Cardiff University?s Centre for Lifelong Learning is the first language provider in Wales to be accredited by the Goethe-Institut to conduct internationally recognised German language examinations.
The Goethe-Institut, with headquarters in Munich, is the cultural institute of the Federal Republic of Germany whose purpose it to promote knowledge of the German language and culture abroad. Their examinations correspond to the levels of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) and are well known throughout the world and accepted as a qualification by employers.
After assessing the Centre and its German language provision, the Goethe-Institut signed a partnership agreement for holding the examinations of the Goethe-Institut at Cardiff University.
Helga Eckart, Senior Lecturer at the Centre said: ?With Germany being a top-employment country for British people it is hoped that many will be encouraged to sit these exams. We are excited that from 2013 onwards we will be an examination centre of the Goethe-Institut and I am thrilled that we are the first and the only institution in Wales to sign such an agreement.?
The range of German language courses that the Centre offers, from beginners to advanced, will provide ample opportunity to practise for these certificates.
Juliana Nau, a German Tutor at the Centre said: ?Taking some of the Goethe-Institut exams will punctuate your progress and attest your level of competence at any given time. The Goethe-Institut exams offer some of the most widely recognized German language qualifications and are offered at six different levels, from basic to near native proficiency.? They are purely skills based rather than predominantly academic.? In other words, spoken communication, listening to news and interviews, reading texts and e-mails feature high on the agenda.? Most of our German classes follow a syllabus that will prepare you for these exams.?
Over the years, strong links with Paris, Madrid and Sienna have been developed for the DELF/DALF qualifications in French, the DELE in Spanish and the CILS in Italian and more recently Public Service Interpreting ? qualifications which many language students have benefitted from. It is hoped that the German examination Centre will be just as successful.
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First accredited German language centre in Wales | Cardiff Centre for Lifelong Learning
First accredited German language centre in Wales | Cardiff Centre for Lifelong Learning
First accredited German language centre in Wales | Cardiff Centre for Lifelong Learning
First accredited German language centre in Wales | Cardiff Centre for Lifelong Learning
Oman first Gulf nation to introduce German as second foreign language in schools
Romney?s baffling claim about Medicare pay cuts for doctors (NPR) ? ?Over the last couple of weeks, Republican Mitt Romney has been making a new claim that doesn?t quite clear the accuracy bar. It has to do with $716 billion in Medicare reductions over 10 years included in the federal health law, the Affordable Care Act. And it?s become a standard part of Romney?s stump speech. Here?s how he put it last week in his big economic speech in Ames, Iowa: ?It matters to the senior who needs to get an appointment with a medical specialist, but is told by one receptionist after another that the doctor isn?t taking any new Medicare patients; because Medicare has been slashed to pay for Obamacare.? ?Not true,? says Harold Pollack, a professor of public health policy at the University of Chicago. ?I?m honestly rather baffled at the arguments that Governor Romney is making.?
A convenient excuse (The Boston Phoenix) ? ?First: We need to see a much greater sense of urgency in the media?s coverage of climate change, including in the Globe?s editorial and opinion pages. This is more than an environmental crisis: it?s an existential threat, and it should be treated like one, without fear of sounding alarmist, rather than covered as just another special interest, something only environmentalists care about. And it should be treated as a central issue in this election, regardless of whether the candidates or the political media are talking about it. Second: Business-as-usual, politics-as-usual, and journalism-as-usual are failing us when it comes to addressing the climate threat. If there?s to be any hope for the kind of bold action we need, a great deal of pressure must be brought from outside the system, in the form of a broad-based grassroots movement, in order to break the stranglehold of the big-money fossil fuel lobby on our politics. And in fact, there is a movement emerging on campuses and in communities across the country ? especially here in New England ? and the Globe should be paying attention to it.?
Related:Bloomberg backs Obama, citing fallout from storm (The New York Times)
At Bellevue, a desperate fight to ensure patient safety (The New York Times) ? ?Some doctors began urging evacuations, and on Tuesday, at least two dozen ambulances lined up around the block to pick up many of the 725 patients housed there. People carried babies down flights of stairs. The National Guard was called in to help. On Thursday afternoon, the last two patients were waiting to be taken out. The evacuation went quickly only because Bellevue had planned for such a possibility before Hurricane Irene hit last year, several doctors said. But the city, which had evacuated two nearby hospitals before that storm, decided not to clear out Bellevue. In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, the consequences of bad calls, bad luck and equipment failures cascaded through the region?s health care system, as sleep-deprived health care workers and patients were confronted by a new kind of disarray.?
Beyond sports (Inside Higher Ed) ? ?Spelman College is doing the exact opposite. The historically black liberal arts women?s college in Atlanta will announce today that it is completely eliminating intercollegiate athletics at the end of this academic year. Granted, Spelman?s presence in the NCAA was minuscule compared to that of many others, and the Division III college with 80 athletes is hardly getting the same attention as the Division I program that fields hundreds (and enjoys lucrative deals from championship appearances and television contracts). So rather than dedicate its resources to programs from which only 4 percent of Spelman?s 2,000 students benefit, President Beverly Daniel Tatum decided to direct that money ? nearly $1 million ? and energy toward a campuswide fitness and wellness initiative that she sees as crucial to her students? health and overall well-being.?
Hi, My name is Debby McCown. I was born and raised in New Mexico and moved to Colorado in 2007. I am from a family of 13 children, so I learned fast how to be creative. I have been married to Patrick for 28 great years. I have 3 beautiful daughters; Ariel, Taylor and Karalee and one wonderful son-in-law, Jared. I?ve had the?opportunity?to be able to be an at-home Mom. I truly love my family.
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At the Speckled Feather, I have wall quilts, pee-pee tee-pees, cozies, little lady lingerie, crochet beaded socks, reusable lunch sacks, wrap n mats, and chef hats with aprons. I?m getting my Christmas crafts together and working on a few other items.
I love trying new things, so if there is anything you need me to try, give me a call. I enjoy the talents that God has giving me and will try to magnify them every way I can.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? Samsung Electronics Co. says it has sold more than 3 million Galaxy Note II smartphones in a little over a month since its launch.
The South Korean firm said Friday sales of the oversize smartphone reached the figure 37 days after its September release.
The Note II is one of the two key mobile devices from Samsung on the high-end smartphone market. It features an oversize screen that measures 5.5 inch diagonally and a digital pen for note-taking.
Research firm IDC estimates Samsung topped the global smartphone market in the July-September third quarter with 56.3 million sales, more than double Apple's 26.9 iPhone sales.
Throughout the New York City area, would-be drivers are finding themselves without gasoline as the city and region struggles to get its infrastructure back online and reconnect with the outside world following the widespread damage caused by Hurricane Sandy. (See more: Gas Prices Continue to Fall in the Aftermath of Sandy)
Ironically, the problem faced by commuters looking to fill up isn?t a shortage of gas itself, but rather a lack of electricity to stations, rendering them unable to pump gas from underground tanks. According to a report issued by AAA, more than 60 percent of stations in New Jersey and more than 70 percent of those in hard-hit Long Island are now closed, forcing those searching for fuel to descend on the few stations still able to deliver their product.
Lack of Electricity
With 13 of the region?s 34 fuel terminals ? the depots that hold fuel in queue for retail stations ? currently offline, city officials are scrambling to restore electricity before the few operating outlets are overwhelmed by demand.
?In order to pump the gas, you need electricity. In order to run the cash register or to run the credit card system from the pump to the credit card company, you need electricity,? said John Hofmeister, founder and chief executive officer of Citizens for Affordable Energy and the former president of Shell Oil. ?So if you don?t have electricity at the depots, which fill the delivery trucks, or if you don?t have electricity at a retail station, then you really can?t sell gasoline to the public.? (See more: Why Sandy?s Impact Will Differ From Katrina)
As people continue to scramble to obtain fuel, particularly for home generators as temperatures drop and electricity remains offline, officials are ordering stations that are online to ration gas appropriately, ensuring that everyone in need has the opportunity to purchase at least a small amount as the wait for restoration of city services continues.
A statement from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg issued this morning indicates that the vast majority of the area?s residents should see power restored by the end of the day tomorrow.
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The environment secretary has urged the public to wash their dogs and boots and even their children after visiting wooded areas, to help stop the spread of a fungus which is killing ash trees.
Owen Paterson spoke after the government's emergency committee Cobra met to discuss the ash dieback menace.
Some 100,000 trees have been destroyed in the UK, where East Anglia has been particularly badly affected.
The infection has killed some 90% of ash trees in Denmark.
Ministers are concerned that the fungus could be present on fallen leaves and could be transferred via leaf mould.
Mr Paterson told the BBC: "Everyone should be responsible and if they do visit a wood just make sure they wash their boots, wash their dog, whatever's been running around the leaves, wash their child, to make sure they don't transfer to the next wood."
About 2,500 10sq km sites across the UK are being surveyed to establish how far the disease has spread, according to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
Amid criticism from Labour, Mr Paterson denied the government had been slow to act when the infection was first discovered.
He said: "This disease was only established here on 7 March. During the summer, trees are not planted so a programme of inspection has gone on during which 100,000 trees have been destroyed.
"But as I have also made clear, this disease as we discovered recently has possibly blown in.
Continue reading the main story
Symptoms of Chalara dieback
Diseased saplings typically display dead tops and side shoots.
Lesions often found at base of dead side shoots.
Lesions on branch or stem can cause wilting of foliage above.
Disease affects mature trees by killing off new growth.
"It's on the basis of that information that we're now working together right across government at the highest level, using expertise in every department, to bear down on the disease," he said.
Ash dieback, also known as Chalara dieback, is caused by the fungus Chalara Fraxinea.
The disease was first discovered in the UK in February in a consignment of trees imported from the Netherlands by a nursery in Buckinghamshire.
The Forestry Commission has said it has since been found at sites across England and Scotland, including Leicester, South Yorkshire, County Durham and in Knockmountain Woods near Glasgow.
The trees at all the locations above had been grown from young ash saplings obtained from nurseries within the past five years.
In October, scientists confirmed a spate of cases in Norfolk and Suffolk in trees not planted recently, which appear to form a wider infection zone.
The BBC's Jeremy Cooke on how to spot an infected ash tree
Mobile app
Shadow environment secretary Mary Creagh has accused the government of "dithering" over the issue and has expressed concerns over cutbacks to the Forestry Commission's budget.
But environment minister David Heath denied there had been any cut back in resources "applied to plant health and tree health in this country".
Visible symptoms of ash dieback include leaf loss and crown dieback in affected trees and it can lead to tree death.
The disease has been listed as a quarantine pathogen under national emergency measures and the Forestry Commission has produced guidance, including help on how people can identify possible signs of infection.
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.
An app, Ashtag, has been launched to try to map the spread of the disease by allowing users to upload pictures and report possible sightings to a team which will pass any information to the Forestry Commission.
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada and the European Union still have plenty of work to do on a proposed free trade treaty that is supposed to be finished by the end of the year, officials from both sides said on Thursday.
Canada, keen to diversify its exports away from the United States, says a deal with the European Union would increase two-way trade by 20 percent. The talks started in 2009.
But several sensitive matters remain to be settled, including access for agricultural goods, opening up procurement markets and the extension of pharmaceutical patents.
"Our negotiators are still in regular touch with the EU negotiators. There are still a lot of discussions that have to take place," Canadian Trade Minister Ed Fast told Reuters by telephone.
"There is a small basket of issues left and as in any negotiations, they are the toughest ones to resolve. I am certainly committed to negotiating around or through those."
EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht this week said he would meet Fast in Brussels on November 20 to work on the most challenging issues. Fast said he had not made travel plans yet.
Maurizio Cellini, head of the economic and trade section at the EU's delegation in Canada, said the two sides were working relentlessly to wrap up their work by the end of 2012.
"Nevertheless, although we have achieved good results, to reach a truly ambitious agreement that reflects our relationship we both need to do more," he said in a speech in Ottawa.
Cellini said the 27-member bloc was particularly keen on opening up Canada's provincial and municipal procurement market, which has some restrictions. Canadian critics worry this could lead to foreign domination of the market.
Asked about these concerns, Fast said opening up the C$2.4 billion ($2.4 billion) EU procurement market should be one of Canada's key interests.
"There are some in Canada that take a very inward-looking approach to Canada's ability to compete. Our government rejects that view -- we believe that Canadians are capable, they are competent," said Fast.
De Gucht told Belgium's online Vieuws news agency this week that he would do his best to get the talks finished by the end of the year. "We should have no illusions, there are still a number of difficult issues to tackle so I am not promising anything," he said.
For Canada, the EU pact would be the biggest since it signed the landmark North American Free Trade Agreement with the United States and Mexico in 1994.
The United States is by far Canada's most important trading partner and takes around 75 percent of all Canadian exports. The EU takes just over 10 percent.
($1=$1 Canadian)
(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Janet Guttsman and Tim Dobbyn)
ScienceDaily (Nov. 2, 2012) ? The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope offers an impressive view of the center of globular cluster NGC 6362. The image of this spherical collection of stars takes a deeper look at the core of the globular cluster, which contains a high concentration of stars with different colors.
Tightly bound by gravity, globular clusters are composed of old stars, which, at around 10 billion years old, are much older than the sun. These clusters are fairly common, with more than 150 currently known in our galaxy, the Milky Way, and more which have been spotted in other galaxies.
Globular clusters are among the oldest structures in the Universe that are accessible to direct observational investigation, making them living fossils from the early years of the cosmos.
Astronomers infer important properties of globular clusters by looking at the light from their constituent stars. For many years, they were regarded as ideal laboratories for testing the standard stellar evolution theory. Among other things, this theory suggests that most of the stars within a globular cluster should be of a similar age.
Recently, however, high precision measurements performed in numerous globular clusters, primarily with the Hubble Space Telescope, have led some to question this widely accepted theory. In particular, certain stars appear younger and bluer than their companions, and they have been dubbed blue stragglers. NGC 6362 contains many of these stars.
Since they are usually found in the core regions of clusters, where the concentration of stars is large, the most likely explanation for this unexpected population of objects seems to be that they could be either the result of stellar collisions or transfer of material between stars in binary systems. This influx of new material would heat up the star and make it appear younger than its neighbors.
NGC 6362 is located about 25 000 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Ara (The Altar). British astronomer James Dunlop first observed this globular cluster on 30 June 1826.
This image was created combining ultraviolet, visual and infrared images taken with the Wide Field Channel of the Advanced Camera for Surveys and the Wide Field Camera 3. An image of NGC 6362 taken by the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope will be published by the European Southern Observatory on Wednesday.
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More than half of America?s small businesses (53 percent) say it is important for new hires to possess a strong proficiency in basic computer skills as it relates to the online safety and security of their business, according to a new survey of 1,015 U.S. SMBs by the National Cyber Security Alliance and Symantec. The survey also shows that 87 percent of small businesses have one or more employees who use the Internet for daily operations. Over half of SMBs surveyed believe a good online safety posture is essential for new hires in the following ways:
Ethical Use of Technology: Three-fifths (59 percent) of SMBs say knowing the proper use of email, social networks and engagement online is essential (38 percent) or important (21 percent) to the safety and security of their business.
Understanding Privacy Protection Measures: Fifty-six percent of SMBs say it is essential (41 percent) or important (15 percent) for new hires to understand protecting the privacy of information.
Internet Security Practices: Fifty-eight percent of SMBs say it is essential (38 percent) or important (20 percent) for new hires to know Internet security practices like password protection measures, identifying safe websites, avoiding phishing and other scams.
Knowing the Importance of Protecting Intellectual Property: Fifty-five percent of SMBs say it is essential (40 percent) or important (15 percent) for new hires to have basic skills and knowledge around how to safeguard intellectual property.
Aside from bringing on new hires who posses basic online safety skills, U.S. small businesses could be operating under the assumption that their existing employees know how to stay safe online. Seventy-percent of SMB owners/operators say they do not provide online safety training for employees.
?Small businesses are expressing a strong need for employees with basic skills and knowledge about how to use technology safely, securely, ethically and productively,? notes Michael Kaiser, executive director of the National Cyber Security Alliance. ?Given the role of small businesses in our economy, it?s so important to integrate cyber security training into all education levels, from K-life. SMBs should also provide ongoing training to employees to be sure skills are reinforced and new skills are developed as the technology changes.?
Small business owners and employees must become educated on cyber security, and at implementing technologies to protect themselves and the information that fuels their businesses. SMBs should ensure that both current employees and new hires thoroughly understand ways to increase online safety and security.
The following simple tips from the National Cyber Security Alliance and Symantec can help aid that process:
Enforce strong password policies: Passwords with eight characters or more and use of a combination of letters, numbers and symbols (e.g., # $ % ! ?) will help protect? data.
Encrypt confidential information: Implement encryption technologies on desktops, laptops and removable media to protect confidential information from unauthorized access, providing strong security for intellectual property, customer and partner data.
Use a reliable security solution: Today?s solutions do more than just prevent viruses and spam; they scan files regularly for unusual changes in file size, programs that match known malware, suspicious e-mail attachments and other warning signs. It?s the most important step to protect information.
Stay up to date: A security solution is only as good as the frequency with which it is updated. New viruses, worms, Trojan horses and other malware are born daily, and variations of them can slip by software that is not current.
Next week, voters in San Francisco, one of the nation's most progressive and environmentally aware cities, will be asked to decide just how green they want to be.
For nearly 80 years, the city has been getting pristine Sierra Nevada water piped from behind a dam it erected in a majestic glacial valley in Yosemite National Park.
The 1913 passage of the Raker Act, which allowed the city to turn Hetch Hetchy Valley into a 300-foot-deep reservoir, was one of the biggest defeats in America's youthful conservation movement. It has remained a wound that never completely healed, periodically prompting calls to demolish O'Shaughnessy Dam and restore a valley that John Muir called "one of nature's rarest and most precious mountain temples."
A measure on San Francisco's November ballot asks voters if the city should develop an $8-million blueprint to drain the valley and devise ways to make up for the resulting loss of hydropower and water storage. If city voters say yes, they would decide in 2016 whether to actually carry out the plan and empty Hetch Hetchy Reservoir.
Proponents have an uphill battle. Virtually the entire San Francisco political and business establishment is adamantly against the proposal. Former Mayor Dianne Feinstein, California's senior U.S. senator, says tearing down O'Shaughnessy "makes no sense." Mayor Edwin Lee has called the idea "stupid" and "insane." The Board of Supervisors opposes it and the Bay Area Council, the region's leading business group, is heading the campaign to defeat the proposal.
"It's the height of folly," said Jim Wunderman, the Bay Area Council's president. "Some things are better off put aside and this is one of those things."
San Francisco prides itself on its environmental record. It was the first city in the nation to ban plastic grocery bags and boasts that it diverts a greater portion of waste from landfills than any other city in North America. It has hybrid taxicabs and is expanding its network of public charging stations for electric vehicles.
That its water source clashes with that green image has not been lost on those who would like to see Hetch Hetchy's glories resurrected from a watery tomb.
"Here is this city by the bay that seems to give thought to every cause imaginable except where their water comes from ? much less that it's part of killing a valley in one of the world's great national parks," said David Mihalic, who was Yosemite's superintendent from 1999 to 2003 and is retired from the National Park Service.
Bounded by sheer granite walls and streaked with cascading waterfalls, Hetch Hetchy has often been compared to its famous sibling to the south, Yosemite Valley. San Francisco's desire to dam the upper Tuolumne River and flood the winding, seven-mile length of Hetch Hetchy ignited a national fight a century ago that played out in newspaper editorials across the country and ultimately in the halls of Congress.
Muir and conservationists bitterly fought the dam, equating the flooding of Hetch Hetchy with using a cathedral for a water tank. Proponents argued that the valley was little visited and that San Francisco ? then the state's premier city ? couldn't get sufficient supplies elsewhere. What's more, they insisted, a big lake would be prettier.
With a dam, the valley "will be as accessible as it ever was, and far more attractive, for in one place a beautiful lake will be substituted for an arid plain," declared The Los Angeles Times, which that same year celebrated the arrival of Owens Valley water in L.A.
O'Shaughnessy Dam was finished in 1923 but the network of pipes and tunnels that transported supplies 160 miles from Hetch Hetchy down the slopes of the Sierra Nevada, across the Central Valley and the coastal range didn't make its first deliveries to San Francisco until 1934.
The mountain water is so clean that to this day, the city is one of the few urban areas in the country that doesn't have to filter its water supply. The conveyance system is fed by gravity, generating clean hydropower that runs San Francisco's cable cars, lights municipal buildings and city streets.
San Francisco uses about one-third of the Hetch Hetchy water and sells the rest wholesale to Bay Area communities, including Palo Alto, Mountain View and Stanford University. Altogether, the Hetch Hetchy system supplies about 2.6 million people.
"What is it about this that needs to be fixed?" Wunderman asked. "These are not things we want to give up ? to make this very narrow group of environmental interests happy."
A 2006 state report estimated that it would cost $3 billion to $10 billion to remove the dam, restore the valley and modify the water system to replace lost storage and hydropower. The authors said more study was needed, but outlined various options for changing the system and concluded there were "no fatal flaws in the restoration concept."
Proponents say much of the restoration money would probably come from state and federal coffers. But San Francisco officials say draining Hetch Hetchy would increase local utility costs in a number of ways, driving up water rates. Replacement power for the lost hydroelectric generation would be expensive; water supplies would be less reliable and filtration would be required because water would no longer be diverted directly from Hetch Hetchy into the conveyance system.
Restore Hetch Hetchy, the group that is promoting the ballot measure, says the state cost estimates are inflated. It also argues that San Francisco owns and operates seven other reservoirs in the system that could be managed to make up for much of the lost storage space.
"We're not saying there's zero impact of what we're looking at and zero makeup required," said Spreck Rosekrans, the organization's policy director, who co-authored a 2004 restoration study when he was working for the Environmental Defense Fund. "But it's just so much less than people seem to think."
By adjusting operations of some its other reservoirs, Rosekrans says, in most years San Francisco would lose no more than 5% of its water delivery capability. In dry years, it would lose a fifth. The city could make that up by stepping up the use of local supplies such as groundwater and recycled water, the restore group says. The city currently doesn't use any recycled supplies, although it plans to do so.
"San Francisco is stuck in 1913," said Mike Marshall, the group's executive director, who illustrates his points with a photo of a city truck cleaning streets with a spray of Hetch Hetchy water. "In order to do this, you need to build up your local water resources in a meaningful way."
Draining Hetch Hetchy would also cost the city hydropower, which is not only cheap, but free of carbon emissions. The city Public Utilities Commission says without the reservoir, hydropower production would drop about 40%. The Environmental Defense Fund report concluded that by modifying facilities, no more than 20% of average annual generation would be lost.
Restoration is being painted in a radical light, Rosekrans said. "But what it's really about is are we willing to make some changes in the system to restore one of America's flagship national parks. And that's the debate we're trying to have here."
WASHINGTON (AP) ? It's finally time to reclaim that hour of sleep you lost last spring.
Most of the country will turn back the clocks this weekend for the annual shift back to standard time.
The majority of folks will do the switch before hitting the sack Saturday night, even though the change doesn't become official until 2 a.m. Sunday local time.
Residents of Hawaii, most of Arizona and some U.S. territories don't have to change since they do not observe daylight-saving time.
Public safety officials say this is also a good time to put a new battery in the smoke alarm, no matter where you live.
Daylight-saving time returns the second Sunday in March.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Frustration grew for superstorm Sandy's victims in the U.S. Northeast on Friday, many of whom were left with no power, no gasoline and little information about when their shattered lives might return to normal.
While Manhattan prepared to host the annual New York City Marathon on Sunday, acute gasoline shortages in the city's storm-battered outer boroughs and New Jersey led to long lines and short tempers.
Tankers finally began entering New York Harbor on Thursday, and a tanker carrying 2 million barrels of gasoline arrived at 2 a.m. on Friday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said.
Sandy, which brought a record storm surge to coastal areas, killed at least 102 people after slamming into the U.S. Northeast on Monday. Forty-one died in New York City, about half of them in Staten Island, which was overrun by a wall of water.
Starting before dawn on Friday, long lines of cars snaked around gasoline stations around the area in scenes reminiscent of the energy shortage of the 1970s.
"The police are stopping people who are trying to cut in the line," said Steven Golub, 53, an attorney who waited in line for hours at a Manhattan gas station. "There's no gas anywhere else. There was a guy with diplomatic plates who tried to cut in the line and one of the cab drivers complained so the police actually stopped him."
Police were in place at many spots to keep the peace between furious, frustrated drivers. In one instance, a man who attempted to cut in line was charged with threatening another driver with a gun on Thursday in the borough of Queens.
"When people cut the line, people are about to stone them," said Chris Allegretta, who had stood in line for 90 minutes with a gas can at a filling station in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey.
Less than 40 percent of all gas stations in New York City, Long Island and New Jersey operated on Thursday because of a combination of power outages and constricted supplies after the storm devastated the energy industry's ability to move fuel into and around the New York City region.
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and Federal Emergency Management Agency Deputy Administrator Richard Serino planned to visit Staten Island on Friday amid angry claims by some survivors that the borough had been ignored.
'THEY FORGOT ABOUT US'
President Barack Obama, locked in a tight race with Republican challenger Mitt Romney, has so far received praise for his handling of storm relief. But scenes of angry storm victims could affect the U.S. political campaign with Election Day four days away.
"They forgot about us," said Theresa Connor, 42, describing her Staten Island neighborhood as having been "annihilated." "And Bloomberg said New York is fine. The marathon is on," she said, referring to Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Rising seawater flooded lower Manhattan, much of which still lacked power and subway service on Friday, while midtown and uptown Manhattan were close to normal.
Fury has been escalating throughout New York at Bloomberg's decision to proceed with the marathon on Sunday, vowing the event - which attracts more than 40,000 runners - would not divert any resources storm victims.
"I just walked past four huge generators. Those could be put to use for people who need them," said Marjorie Dial, a tourist from Oregon who was shocked to see the generators in Central Park, where the marathon finishes. "What they've discovered on Staten Island should have been the tipping point - the bodies."
New York City Councilman James Oddo said on his Twitter account: "If they take one first responder from Staten Island to cover this marathon, I will scream."
More than 3.7 million homes and businesses along the U.S. East Coast remained without power on Friday.
While power was expected to be returned throughout Manhattan by Saturday, it could be another week or more in suburbs and more distant towns along the coast.
Cuomo directed the New York National Guard to deploy an additional 600 troops to help restore the grid in Westchester and Rockland counties, suburbs north of New York City.
Forecasts for colder temperatures only added to the tension, since many in New Jersey and elsewhere have been using fuel-powered generators to run lights and heaters while waiting for utilities to repair downed power lines.
Disaster modeling company Eqecat estimated Sandy caused up to $20 billion in insured losses and $50 billion in economic losses, double its previous forecast. New York Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli estimated economic losses of $15 billion to $18 billion in New York state alone.
At the high end of the range, Sandy would rank as the fourth costliest U.S. catastrophe, according to the Insurance Information Institute, behind Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the September 11, 2001, attacks and Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
Sandy started as a late-season hurricane in the Caribbean, where it killed 69 people, before smashing ashore in the United States with 80-mile-per-hour (130-kph) winds. It stretched from the Carolinas to Connecticut and was the largest storm by area to hit the United States in decades.
(Reporting by Reuters bureaus throughout the U.S. Northeast; Writing by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)
On Thursday?s Fox & Friends, guest John Stossel and interim host Peter Johnson, Jr. found themselves arguing over a government program subsidizing flood insurance, which the show?s chyron described as ?welfare for repairs.?
Everyone else on the curvy couch, Stossel explained, basically paid for the new basement on his beachfront property. ?You paid for a new basement there, thank you,? he said. ?I never invited you there. But you paid for it anyway. It went out again; you paid again. The whole house went; you covered the house. This is a program that encourages relatively affluent people to build in danger.?
?Well, what?s the evidence on that, John?? asked Johnson. ?You love dumping on this program. There?s a lot of people helped by this program.?
?No, wait a second,? he continued, as Stossel attempted to speak over him. ??That are not on the beach, that are not on river fronts, that are blocks in, that never anticipated that the ocean would come, that the bay would come. They paid their premiums. They?re not rich people like you were. if you?re so rich, why don?t you give the money back??
?Well, I probably should and I won?t rip you off again,? Stossel responded. ?I also take Medicare and I probably shouldn?t take that either.?
?Ok, so you take Medicare, tight?? asked Johnson. ?You take deductions on your taxes. [...] The point is, you?re condemning people that are taking this that have paid their premiums that are not rich folks!?
?Why was the federal government selling it?? Stossel asked. ?I blame the politicians. We don?t have special car insurance for Lindsay Lohan. The people four blocks in don?t get??
?So the people who paid the premium, should they not take the money?? asked Johnson.
?I paid the premium, I?m going to take the money. Of course you?re going to take the money,? Stossel answered.
?The problem is,? said Steve Doocy, ?and Peter was talking about this earlier ? we?re talking about the FEMA program that insures people in areas that would get flooded out ? if there wasn?t that kind of insurance??
??There would be private insurance,? Stossel said.
?You think government doesn?t have a role in anything, right?? Johnson asked him.
?No,? said Stossel. ?They have a role in keeping us safe.?
Contact: Jens Stougaard stougaard@mb.au.dk 45-60-20-26-49 Aarhus University
Plant roots are surrounded by thousands of bacteria and fungi living in the soil and on the root surface. To survive in this diverse environment, plants employ sophisticated detection systems to distinguish pathogenic microorganisms from beneficial microorganisms.
Here the so-called chitin molecules from microorganisms, along with modified versions, play an important role as they are detected by the plant surveillance system. Legumes, for example, build a defence against pathogenic microorganisms in response to simple chitin molecules.
However, when the plant detects a specific modified chitin molecule (called a Nod factor) that is secreted from the rhizobium soil bacteria, formation of new organs in the form of "root nodules" occurs. Rhizobium bacteria are allowed to enter and colonise in these symbiotic organs, and they ultimately produce nitrogen for the plant.
The plants' detection of ligands such as chitin and modified Nod factors takes place through protein receptors that are localised on the surface of cells. Research at the Centre for Carbohydrate Recognition and Signalling (CARB) has now shown that ligand recognition through direct Nod factor binding is a key step in the receptor-mediated signal transduction that leads to root nodule development in legumes.
High-affinity binding was observed in the nano-molar range, comparable to the biologically relevant concentrations where Nod factor has in vivo activity. In contrast to this, simple chitin molecules bind to the receptors with low affinity. Structure-dependent ligand specificity and ligands binding affinities at different receptors may therefore determine which response mechanism is activated in plants exposed to different microbes or microbial communities in the environment.
Interdisciplinary approaches combining advanced biochemistry, chemoselective chemistry and microbial genetics made it possible to investigate the molecular mechanisms involved in distinguishing between Nod factor molecules secreted from rhizobia and chitin secreted by pathogenic microorganisms.
The challenging task of purifying plant receptor proteins, which are present in very low amounts in roots of the model legume Lotus japonicus, was successfully accomplished by expressing the receptors in heterologeous plant-based systems and purifying them from membrane fractions.
Another challenge was the establishment of binding assays with the carbohydrate ligands. Nod factor labelling and Nod factor immobilisation facilitated this, following application of chemoselective chemistry.
The researchers behind the results that have just been published in the international journal PNAS are affiliated with the Danish National Research Foundation's Centre for Carbohydrate Recognition and Signalling at the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University (Denmark), Department of Chemistry, University of Copenhagen (Denmark) and Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Otago (New Zealand).
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Legend to the photo:
The international research team behind the results revealing new fundamental features of biomolecular interactions that enable plants to identify and respond appropriately to microorganisms. Back row, left: Mikkel B. Thygesen (University of Copenhagen, Denmark), Sren S. Thirup (Aarhus University, Denmark)), middle row: Jens Stougaard (Aarhus University, Denmark), Knud J. Jensen (University of Copenhagen, Denmark), Clive W. Ronson (University of Otago, New Zealand) and front row: Mickal Blaise (Aarhus University, Denmark), Nicolai Maolanon (University of Copenhagen, Denmark) and Maria Vinther (Aarhus University, Denmark)
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Contact: Jens Stougaard stougaard@mb.au.dk 45-60-20-26-49 Aarhus University
Plant roots are surrounded by thousands of bacteria and fungi living in the soil and on the root surface. To survive in this diverse environment, plants employ sophisticated detection systems to distinguish pathogenic microorganisms from beneficial microorganisms.
Here the so-called chitin molecules from microorganisms, along with modified versions, play an important role as they are detected by the plant surveillance system. Legumes, for example, build a defence against pathogenic microorganisms in response to simple chitin molecules.
However, when the plant detects a specific modified chitin molecule (called a Nod factor) that is secreted from the rhizobium soil bacteria, formation of new organs in the form of "root nodules" occurs. Rhizobium bacteria are allowed to enter and colonise in these symbiotic organs, and they ultimately produce nitrogen for the plant.
The plants' detection of ligands such as chitin and modified Nod factors takes place through protein receptors that are localised on the surface of cells. Research at the Centre for Carbohydrate Recognition and Signalling (CARB) has now shown that ligand recognition through direct Nod factor binding is a key step in the receptor-mediated signal transduction that leads to root nodule development in legumes.
High-affinity binding was observed in the nano-molar range, comparable to the biologically relevant concentrations where Nod factor has in vivo activity. In contrast to this, simple chitin molecules bind to the receptors with low affinity. Structure-dependent ligand specificity and ligands binding affinities at different receptors may therefore determine which response mechanism is activated in plants exposed to different microbes or microbial communities in the environment.
Interdisciplinary approaches combining advanced biochemistry, chemoselective chemistry and microbial genetics made it possible to investigate the molecular mechanisms involved in distinguishing between Nod factor molecules secreted from rhizobia and chitin secreted by pathogenic microorganisms.
The challenging task of purifying plant receptor proteins, which are present in very low amounts in roots of the model legume Lotus japonicus, was successfully accomplished by expressing the receptors in heterologeous plant-based systems and purifying them from membrane fractions.
Another challenge was the establishment of binding assays with the carbohydrate ligands. Nod factor labelling and Nod factor immobilisation facilitated this, following application of chemoselective chemistry.
The researchers behind the results that have just been published in the international journal PNAS are affiliated with the Danish National Research Foundation's Centre for Carbohydrate Recognition and Signalling at the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University (Denmark), Department of Chemistry, University of Copenhagen (Denmark) and Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Otago (New Zealand).
###
Legend to the photo:
The international research team behind the results revealing new fundamental features of biomolecular interactions that enable plants to identify and respond appropriately to microorganisms. Back row, left: Mikkel B. Thygesen (University of Copenhagen, Denmark), Sren S. Thirup (Aarhus University, Denmark)), middle row: Jens Stougaard (Aarhus University, Denmark), Knud J. Jensen (University of Copenhagen, Denmark), Clive W. Ronson (University of Otago, New Zealand) and front row: Mickal Blaise (Aarhus University, Denmark), Nicolai Maolanon (University of Copenhagen, Denmark) and Maria Vinther (Aarhus University, Denmark)
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
The three keys to living without limits have always been the same. They are clarity, competence, and concentration. Goal setting will help you live without limits. Learning how to set goals is an art. Learn why setting goals is a necessity. Here are 7 Must-have conditions to set goals.
1. State your goal in positive terms.
People often set a goal in terms of what they don?t want! ?I don?t want to smoke, to be angry?? It?s ?what I want to do or want to be? See the difference? Hear the nuance? Are you ready to state positively every goal you want to achieve?
2. Make sure the goal can be self-initiated and maintained The goal doesn?t depend on the attitude of your neighbor, on the behavior of your wife or family. The success of your goal must depend on you, and you alone.
3. Your goal must be sensory specific
Here comes the importance of clarity. The clearer the picture, the more compelling and the more attractive it is, the greater the drive to reach your final destination. Act as if the goal is already achieved. Make a very clear image, in rich details, and you will be so enthusiastic that you will automatically attract the solution.
4. State the context of the goal.
?Where and when will my goal be achieved?? The answer can be obvious for some goals but not at all for others. Try to be as specific as possible.
5. Run a Quality Control check on the goal to ensure balance in all areas of your home/work life.
Above all, you don?t want to lose your balance. When you run this ?Quality Control Check?, you play a win-win strategy. Everything is one system and the whole system must win. You will find peace of mind in knowing that you are in harmony with the system. Step back and look at all areas of your life. Is your goal worth it?
6. State the resources needed to achieve the goal: what is the price to pay?
There is always a price to pay, for everything. There is always some kind of sacrifice to make when you set a worthy goal. In this step, you will define all that you will need, in terms of time, money and energy.
7. State the value and the consistency of the goal.
Why do I want to reach this goal? Why is it important to me? Is this goal in harmony with my vision, beliefs and values? Answer these questions. If you don?t seem to be satisfied with the answers, maybe you should change your goal. Set a new goal until you feel it is in harmony with your passion, vision or mission.
When you properly set a goal with this model, two important things occur. First, you are in total harmony with your vision, belief and value systems because your entire ?You? agrees and offers no resistance. Second, you are programmed to succeed. Indeed, your very (whole) neurology and physiology are both instructed to drive you towards obtaining your desired goal. You?re totally focused.
Again, The three keys to living without limits have always been the same. They are clarity, competence, and concentration. When you set crystal clear goals, and you respect the 7 must-have conditions, you can literally live without limits, can?t you?
Online marketing certainly helps you in promoting your online business to a great extent, so why not consider it.
Ins and Outs of Online Ads
Online Ads has now become a must for a successful Internet based or home based business. Online advertising is essential to promote your business concern, products and services mainly for three reasons such as to bring massive web site traffic, to have a list of prospective customers and to generate direct sales. Indeed, online advertising is a big and rising market with loads of opportunities for targeted marketing being the chief area of growth and development.
Online advertising is a different form of advertising, since here you may target you audience through web site placement or search engine. Web site placement engrosses choosing the most beneficial web sites to place ads, banners, texts and other modes of marketing. You can make use of Google AdWords or Alexa in this regard to you?re your products and services. Search engine optimization or marketing involves improving your site, so that it looks attractive and become pertinent to major search engines. To maximize your profit, you can also hire a professional.
By employing both these methods, you can able to optimize your online advertising. In fact, search engine marketing is thought to climb up to $6.5 billions in 2008 and will more likely to reach $10 billion by next year. While the television took 10 years to reach 100 million audiences, the Internet took only five years to attract the same audiences towards it. In addition, online marketers and businessmen have understood the golden opportunities that Internet marketing has lot to offer them. In fact, online marketing has now become one of the commonly employed media for advertising. Powerful as well as Instant, the Internet is truly an important part of an ad campaign.
What are the Benefits of Online Advertising?
Below listed are some of the several benefits of online advertising:
It is more inexpensive than the real world marketing
Here, the proceedings are often more than the conventional advertising
With online advertising, you can easily reach your target audience
You can also quickly and at the same easily change your online marketing approaches
Different kinds of online marketing such as PPC (pay-per-click), banner ads and e-mail advertising are available for you to market your products and services.
You have many advertising choices to suit your budgets
You can interact with your prospective consumers and users instantly and directly through online advertising.
Another effective method used by most successful online marketer is writing quality and informative articles. You can write articles in any of your desired topic, but it should be informative and educate the reader. As you write informative articles reliable with the subject matters that your prospective customers read, you may easily target the folks you want to contact with your marketing.
Be sure to select those topics where you are good at. In addition, the resource box gives an opportunity to build links for your web site. By updating constantly and writing informative articles having logical keywords, you can easily attract many online users towards your web site. Understand people log on to Internet not only for knowing what is happening around them, but also to work and engage with Content.
Irrespective of your product, service and opportunity, by reaping the benefits of Internet marketing, you can increase your profits and business largely. More significantly, you can apply those learnt skills in any other business activities that you involve with.
What are the ways to do Online Advertising?
There are loads of ways to make money online with advertising online. You can choose the most beneficial among these for your Internet marketing.
Banner Ads: Marketing online certainly brings you more amount of money, since many online visitors will see your ad, thereby visit your web site. For this, you may need to make your ad very interesting, so that it appeals to prospective audiences. For instance, you can use graphics, images and write informative content to grasp the attention of the Internet users. Use targeted keywords in your ad to make it as easily searchable one.
Email: You can use this for sending ads to the listed users of Internet. Advertising online via emails is also considered as an effective way for successful online marketing.
Ezine: This helps you bring more and more amount of dollars in the form of buyers and visitors. Your articles will bring you prospective buyers for your informative articles. You can make use of ads in the Ezine and also in the articles which you submit.
Newsletter: You can make newsletters to get greater exposure among mass audiences and visitors for your web site. You can also send ads of your goods and services.
Effective Tips for Internet Advertising:
With the advent and popularity of Internet, now many people advertise their goods and service online. If truth be told, it has almost become essential for online marketers to advertise online to become successful online marketers on the competitive Internet world. Below discussed are some effective tips that you can consider while advertising online:
Use Simple and Lucid Language: Even though you wish to show your audiences that you are quite conversant, you should not turn off them by providing them lots of jargon and terms which they do not understand. Just think about web sites which you have recently seen and what all things you like and dislike about them. Use this knowledge in your own online advertising campaign.
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions): If you build a site with new product, then it is a wise idea to offer your viewers with a FAQ page, as this clears all doubts and queries they had in their minds. In addition, some people feel embarrassed to ask questions, so this strategy will work in favour of you.
Be Cordial: Another effective tip to remember while advertising online is to be cordial. You should ensure your viewers that you are friendly and approachable, so that they feel free to contact you. Hence, be friendly always and treat your customers as friends and indeed this will help you increase your profits.
For more such accurate facts and information, you can visit TrafficSoar.com
My home energy bills keep going up ? and I don't imagine I'm alone. But in addition to the usual solutions like "turn down your thermostat" and "switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs ? or better yet, LEDs", I've discovered some high-tech tools that help save energy ? and money.
The Department of Energy estimates that a home energy audit can cut your bills by as much as 30%. But a professional audit can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars. So what can you do on your own?
First, do a visual inspection of your crawl spaces. When I had a professional energy auditor come to my house, the biggest efficiency loss they found was from heating ducts that had separated. In many homes, they find areas in the attic or under the floor that aren't insulated at all. Nothing that you can't discover and fix for yourself.
But I promised high tech tips. So here you go:
Infrared Thermal Leak Detector An infrared thermal leak detector costs $40 and will find leaky, drafty areas that could use some new caulk or weather stripping, or even identify hidden "soft spots" in your insulation ? places where insulation is missing or has settled in your walls or in other hard-to-see areas. Sure, you could walk around and feel for cool spots with you hand, but a good gadget is way more fun ? and more accurate. This tool also works for hot spots in the summer; places where a lack of insulation allows air-conditioned cool air to leak out.
The "Kill-A-Watt" Your electric bill can tell you that your costs are going up, but it can't tell you which appliances are really to blame. Plug the "Kill-A-Watt" in between your appliances and the wall to find out how much each of your devices is really costing you. Then you can compare that number to published numbers for new appliances, to figure out how much you could save by upgrading to a more energy-efficient model.
Using the Kill-A-Watt, I found that my 15 year-old fridge uses about two kWh per day.? A new one would use about half that. If I replaced my fridge today, I could save about 40 bucks a year. For me, that's too long a payback period, but you could easily discover that you'd save 100 bucks a year ? then it starts making sense.
Programmable Thermostats Even more than your refrigerator, heating and cooling probably take the biggest chunk out of your home energy dollar. While better insulation is almost always worth the money, here's a much cheaper idea: With a programmable thermostat, you can set your heater or air conditioner to take a break when you're asleep or out of the house, and turn back on just before you get home. A bare-bones model costs about $25; you can install it yourself; and it could pay for itself in a single month. The new NEST programmable thermostat, designed by the original designer of the iPod, is a bit pricier. But you can control it from a smart phone, and it even programs itself.
Smart Power Strips Leaving your home entertainment system devices on all the time can add up to $67 a year of wasted energy. The energy-saving Smart Strip senses when you turn off your TV, and will simultaneously shut off your peripherals. And I know I should turn off the power strip under the desk to thwart the vampire energy suckers, or at Christmas I know I should go out and turn off the lights, but I often don't. Enter the remote control power strip. Click, and it cuts the juice.
[Related: Where to Get The Most Money for Your Used Gadgets]
Special thanks to Filmsight Productions for additional footage.
At the Speckled Feather, I have wall quilts, pee-pee tee-pees, cozies, little lady lingerie, crochet beaded socks, reusable lunch sacks, wrap n mats, and chef hats with aprons. I?m getting my Christmas crafts together and working on a few other items.
Gas Lines
More than half of America?s small businesses (53 percent) say it is important for new hires to possess a strong proficiency in basic computer skills as it relates to the online safety and security of their business, according to a new survey of 1,015 U.S. SMBs by the National Cyber Security Alliance and Symantec. The survey also shows that 87 percent of small businesses have one or more employees who use the Internet for daily operations. Over half of SMBs surveyed believe a good online safety posture is essential for new hires in the following ways:
On Thursday?s Fox & Friends, guest John Stossel and interim host Peter Johnson, Jr. found themselves arguing over a government program subsidizing flood insurance, which the show?s chyron described as ?welfare for repairs.?![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 1-Nov-2012
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