AMMAN, Jordan (AP) ? Jordan says it is prepared to deal with any potential chemical weapon threat posed by the ongoing violence in neighboring Syria, but adds it will not enter "any alliance" to protect itself.
Jordan, the U.S. and others have expressed concern that Syrian President Bashar Assad could use chemical weapons in a last-ditch effort to save his regime.
Information Minister Sameeh Maaytah did not provide details on Jordan's capabilities to thwart a chemical attack in remarks carried by the official Petra news agency Sunday.
But other Jordanian officials have said U.S. and British military experts have provided training in protecting civilians in case of a chemical attack on Jordanian territory.
Maaytah also said the 21-month Syrian crisis has put enormous pressure on Jordan's infrastructure as it now hosts 275,000 refugees.
The Alamo Bowl featured two different hues of orange as the Texas Longhorns and Oregon State Beavers faced off in San Antonio. Check out these photos of fans, bands, cheerleaders and more!
Lawyers with regulatory and Dodd-Frank Act expertise are being wooed by private equity firms and hedge funds in need of in-house compliance teams. The demand, which recruiters expect to persist for at least another year, is due to the increase in regulations and a culture shift in how, and when, to undertake compliance measures, says one CCO.Visit lawjobs.com News & Views
December 29th, 2012 | CA, golf courses, Walnut Creek?
Boundary Oak Golf Course is located in: Walnut Creek, CA
Phone: 925.934.4775
Website: http://www.boundaryoak.com
Course History:
This course has hosted more than 10,000 rounds of tournament play and is leased by a PGA professional. It features a club house, practice facility and tons of parking. With more than 7,000 yards, this course has been listed among Golf Digest's Favorites.
What You Need to Know:
All tee times must be registered by calling the number above.?
Hints for Playing This Course:
Most of the fairways are pretty straight and are wide enough to make it easy to play. There have been some complaints about debris and plants growing in the fairways that make it difficult to complete certain shots, but these complaints are not widespread.
The most difficult hole is #11 with a dog leg to the right. You'll need to keep your wits about you on this hole, particularly with the water hazard. Your best bet is to line up your shot with the edge of the lake and use your irons from this point on.
The first tee is also a bit of challenge, since you'll be teeing off over the lake. Remember, water always affects the ball's direction, so make sure to correct your shot beforehand. The sixth tee is probably the easiest hole on the course and should be easily completed in three shots. Most professionals should even be able to birdie this hole if their approach is right.
Watch out for the water hazards on the 8th and 15th tees as they run alongside the fairway and make it difficult to line up your shot to the green. Once again, it's best to play it safe and use your irons instead of relying on early distance from your woods.
The 18th tee is a killer, but at least you'll end up at the clubhouse door and can relax your round away.
View Larger Map
Green Fees:
?
Weekday 18-holes
Weekday 9-holes
Weekend 18-holes
Weekend 9-holes
Resident
$23
$18
$31
$20
Senior Resident
$18
$18
$31
N/A
Non-Resident*
$29
$22
$37
$25
Senior Non-Resident*
$23
$23
$37
N/A
Weekday - Mon-Thurs?? Weekend?- Fri-Sun? As of January 1st,?2008 the senior qualifying age is?59?
* To obtain a Resident or Non-Resident Senior discount, you must present your course-issued, picture I.D. at time of payment.
?
Twilight
Student1 9-holes/18-holes
Early Bird2
Late Bird3
Weekday
$19
$10/$14
$13
$13
Weekend
$21
N/A
Twilight rate time changes depending on the season- 1?Students 18 years of age or under. 2?Early Birds are those?who tee-off?on the opposite nine from regular play.? They must tee-off before the first group of regular play makes the turn, generally 1 hour after first light. 3?Late Birds are those who play after 6pm during Daylight Saving?Time and?4:30 pm during Standard Time.
Cart Fees -?All Prices Per Person
A/O 2-16-2008?
18-holes?
$15 per person
9-holes
$10 per person?
Twilight / Late?Bird / Early Bird?
$10 per person
Range Ball Fees
Size
Small
Medium
Jumbo
Price
$4
$6
$8
# of balls
35?
70
105
Originally posted 2008-12-06 12:31:48. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
If you liked this article, vote for it on del.icio.us and stumbleupon. Categories:
We had a surprise "speed" baby shower at our Realtec Downtown Christmas party at Patty and Wayne's house.? It was so much fun... we started the night with great food, fun drinks (mine was a special virgin mama drink-so yummy), laughs and?these fun pictures.
Mustache City!
?
Baby P was mustache mobbed! (Week 36.5)
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Then Patty and Stephanie grabbed me by the arms and marched me into the living room for my speed shower.? We were once again well loved and blessed!
?
They had this beautiful "baby cake" made for us.? It has diapers, puppets, animals, blankets, etc. Super Cute!!
Organiser of Spanish Halloween party where five died held
Barcelona News.Net - Friday 28th December, 2012
The owner of the company behind a giant Halloween party in Madrid that ended with a human stampede resulting in five deaths has been arrested. Miguel Angel Flores was detained because of the risk ...
Evictions rise in Spain
Barcelona News.Net - Thursday 27th December, 2012
Eviction proceedings in Spanish courts rose to a record 49,702 as of Sep 30, up 15.9 percent from the same period in 2011, authorities said Thursday. Total evictions so far in 2012 have topped the ...
Spain does not need European help for now
Times of India - Friday 28th December, 2012
Mariano Rajoy said on Friday that Spain did not need to tap for now the European Central Bank's bond-buying programme for troubled euro zone governments but did not rule out asking for aid in ...
56 of Female University Students Get Drunk in Record Time Spanish Study Suggests
Science Daily - Friday 28th December, 2012
-; Researchers from the HealthyFit group at the University of Vigo have studied university students' lifestyles; their analysis, which includes alcohol and illegal drug consumption habits, ...
P.M. Rajoy says Spain faces tough year ahead
Denver Post - Friday 28th December, 2012
MADRID-Spain's prime minister says the country's economy faces a tough year ahead as it grapples with recession, a deep financial crisis and 25 percent unemployment. In his end-of-year ...
Spains PM says does not rule out asking for European aid
The West Australian - Friday 28th December, 2012
Reuters ? Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy arrives at parliamentary session for the formal approbation of the budget for 2013 at Parliament in Madrid December 20, 2012. REUTERS/Juan ...
Spain sees very tough economy in 2013
Yahoo!7 News - Friday 28th December, 2012
View Photo Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy attends a parliament session on Spain's 2013 budget in Madrid on December 20, 2012. Rajoy warned Friday of a "very tough" year ...
Shares in Spains Bankia plummet for second day
Tampa Bay Online - Friday 28th December, 2012
MADRID (AP) -- Shares in bailed-out Spanish bank Bankia SA are falling for a second day, dropping more than 30 percent at one point during trading on the IBEX-35 stock ...
Recession batters Spain in final months of 2012
Times of India - Friday 28th December, 2012
unemployment and a banking crisis, Spain remains stuck in recession in the final quarter of 2012, the central bank said Friday. The eurozone's ...
Foreign money returns to Spain for second straight month
The West Australian - Friday 28th December, 2012
By Clare KaneMADRID (Reuters) - Foreign investors put more money into Spain in October than they took out, marking the second month running the country has benefited from an influx of capital.Spain ...
Spain Retail Sales fall by only -7.8 in November
Nasdaq - Friday 28th December, 2012
FXstreet.com (Barcelona) - In Spain, Retail Sales (MoM) in the month of November fell -7.8%, beating consensus expectations of -10.0%, and marking an improvement from -9.7% in the previous ...
Iniesta No end in sight to Barcelona success
soccerway - Friday 28th December, 2012
Andres Iniesta believes Barcelona's current cycle of success can continue for many years to come.The attacking midfielder has been at the heart of a Blaugrana side which has set the standard in ...
The UFC's end-of-the-year cards are usually stacked. Despite injuries, UFC 155 is no different. It features intriguing bouts that will answer some burning questions.
Did a knee injury hold back Cain Velasquez the first time he fought Junior dos Santos? When the two first met up last November, Velasquez reportedly had a badly injured knee. He was knocked out in 64 seconds. This time a (seemingly) healthy Velasquez will get to show if he deserves the heavyweight belt.
Has Chris Leben returned to form, for really real this time? Since Leben was on the original "Ultimate Fighter," he has been a man who wrestled with his demons. Most recently, those demons took the form of a banned pain killer which resulted in a one-year suspension from the UFC. Against Derek Brunson, Leben can show he's again the man who knocked out Wanderlei Silva.
Can Tim Boetsch be the next guy to challenge Anderson Silva? Though his original bout with Chris Weidman was called off because of an injury to Weidman, Boetsch still has another opportunity to show he can beat up opponents. He wants a chance to beat up Silva,* and this bout with Costa Phillippou is an opportunity for Boetsch's fighting to shine.
Or should Alan Belcher be the man to take on Silva? It's been more than three years since Belcher lost a fight. His last four fights have been stoppage wins. An impressive win over Yushin Okami could put him in line to fight for the middleweight belt.*
Is Todd Duffee still the knockout artist who once graced the octagon? Back in 2009, Duffee knocked out Tim Hague in a mere seven seconds. After that, the hype train was running behind him full steam. It was derailed when Mike Russow came back to knock Duffee out in the third round of their bout. Duffee was cut from the UFC, and is getting another shot at the octagon on Saturday. He'll fight Philip De Fries on the Facebook preliminaries, and get a chance to show if he can still knock people out very quickly.
*Assuming the next middleweight belt is based on competitiveness and earning a title shot by fighting, not by calling opponents out. Considering what has happened recently in the UFC welterweight and light heavyweight divisions, there are no guarantees. Related MMA video from Yahoo! Sports
Posted by support | Posted in Life transformation stories | Posted on 28-12-2012-05-2008
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I just talk about the difficulties behind being depressed and being too familiar with being depressed. There is a way to become addicted to the feeling of depression, and it?s as hard to deal with as any street drug.
Read the original: Self-Improvement Chapter 1: The Addiction of Depression
PARIS (Reuters) - Stock index futures pointed to a steady Wall Street open, with S&P 500 futures down 0.11 percent, Dow Jones futures down 0.03 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.05 percent at 4.54 a.m. ET.
European shares were flat to slightly lower in early trade on Friday as investors waited to see if a deal to avoid the U.S. "fiscal cliff" would be reached before further boosting their exposure to equities. <.eu/>
President Barack Obama and lawmakers are launching a last-chance round of budget talks days before a New Year's deadline to reach a deal or watch the economy go off a "fiscal cliff." Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will meet congressional leaders from both parties at the White House on Friday at 3 p.m. EST.
On the macro front, investors awaited pending home sales data for November. Economists in a Reuters survey expect a 1.0 percent rise compared with a 5.2 percent gain in the previous month.
Investors in U.S.-based funds favored stock exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and emerging market equity mutual funds as the year wound down, data from Thomson Reuters' Lipper service showed on Thursday.
Satellite television provider DirecTV Group said its service fees would rise by an average of 4.5 percent in February due to increasing programming costs.
A Chinese court fined Apple 1 million yuan ($160,400) for hosting third-party applications on its App Store that were selling pirated electronic books, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Friday.
U.S. stocks fell for a fourth day on Thursday, but recovered most of their losses after the House of Representatives, in the barest sign of progress, said it would come back to work on avoiding the "fiscal cliff" this weekend.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> slipped 18.28 points, or 0.14 percent, to 13,096.31 at the close. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> declined 1.73 points, or 0.12 percent, to end at 1,418.10. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> dropped 4.25 points, or 0.14 percent, to close at 2,985.91.
(Reporting by Blaise Robinson; Editing by Helen Massy-Beresford)
This December 2012 photo provided by the Alonzo family shows Abby Alonzo, 13, who has been cancer-free for over two years after her treatment at St. Jude's for Hodgkin lymphoma in 2010.
Katie Alonzo ? AP
Young cancer patients who couldn't get a key medicine because of a national drug shortage were more likely to suffer a relapse than others who were able to get the preferred treatment, doctors report. It's the first evidence that a long-standing drug-supply problem probably has affected cancer treatment results in specific patients.
The study involved more than 200 children and young adults with a blood cancer called Hodgkin lymphoma. Like childhood leukemia, it can be cured nearly 80 percent of the time. But a drug shortage that has worsened since 2009 is threatening that success rate, doctors report in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.
Hundreds of drugs, including sedatives, antibiotics, painkillers and cancer treatments, have gone in and out of short supply in recent years. Reasons include manufacturing and contamination problems, plant shutdowns, and fewer makers and lower profits for certain drugs, especially generics infused during surgery or cancer treatment.
Doctors sometimes substitute different drugs for ones in short supply. But proving that the swaps led to poorer results has been tough, especially for cancer patients whose disease and response to treatment vary so much.
"We really couldn't put our finger on, did anybody really suffer?" said Dr. Michael Link, a cancer specialist at Stanford University and past president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
The new study, led by Dr. Monika Metzger of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, gives the best evidence so far that patients are suffering.
It focused on mechlorethamine, or nitrogen mustard, a drug that has been in short supply until last month, when more became available. Doctors compared results among 181 Hodgkin lymphoma patients who received the drug to 40 others who were given a different chemotherapy, cyclophosphamide, when the first choice was unavailable.
Only 75 percent of those given the substitute drug stayed free of cancer for two years versus 88 percent who received the preferred treatment.
"We can think of no credible explanation for this dramatic difference" other than the drug substitution, the authors wrote.
No patients died, but those who relapsed were given more aggressive treatments, including stem-cell transplants that have more side effects and can harm fertility.
One of them was Abby Alonzo, of Port St. Lucie, Fla. She was diagnosed with lymphoma three years ago, when she was 10. After eight weeks of treatment with the preferred drug, "she was doing wonderfully," said her mother, Katie Alonzo.
Then doctors said they were out of it.
"I said, what do you mean, we don't have the medication my child needs?" Katie Alonzo said.
After four weeks on the substitute chemo, Abby's cancer had returned and spread to more places, her mother said. The child received high doses of chemotherapy and radiation and now seems cancer-free, although the treatments damaged her lung capacity, leaving her short of breath.
"When your child has cancer you live day by day," and to find out a life-saving medicine isn't available is "very, very frightening," Katie Alonzo said.
Follow Marilynn Marchione at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP
I asked the question contained in the title of this post in a community I moderate on Google+ (Consultant Exchange- join us if you are a coach or consultant)
Somewhat predictably answers fell into two camps ? those with a book said yes it was very helpful and meaningful to their business. Those without a book said no they didn?t think it was necessary and that a well written blog might be more important.
In my business having a book (and now three) made a significant difference in terms of creating more speaking, branding and consulting opportunities. Now, a key measure in the equation is that these books are well regarded and sold well enough to stand on their own ? but there?s no question my books have led to a bigger brand for Duct Tape Marketing.
I posed the same question to my friend Guy Kawasaki and his take was a little more reserved ? ?Writing a book to open other opportunities is the wrong reason to write a book. You should write a book because you have something to say or are passionate about promoting a cause or idea.?
Kawasaki has written twelve books, including the just released APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur ? How to Publish a Book. Kawasaki wrote the book to reveal everything he?s learned along the way as an author and entrepreneur with the added lessons gained from publishing his last two books without the aid of the traditional publishing machine.
APE is meant to introduce the concept of ?artisinal publishing? as a powerful avenue for anyone wishing to get their message heard in the form of a book much like an artist practicing and promoting their craft might do.
As someone that?s written several books I can tell you that if you have a desire to write a book, but have no desire to publish on your own, the section on writing a book is worth the money. If you do plan to write and publish your own work the guidance on the very specific elements of editing, formatting and submitting digital books is a gold mine.
I do believe that we have come to a point where honing and communicating a specific point of view is an essential practice in the worlds of coaching, consulting and marketing and a book is one format to do so.
More importantly perhaps is that you practice your craft in a way that allows you to gain the experience and insight needed to construct a point of view worth sharing ? do that and you?re on your way to writing that book.
A ward at Camp Funston, Kan. showing the many ill patients who caught the 1918 Spanish influenza
Photograph by an unkown U.S. Army photographer.
Ninety-five years ago in the little town of Brevig Mission, Alaska, a deadly new virus called Spanish influenza struck quickly and brutally. It killed 90 percent of the town?s Inuit population, leaving scores of corpses that few survivors were willing to touch. The Alaskan territorial government hired gold miners from Nome to travel to flu-ravaged towns and bury the dead. The miners arrived in Brevig Mission shortly after the medical calamity, tossed the victims into a pit two meters deep, and covered them with permafrost.
The flu victims remained untouched until 1951, when a team of scientists dug up the bodies, cracked open four cadavers? rib cages, scooped out chunks of their lungs, and studied the tissue in a lab. But they were unable to recover the virus and threw out the specimens. Nearly 50 years later, scientists dug up another victim from the same site, this time a better preserved, mostly frozen, obese woman, and successfully extracted viral RNA. In 2005, a team of scientists finally completed the project, sequencing the full genome of the viral RNA. But they still don?t know exactly why it caused the Spanish flu pandemic. ??
There?s no single reason why the deadliest pandemic in modern history is still mysterious. Scientists have pinpointed the origins of recent influenza outbreaks like swine flu and bird flu with relative ease, arming the international health community with an arsenal of tests and vaccines to fight back. And a flu virus isn?t particularly complex; it?s just a stretch of RNA transmitted between animals, human and nonhuman, that has evolved to mutate quickly enough to outpace any long-term immunity.
But one stretch of RNA can wreak a lot of havoc. Spanish influenza killed about 50 million people (estimates vary), including 675,000 in the United States, and up to 40 percent of the world?s population was stricken with the flu. Unusually for the flu, the pandemic afflicted the young more than the old. Scientists have since established that the disease triggered an overreaction by the immune system, thus turning a young person?s robust immune system against itself. (Bird flu and swine flu were similarly more deadly in young people.) Victims? lungs overflowed with fluid while their skin, deprived of oxygen, became mottled and discolored. Many sufferers came down with severe nosebleeds?some spewed blood out of their nostrils with such force that nurses had to duck to avoid the flow. Those unable to recover eventually drowned in their own bodily fluids.
Horrifying as the flu was, its reign of terror was mercifully brief: By late 1919, the flu had largely disappeared. Although its survivors and their children faced lifelong health problems, those dark years were largely struck from cultural memory. (Downton Abbey did kill off a character with Spanish influenza, primarily as means to wiggle out of a messy love triangle.)
Scientists, however, never forgot the mysterious pandemic, and research into the 1918 flu experienced something of a renaissance in recent years. In addition to the exhumed Inuit, scientists have studied the organs of flu-suffering soldiers, including a long-forgotten piece of lung tissue stored at a military pathology institute in Washington. Just five years ago, British scientists exhumed the body of Sir Mark Sykes, a British diplomat who was buried in a lead coffin after dying of Spanish influenza in 1919. The scientists had hoped Sykes? special casket might have preserved his body, allowing his organs to be studied and more potential flu RNA to be extracted and sequenced. But the coffin had caved in on the diplomat sometime between 1919 and 2008, and his body tissue was decomposed.
Joomla is one of the most popular content management systems these days and its popularity growing because of the low cost of such projects and simplicity that Joomla offering to developers but also to website owners. It is very easy to install and maintain and that is why became the most popular among web developers quickly. Sites developed using joomla can be 50% cheaper than any other and also hosting is low cost because Joomla can be run on Linux servers. Variety of plugin available improves such website's functionality. These are all reasons why Joomla and Joomla developers are in demand these days.
Suhanasoftech is a web development company from India and many years in web development business. We are based in India and now offering services around the globe and in Vancouver too. If your business is based in Vancouver, then we are the best option for your Joomla project. We offer you to hire Joomla developer from our Joomla development Vancouver team made of Joomla experts.
When you hire Joomla developer from our Joomla development Vancouver team you will get expert in Joomla, PHP, E-commerce, Drupal, Magento, WordPress, Ajax, Linux, Apache, javascript, Flash, XML and so much more. Our developers are well known around the globe because of their expertise and experience gained through work on a number of international projects for all kinds of businesses and clients from around the world. Such experience enabled them to meet any challenge and deliver the Joomla project successfully no matter the problems that may come up on their way.
We offer you to hire Joomla developer from our team that will work on your project keeping you informed about progress and work and staying available to you throughout the project. You can talk to your developers directly through messengers or phone which will help you to keep control over your project and their work. They will make sure to understand your business and requirements well and applying latest techniques and technologies in web development to develop a website that will meet all your needs.
Depending on your project size, time frame and budget you can hire one developer or a team, hourly or full time, whatever you find better for your project. That way you will pay them for effective work only and get the project finished faster. After they deliver project developers will offer you maintenance and support.Joomla Development Vancouver, Hire Joomla Developer
Hi, I am Zeba Akhter. I have been working as content writer for last 4 years. Ihave written content on different subjects. And among my lasted articles areregarding this types of subject.
Do you think Affiliate marketing is the greatest thing ever? Do you do your research and continue to market your business? Magazines, books and videos are just a few of the resource materials available to help you learn more about internet promotion. Do you know how to get yourself started? These tips will help guide you to your starting point.
Analyzing your competitors is crucial to effective marketing online. You can increase your profits by offering products and services not currently offered by your competitors. This is essentially your goal when it comes to Internet marketing.
TIP! There are many successful approaches to Internet Marketing, and one such popular avenue is advertising on other websites Google AdSense is one of the best ways to accomplish this. This is a very good way to get a high amount of marketing for a reasonable price and amount of work.
Figuring out your niche for your business is key to market on the Internet. Someone who collects Star Wars action figures isn?t going to be interested in baseball cards. While you might sell a few, the point is, ultimately, that a person seeking baseball cards won?t be spending time in the same area as a person looking for Star Wars toys. So always use your marketing efforts wisely and gear it towards your target audience.
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. Especially when there is a specific product you are trying to highlight and sell.
Using the word ?guarantee? gives an ad an air of quality and reliability. Clients like to know there is no chance to lose money on your product. There are many various guarantees that can be offered. There is a lifetime guarantee or one that lasts 90 days. Choose the type of guarantee depending on the product that you are selling.
TIP! To grab the right domain name, you should be willing to spend some money. You most likely will not get the domain name that matches your company name.
While many people caution against mixing home life with work life, this may be a rare exception. This is because there isn?t pressure, so it is a type of profit based hobby. Involving your spouse can make the hard work more of a team effort.
Read some psychological studies about web pages and marketing on the net. These psychological factors may affect the way someone sees your company, based on the design of your site. Acting on this information can help you maximize your potential profits.
Successful advertising creates an emotional bond between your clientele and your products. Your reader should be prompted to daydream about using your product. You want your customer to feel like they are getting the full benefit of your product, simply by reading your advertisement.
TIP! If you use words that make it seem like your site is easy to use it will drum up traffic. When you advertise your products as easy to use, you will attract more customers to give them a try because many consumers do not like to deal with complicated products.
You should utilize email marketing to grow your business. Send them messages that have quality content, including updates on products and sales you may have. You want your newsletter to appeal to a subscriber by offering reliable and interesting information; it should not have the appearance of spam. Even after your customers leave your website, your newsletters will allow you to maintain contact with them and assure them that you are invested in their continued business.
Press releases are effective Internet marketing tools. A press release is basically a news snippet which briefly describes anything fresh and exciting going on with your business. If it?s well written and informative, it can draw people to your site in droves. This is a simple way for boosting your profile.
Always avoid spamming your customers. It sometimes might seem like the right path to take, but it usually has undesired consequences and will drive traffic away from your website, not to it. If you do not personally connect with your customers, people will not trust you and your online business could fail.
TIP! Use vivid language and images to catch people?s attention. Adjectives are nice, try to use them as much as you can.
Be sure your advertising copy can be backed up with evidence. You can?t expect potential customers to take your word for anything. If your site has testimonial or references, you appear to be more credible and trustworthy. By simply making statements without proof, people may dismiss you and your business.
Knowing what your competition is up to is a necessity if you want to stay ahead of them. Look at websites of other businesses in your chosen field, and see what can be improved. Capitalizing on the weakness of your competition by promoting your own ability compared to the lack of theirs will help distinguish you in the eyes of would be customers.
Try using captions with your images. This text will capture the attention of the search engines. They use algorithms to detect keyword text, so always use captions that reflect the content of your article and images. With captions for every photo on your site, your rank will rise in the search engine results pages.
TIP! Take the time to make a supportive error page. You will need that when your database code stops working.
To improve and strengthen your reputation, you should affiliate with reputable companies and allow them to advertise on your site. Recognizable businesses will boost your image through the loyalty others have for their brand. This will also increase traffic and make it more of a go to site, rather than just another business listing.
Design a game to entice customers to your website. Some users will certainly refer friends to your website as well. This game could be used to advertise products and services subtly. For instance, if you sell products for hair, your game could be about hairstyling and feature the things you sell on your site.
Let your users post reviews. If customers review your niche on your site, this will drum up new sales and also increase your Internet presence with more keywords.
TIP! The Internet is very competitive, and it is important for small sellers to be prepared. To stay ahead of the competition, adjust your prices often and take your competition?s prices into account when you do.
Figure out a way to find a service you can offer to your users for free on your website. People will be attracted by the offer of something free, and if the site piques their interest, they may continue browsing. Free tools such as a calculator to help do tax returns are a good choice for a financial website to offer.
Now that you know where to start with your Affiliate marketing plan, do you want to give it a go? Do you think you can apply these tips to your company? Will you be able to implement these ideas in a practical way? If you can, then go!
Like any good frugal type, I?m plenty conflicted about holiday gift giving on all sorts of levels.
To begin with, I?m Jewish, but as you read this, I?m pulling presents out from under the Christmas tree. (Actually, I?m fine with that part.)
The more I think about the practice of exchanging gifts in modern society, the more it looks like the physical manifestation of a social media stream: highly calculated but usually misguided attempts to demonstrate one?s own cleverness and importance.
Even gifts given in a highly altruistic spirit usually fall short. I?m no exception: I give plenty of dumb gifts.
I?d assumed this was a caveman way of looking at things, but every December, my wife rereads a small book called?Scroogenomics: Why You Shouldn?t Buy Presents for the Holidays.
The book, by an economics professor named Joel Waldfogel, makes a simple argument:
1. Most gifts are (at best) not quite what the recipient wanted.
2. In other words, the recipient would be happier to have the cash value of the gift rather than the gift itself.
3. On average, therefore, giving gifts is a waste of time and money compared to just giving cash or charitable donations. Gift-giving actually destroys economic value by turning money into unwanted stuff.
4. This is not just academic thumb-twiddling: huge numbers of people go into credit card debt every year in order to fund their holiday shopping.
Here?s an example. I enjoy buying clothes and am picky about how they fit. Legend has it my parents are buying me a pair of pants for Christmas. (Hi, Mom! It?s me, your ungrateful wretch.)
Unless they?ve discovered some top secret pants breakthrough (parachute pants with actual built-in parachute? MC Hammer pants with actual built-in?never mind), giving me pants is silly compared to giving me cash to pick out my own pants.
Hmm, ?pants breakthrough? doesn?t sound good at all, does it?
There is a perfect type of purchased gift, as rare as a unicorn. It?s the gift that the recipient absolutely loves and would have bought for herself but?had no idea it existed.?
How often have you given or received a gift like this? Not often, I?d wager, and it?s getting harder to pull off, because every cool thing on earth gets linked up on Twitter or Pinterest long before the holidays.
Sweet and green
What?s wrong with cash, anyway?
I understand that, like social media updates, gift-giving is all about what economists call?signaling.?The gift itself isn?t the point; the point is to demonstrate how much we value someone by sacrificing our time and money, and demonstrate how well we know them by selecting an appropriate gift.
That sounds like an argument against Waldfogel?s thesis, but it?s not. Wanting to show our friends and family that we care about them is a nice impulse. No one short of the Grinch is opposed to that.
But showing our love by giving people stuff they don?t need or want, just because that?s what we?ve always done, is ridiculous.
What?s wrong with cash, anyway? We?ve created a massive and wasteful gift card industry just so people don?t have to shamefully hand each other envelopes full of twenties (or submit electronic bank transfers), even though any sane person would prefer cash to a gift card.
The stigma against giving cash is strongest when it comes to gifts from younger generations to older ones. This makes perfect sense: if I gave my parents cash for Christmas, I?d be implying that they needed a handout.
My parents don?t need a handout. They are comfortably retired and don?t need me to give them $50. But that means they don?t need anything I could buy them for $50, either. (Why do I keep picking on my parents? Apparently I have issues.)
My brother likes beer. We were going to give him a special bottle of beer and a $20 gift certificate to a beer shop. But we reconsidered: we?re giving him the bottle and a $20 bill. Somehow I doubt he?ll be disappointed.
The greatest gift of all
The greatest gift of all is a smile in the heart of?nah, I?m kidding. Sort of.
The ultimate gift would be something the recipient wants but can?t buy for himself, and which costs very little money to provide. I feel like a sentimental idiot even saying something so obvious, but the thing that best fits the bill is a child?s drawing.
One of the best gifts we ever gave my dad for his birthday was a cartoon about him that my daughter and I drew. It?s displayed prominently on my parents? wall.
For adult-to-adult gifts, however, I?m really not sure what to do. There?s no way to explain why you?re not giving someone a gift without being a jerk, unless you?re an economics professor and everybody already thinks you?re a jerk.
This year, I stumbled on services like?Giftly?and?GiftRocket,?which let you give thinly-veiled cash. The recipient gets what looks like an electronic gift card for a particular restaurant or store, but it?s immediately redeemable for cash.
You could give this to an older relative without shame, I think, but should you? It still means demonstrating your love by giving cash to someone who probably needs the cash less than you do.
My wife writes letters by hand, which is a great gift for a certain type of person, but anyone receiving a handwritten letter from me would assume the Internet was broken.
My goal isn?t to be the dark cloud over your holiday celebration. This is a mea culpa: my family spent 25% less on the holidays this year than last year, but we still spend too much, and I?m a big part of the problem: I make sure those stockings are?stuffed.
Diverting most of our gift budget to charity would make a lot of sense. Getting there without being sanctimonious?or downright Scroogey?is the tricky part.
Matthew Amster-Burton is a?personal finance?columnist at Mint.com. Find him on Twitter?@Mint_Mamster.
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Although some Americans are getting more of beneficial treatments that were underused in the past, including drugs for heart disease, others are still being overtested or overtreated for a range of conditions, according to a new study.
Researchers found U.S. doctors' offices made progress on six of nine "quality indicators" for recommended and underused therapies but only scaled back on two of 11 unnecessary and potentially harmful health services.
Those findings reflect a growing concern over skyrocketing health care costs - and the realization that doctors and hospitals are going to have to find places where services can be scaled back.
"We all know that we need to do something about it, and one component of the high health care costs is the overuse and misuse of therapies and interventions," said Dr. Amir Qaseem, director of clinical policy at the American College of Physicians.
It's not about getting rid of services that are too expensive, he told Reuters Health, but evaluating what current tests and treatments may offer little value for certain patients.
For example, two overuse indicators included in the new analysis are screening men age 75 and up for prostate cancer and screening women 75 and older for breast cancer.
"For men who are getting screened over the age of 75, the likely benefit doesn't happen within a patient's lifetime," Qaseem said, because prostate cancer is often very slow-growing. And that's assuming prostate specific antigen (PSA) tests are beneficial at all.
Regardless of a man's age, however, the tests can still lead to invasive biopsies that come with side effects such as a risk of incontinence and impotence.
"We really need to start looking at some of these services that may be harmful," added Qaseem, who wasn't involved in the new research.
The findings are based on nationally representative studies of adult care in outpatient offices, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Data came from 79,083 office visits in 1998-1999 and 102,980 visits in 2008-2009.
During that span, the use of many recommended therapies improved. For example, 28 percent of people with coronary artery disease were given aspirin in 1998-1999, compared to almost 65 percent a decade later.
Likewise, the use of statins more than doubled in those same patients, from 27 percent to 59 percent. In people with diabetes, statin prescriptions increased from 12 percent to 36 percent.
However, there was little change in rates of unnecessary and overused services, including some types of cancer screening for older adults or x-rays and urine tests done as part of a general check-up.
Two of those overuse indicators improved: cervical cancer screening for women over 65 dropped from 3 percent to 2 percent, and unnecessary antibiotic prescribing for asthma flare-ups fell from 22 percent to 7 percent.
On the other hand, rates of prostate cancer screening for older men increased, from between 3 and 4 percent to almost 6 percent, according to findings published Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
The lead author on the study from New York's Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Dr. Minal Kale, said the set of quality indicators her team used doesn't necessarily represent all tests and treatments provided in outpatient care.
And she added that the overuse of medical services is a complicated issue.
"Culturally, there's a lot of resistance to limiting access to health care services because it quickly becomes politicized," Kale told Reuters Health.
"The question about overuse really needs to come back to quality. It's about quality of the care that we're delivering to patients."
The goal, she said, is to "increase the value and the quality of our health care system while also paying attention to the costs."
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/LvmYaB Archives of Internal Medicine, online December 24, 2012.
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The shooter who shot and killed two responding firefighters and injured two others in Webster, New York this morning has been identified as convicted killer William Spengler, 62.
Police say that Spengler spent 17 years in prison for killing his grandmother in 1980. He was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after the violence at the fire this morning.
Webster Police Chief Gerald Pickering said Spengler set a home on fire on Lake Road and waited for firefighters to arrive, ambushing them with gunfire. His motive is unclear. The shooting killed Lt. Mike Chiapperini, 43, a volunteer firefighter and Webster Police Department?s public information officer, and firefighter Tomasz Kaczowka. Theodore Scardino and Joseph Hofsetter were also shot and are recovering in guarded condition at Strong Memorial Hospital.
In addition a police officer from Greece who was driving by was hit by shrapnel and injured.
Several weapons were used at the shooting today, including "at least" an assault rifle, Pickering said.
"This is an individual who obviously had a lot of problems," he said, adding that there were "probably some mental health issues."
Pickering said Spengler was arrested in 1980 and convicted of killing his grandmother, serving time until 1998.
The fires are reportedly under control, Webster police officials said at a press conference. Four homes were completely destroyed in the blaze and four more were damaged.
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The UFC's end-of-the-year cards are usually stacked. Despite injuries, UFC 155 is no different. It features intriguing bouts that will answer some burning questions.
A ward at Camp Funston, Kan. showing the many ill patients who caught the 1918 Spanish influenza
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