Sam

Source: http://www.financialsamurai.com/2012/12/16/how-to-reduc-401k-fees-through-portfolio-analysis/

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Sunday, December 16, 2012

Keys To Successful Website Marketing - Maynas Eric

Online marketing is most likely the best method to reach a lot of people. The Internet is so prevalent that people use it every day. Most companies need a website and online visibility to be successful. Well-crafted Website marketing is evolving to meet the needs of this new medium as effectively as possible.

You will be able to draw a greater volume of visitors if you take advantage of blogging. Regularly posting fresh content is a great thing for attracting viewers. People are more likely to go to a site where they know there?s always new content.

Assess the overall effectiveness of your online marketing efforts by using tech tools to measure the conversion of site visitors to paying customers. There are a variety of companies that offer website evaluations and reporting. This can help you keep track of how many visitors you have had to your site and compare that with how many actually made a purchase.

TIP! A comprehensive online marketing strategy should make use of social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and others. You can easily maintain a daily presence in the minds of your customers by using social networking websites.

Do not market your online business only on the internet. Hosting a conference with other Internet business owners can be helpful. This adds to a community aspect, and it gets the bloggers more interested in what you are selling and what your brand is all about.

Give evidence to support any claims that you are making about the products you offer on your site. For example, if you?re selling a Spanish course, show a video of yourself speaking Spanish to prove how well it worked for you. This is a good example of why it?s a good idea to only sell products you use yourself.

To help you stay informed on user opinions, it is a good idea to have user polls along your site?s content. This will help you to keep your site full of content that will appeal to users, and make them feel as if they are being included in your business decisions.

TIP! Make sure that your website is both current and intriguing. The site you build is the center of all of the Internet marketing you do.

Be realistic about how special your wares or services really are. An sub-par product will not succeed no matter how much marketing and advertising is behind it. Providing a superior product at a competitive price helps ensure increased sales.

Display a banner with your slogan, mission statement or a catchphrase on your website. This helps to make the web site more professional and communicate your intentions to your visitors. It can be an easy way for them to learn what services you provide.

Reduce the amount of Flash that is used on your site. Even though it looks nice, it does not increase your search engine rankings. Use it sparingly and include keywords and relevant links on the same page.

TIP! Everyone on your mailing list should receive personal correspondence from you. Your visitors and customers are fed up with bulk emails that are impersonal and fake.

For writers, the Internet offers a myriad of ways to publish your work online and for profit. The most important thing here is that you remember to include all the necessary information about your particular site and business. Ask the editors if they would accept some free products or commission on affiliate work if they will put your articles on their site.

Building trust with your clients and keeping that going is one of the most important things that you can do. Be sure to back up all claims with clear facts. Only use statistics and endorsements that you can prove are valid.

Internet promotion allows companies to grow by using unique content. This enables companies to get more bang out of every advertizing buck. The fact that advertisement effectiveness can be easily and accurately measured is a great bonus, as well. You will get the most out of your investments by spending your money on web marketing methods.

TIP! Ensure that your pages are informative and contain the details that your customers are going to need and want. Just providing a one page website that gives your hours and address is not going to attract customers.

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Source: http://www.maynaseric.com/keys-to-successful-website-marketing

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Saturday, December 15, 2012

Dr Oz Green Coffee Bean Diet Miracle? - Rocofit Health & Fitness

Dr Oz?s Green Coffee Bean Diet Miracle? Miracle or another quick fix?

Dr. Oz is a famous doctor in North America, hosting his own show on day time TV.? Dr. Oz does an incredible job of teaching people how to live healthier lives. His ability to teach complex issues with incredible visuals and simplicity is priceless. His teachings are life saving in terms of teaching people about prevention and identifying symptoms of disease.

Unfortunately in my strong opinion Dr. Oz has failed with his endorsement of the Green Coffee Bean diet. He says the diet is completely safe and is a weightloss miracle. What he fails to focus on is the fact that the majority of people today are already suffering from adrenal fatigue from being overstressed, over worked and dependent on caffeinated beverages.? He also fails to point out that too much caffeine can deplete your system from key minerals. Most people in the western world are already nutrient deficient, simply from not having enough time to eat properly, lack of supplementing their diet with essential nutrients, over cooking food, relying on processed foods, the list goes on. Dr Ozs Green Coffee Bean Diet Miracle?http://www.rocofit.com/dr-oz-green-coffee-bean-diet-miracle/

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