Home improvement jobs are pretty easy to plan, but sometimes having the right tools is overlooked. If you want your projects to run smoothly, you need all of the materials, along with all of the necessary tools. To be prepared for your home improvement jobs, the following tools will be necessary for their completion. Make sure to definitely click here and also this other website here.
If you do not have the right tools for measuring, your decorating or home improvement jobs aren?t going to turn out very well. A lot of home owners try to get by without taking measurements, and it normally makes things harder. How hard is it to measure the opening, along with what you want to put there, to immediately know if it will fit or not.
The first tool you should get is a tape measure, and keep it where you can easily find it. Along with a tape measure, another tool you will use a lot, is a combination square, which can be used for various jobs. Different levels will be needed for many home improvement jobs.
It is important to have safety equipment standing by especially when you are getting your tools ready. To avoid getting paint in your eyes, you need to use safety glass, just like people that work with metal or wood and they are drilling using a saw. Your safety is always recommended, especially for people that will be working with tools that have high decibel levels. You can protect your hands using work gloves, particularly when sharp edges and splinters are potential threats. When you are working with fiberglass insulation, a dust mask is essential to have. A hard hat or helmet should be worn if you do any type of construction work. Give proper consideration to every piece of safety equipment that you will need to get the job done properly.
If you?re doing a job that requires items like nails, screws and bolts, make sure you have a good selection of these. Not being able to find the right sized screw or nail when you need it can be very frustrating. Aside from having these items, you also have to keep them organized. One of the best ways to organize the screws, nails, and bolts that you will use is to purchase plastic bins or boxes designed for this purpose. Labeling each of the containers will also help you locate the exact size you want in the shortest amount of time. Your home improvement project will go much more smoothly if you go to the hardware store and buy all of these items so that you have them at your disposal.
For a successful home improvement job, quite a few tools are going to be required. There are probably other tools that you will need, that weren?t discussed in this article. You need to have the tools, to do home repairs, and if you don?t you will need to get them or just hire someone who already has them.
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Reuters - U.S. consumer confidence scaled a one-year high in February as optimism about the labor market offset concerns over rising gasoline prices, an independent survey showed on Tuesday.
I probably golf about as well as a slug wages war.... In fact, out of consideration for my friends (I embarrass them), I quit playing with anybody I know. It was too hard for them to watch. But I can still appreciate what a golf enthusiast said about the game.
He listed three mental techniques to improve one's golf game. And the great part is this: these techniques not only help to improve a game, they can help all of us live better lives. They are mental attitudes that can help you and me live more in the moment and less in the past or the future. Here they are? golf tips for better living.
1. Resist the urge to add up your score as you go along. If you anticipate your score, you'll be distracted from the task at hand.
In other words, live more in the present. Clear your mind of past mistakes and even past successes, and try to think only about the here and now.
2. Focus. Concentrate on hitting great shots rather than worrying about bad ones or what others will think if you miss. Visualize the ball going to your target.
This is a terrific technique for daily living. Focus. Concentrate on doing the present task well rather than worrying about what others will think if you should "mess up." And get a picture in your mind's eye of succeeding at the thing you are doing right now.
3. Keep your mind on the hole you're playing. Don't think about how you are going to play the last hole.
This is about resisting the urge to think ahead. If we pay close attention to the present, the future will take care of itself. Our present moment is full of power and wonder. It deserves our full attention.
Now, did you notice what all of these tips have in common? They are not about understanding the past or setting goals for the future. They are simply about living in the present moment.
Writer H.G. Wells once noted, "Man must not allow the clock and the calendar to blind him to the fact that each moment of life is a miracle and a mystery." Anybody can get more out of life who concentrates on and cherishes the here and now ? and we?re not talking about golf.
The present is too important not to pay attention to it. One doctor said, "I have learned from speaking to many cancer survivor groups that (when you have cancer) the watch on your hand no longer says, 'Tick, tick, tick.' It now says, 'Precious, precious, precious.'"
When the present moment is precious, everything else takes care of itself.
About the Author:
Steve Goodier Publisher@... is a professional speaker, consultant and author of numerous books. Visit his site for more information, or to sign up for his FREE newsletter of Life, Love and Laughter at http://LifeSupportSystem.com.
Story on human genetic origins is one of EurekAlert!s most-visited releases in 2011Public release date: 27-Feb-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jennifer Santisi jsantisi@aaas.org 202-326-6213 American Association for the Advancement of Science
A striking discovery in the study of human genetics was the focus of the most-visited press release posted on EurekAlert! in 2011. Researchers found that part of the non-African human X chromosome came from Neanderthals, confirming that they interbred with early human populations.
Breakthroughs in mathematics, physics, chemistry, and medicine, along with discoveries in zoology, psychology, and astrobiology, were also featured in the 10 releases most often viewed by EurekAlert! readers in 2011.
Website statistics collected over the course of the year identified the year's 10 most-visited news releases. The No. 1 most-visited press release garnered over 102,000 views.
The (love) connection between early humans and Neanderthals described in 2011's most-visited news release
Researchers from the University of Montreal and the CHU Sainte-Justine Research Center answered a nearly 10-year-old question concerning the origin of a part of the human X chromosome that shows characteristics different from the rest of the chromosome.
Using the Neanderthal genome, which was sequenced in 2010, to compare with the human genome, researchers found a match. The mysterious piece of the human X chromosome's sequence matches the Neanderthal's. From this, the researchers conclude that all non-African humans are in part descended from Neanderthals.
The finding was published in Molecular Biology and Evolution.
Uncovering new ground in medical and health sciences
Major advances in the health and medical sciences again drew significant attention from EurekAlert! readers in 2011.
In the tenth most-visited press release, Carnegie Mellon researchers replicated the hemoglobin protein from woolly mammoths. Their work may assist in developing blood products for people undergoing surgery-induced hypothermia, making such medical procedures safer.
The Mayo Clinic reported on a new therapy for individuals with multiple myeloma, a bone marrow cancer, in the fourth most-visited press release of 2011. Researchers found that the drug thalidomide, which caused birth defects when it was first used by pregnant women suffering severe morning sickness, is effective in treating multiple myeloma tumors in some patients. The finding opens up a new avenue for exploring personalized treatment options for myeloma patients based on biomarkers.
News releases on psychology studies were the ninth and sixth most heavily trafficked stories.
A study on meditation posted by Massachusetts General Hospital was the ninth most-viewed release. It showed that regularly practicing meditation not only makes people feel better, but it also physically alters parts brain that control stress, memory, self-awareness, and learning.
The article's first author, Britta Hlzel, Ph.D., said, "It is fascinating to see the brain's plasticity and that, by practicing meditation, we can play an active role in changing the brain and can increase our well-being and quality of life."
In the sixth, a researcher explores the root of that all too familiar experience of walking from one room to another and forgetting what it is you were going to do. In a study published in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, a University of Notre Dame professor conducted experiments that demonstrate how the brain interprets moving between rooms as "event boundaries," thus making it difficult to recall memories even if they are only recently stored.
Novel research from the many and varied realms of science
The remainder of the 10 most-viewed stories of 2011 represents a variety of disciplines, including math and physics.
The seventh and eighth most-visited releases concern technological advances at the intersection of chemistry and physics. The eighth most-viewed release deals with "invisibility cloaking." It details work by assistant professor Yaroslav Urzhumov of Duke University. He applies invisibility cloaking principles that involve covering objects moving through water, such as ships, with a sponge-like coating equipped to push water out and away from the vessel. He posits that doing so could make water travel more energy efficient.
Ludovico Cademartriri, Ph.D., from Harvard University reports on his "electrical wave blaster" designed to fight fires in the seventh most-viewed story. "Controlling fires is an enormously difficult challenge. Our research has shown that by applying large electric fields we can suppress flames very rapidly," Cademartriri said. He and his team presented the device at the 241st American Chemical Society National Meeting and Exposition in March 2011.
The journal ZooKeys published an article on the discovery of the world's smallest frog species, which is the focus of the fifth most-viewed press release. The tiny frogs from the genus Paedophryne were found in New Guinea.
Astronomers from the University of Hong Kong discovered that stars naturally produce organic compounds originally thought to be found only in living systems. Their work was featured in the third most-visited story and published in Nature. The discovery prompts questions into whether these stellar organic compounds had any role in the development of life on Earth.
In the second most-visited press release, a theoretical mystery that has long vexed mathematicians was finally solved by Ken Ono of Emory University and his research group. They figured out that partition numbers, assorted number sequences that add up to equal the same number, are fractals. Fractal theory states that what appears complex and irregular from afar is actually made up of repeated patterns when examined up close.
10 Most-visited stories from 2011
Below are the 10 most-visited press releases posted on EurekAlert! in 2011, in order of the highest number of views. The list begins with the press release that received the most views.
1. Genetic research confirms that non-Africans are part Neanderthal
University of Montreal
2. New math theories reveal the nature of numbers
Emory University
3. Astronomers discover complex organic matter in the universe
The University of Hong Kong
4. Mayo Clinic: How patients will respond to immunomodulator therapy for multiple myeloma
Mayo Clinic
5. World's smallest frogs discovered in New Guinea
Pensoft Publishers
6. Walking through doorways causes forgetting, new research shows
University of Notre Dame
7. Taming the flame: Electrical wave 'blaster' could provide new way to extinguish fires
American Chemical Society
8. Effortless sailing with fluid flow cloak
Duke University
9. Mindfulness meditation training changes brain structure in 8 weeks
Massachusetts General Hospital
10. Woolly mammoth's secrets for shrugging off cold points toward new artificial blood for humans
American Chemical Society
###
About EurekAlert!
Founded by AAAS in 1996, EurekAlert! is an editorially independent, online news service focused on science, medicine and technology. Thousands of reporters around the globe use EurekAlert! to access news and resources from the world's top research organizations. For free access to EurekAlert!, visit www.EurekAlert.org.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
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.
Story on human genetic origins is one of EurekAlert!s most-visited releases in 2011Public release date: 27-Feb-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jennifer Santisi jsantisi@aaas.org 202-326-6213 American Association for the Advancement of Science
A striking discovery in the study of human genetics was the focus of the most-visited press release posted on EurekAlert! in 2011. Researchers found that part of the non-African human X chromosome came from Neanderthals, confirming that they interbred with early human populations.
Breakthroughs in mathematics, physics, chemistry, and medicine, along with discoveries in zoology, psychology, and astrobiology, were also featured in the 10 releases most often viewed by EurekAlert! readers in 2011.
Website statistics collected over the course of the year identified the year's 10 most-visited news releases. The No. 1 most-visited press release garnered over 102,000 views.
The (love) connection between early humans and Neanderthals described in 2011's most-visited news release
Researchers from the University of Montreal and the CHU Sainte-Justine Research Center answered a nearly 10-year-old question concerning the origin of a part of the human X chromosome that shows characteristics different from the rest of the chromosome.
Using the Neanderthal genome, which was sequenced in 2010, to compare with the human genome, researchers found a match. The mysterious piece of the human X chromosome's sequence matches the Neanderthal's. From this, the researchers conclude that all non-African humans are in part descended from Neanderthals.
The finding was published in Molecular Biology and Evolution.
Uncovering new ground in medical and health sciences
Major advances in the health and medical sciences again drew significant attention from EurekAlert! readers in 2011.
In the tenth most-visited press release, Carnegie Mellon researchers replicated the hemoglobin protein from woolly mammoths. Their work may assist in developing blood products for people undergoing surgery-induced hypothermia, making such medical procedures safer.
The Mayo Clinic reported on a new therapy for individuals with multiple myeloma, a bone marrow cancer, in the fourth most-visited press release of 2011. Researchers found that the drug thalidomide, which caused birth defects when it was first used by pregnant women suffering severe morning sickness, is effective in treating multiple myeloma tumors in some patients. The finding opens up a new avenue for exploring personalized treatment options for myeloma patients based on biomarkers.
News releases on psychology studies were the ninth and sixth most heavily trafficked stories.
A study on meditation posted by Massachusetts General Hospital was the ninth most-viewed release. It showed that regularly practicing meditation not only makes people feel better, but it also physically alters parts brain that control stress, memory, self-awareness, and learning.
The article's first author, Britta Hlzel, Ph.D., said, "It is fascinating to see the brain's plasticity and that, by practicing meditation, we can play an active role in changing the brain and can increase our well-being and quality of life."
In the sixth, a researcher explores the root of that all too familiar experience of walking from one room to another and forgetting what it is you were going to do. In a study published in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, a University of Notre Dame professor conducted experiments that demonstrate how the brain interprets moving between rooms as "event boundaries," thus making it difficult to recall memories even if they are only recently stored.
Novel research from the many and varied realms of science
The remainder of the 10 most-viewed stories of 2011 represents a variety of disciplines, including math and physics.
The seventh and eighth most-visited releases concern technological advances at the intersection of chemistry and physics. The eighth most-viewed release deals with "invisibility cloaking." It details work by assistant professor Yaroslav Urzhumov of Duke University. He applies invisibility cloaking principles that involve covering objects moving through water, such as ships, with a sponge-like coating equipped to push water out and away from the vessel. He posits that doing so could make water travel more energy efficient.
Ludovico Cademartriri, Ph.D., from Harvard University reports on his "electrical wave blaster" designed to fight fires in the seventh most-viewed story. "Controlling fires is an enormously difficult challenge. Our research has shown that by applying large electric fields we can suppress flames very rapidly," Cademartriri said. He and his team presented the device at the 241st American Chemical Society National Meeting and Exposition in March 2011.
The journal ZooKeys published an article on the discovery of the world's smallest frog species, which is the focus of the fifth most-viewed press release. The tiny frogs from the genus Paedophryne were found in New Guinea.
Astronomers from the University of Hong Kong discovered that stars naturally produce organic compounds originally thought to be found only in living systems. Their work was featured in the third most-visited story and published in Nature. The discovery prompts questions into whether these stellar organic compounds had any role in the development of life on Earth.
In the second most-visited press release, a theoretical mystery that has long vexed mathematicians was finally solved by Ken Ono of Emory University and his research group. They figured out that partition numbers, assorted number sequences that add up to equal the same number, are fractals. Fractal theory states that what appears complex and irregular from afar is actually made up of repeated patterns when examined up close.
10 Most-visited stories from 2011
Below are the 10 most-visited press releases posted on EurekAlert! in 2011, in order of the highest number of views. The list begins with the press release that received the most views.
1. Genetic research confirms that non-Africans are part Neanderthal
University of Montreal
2. New math theories reveal the nature of numbers
Emory University
3. Astronomers discover complex organic matter in the universe
The University of Hong Kong
4. Mayo Clinic: How patients will respond to immunomodulator therapy for multiple myeloma
Mayo Clinic
5. World's smallest frogs discovered in New Guinea
Pensoft Publishers
6. Walking through doorways causes forgetting, new research shows
University of Notre Dame
7. Taming the flame: Electrical wave 'blaster' could provide new way to extinguish fires
American Chemical Society
8. Effortless sailing with fluid flow cloak
Duke University
9. Mindfulness meditation training changes brain structure in 8 weeks
Massachusetts General Hospital
10. Woolly mammoth's secrets for shrugging off cold points toward new artificial blood for humans
American Chemical Society
###
About EurekAlert!
Founded by AAAS in 1996, EurekAlert! is an editorially independent, online news service focused on science, medicine and technology. Thousands of reporters around the globe use EurekAlert! to access news and resources from the world's top research organizations. For free access to EurekAlert!, visit www.EurekAlert.org.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
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.
You Are Here: Home ? General News ? Chief suggests negotiation, not agitations for split of Ketu-South District
Page last updated at Sunday, February 26, 2012 5:05 AM //
Togbe Addo VIII, Paramount Chief of Klikor Traditional Area, has urged residents of Ketu-South district to stop the street agitations for the district to be split into two.
?For me the prudent thing to do is to go into negotiations and lobbying rather than the confrontation and blackmailing, as the street protests suggest,? he stated.
Togbe Addo was reacting to the recent demonstrations and allegations that he (Togbe Addo) was personally against the split of the current Ketu-South District.
He told the GNA at Klikor that even if the negotiations failed the next proper thing to do was to allow the government to have the upper hand within the spirit of the Rule of Law and good governance while the petitioners re-strategized.
Togbe Addo said it was unclear why the people were refusing the Government?s offer of raising the area to a Municipal Status and that of the Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC) to give the proposed municipal area an additional constituency.
He said as an elder traditional ruler he would not push his subjects to join the agitations.
Togbe Addo urged opinion leaders and chiefs in the area to weigh the issues carefully and avoid pushing the youth into needless demonstrations which amounted to teaching the youth to be lawless and which could also pose danger to the area?s future security.
He said pronouncements on a local radio station by a youthful chief of one of the traditional areas that he was against creating a new district were baseless.
The people of the area, mainly in Aflao, Agbozume and Klikor, commenced agitations when a legislative instrument put before Parliament on the new districts did not include a split of the Ketu-South District into two.
Marcus Sheridan is one of three owners of River Pools and Spas, which installs swimming pools and hot tubs throughout Maryland and Virginia. Since joining the business in 2002, Sheridan has spearheaded tremendous growth at the company?despite years of record rainfall, a housing slump and a flagging economy.
A big reason for that growth, Sheridan says, is how his company presents itself. ?I used to see my company as a ?pool company.? We installed lots of swimming pools, and therefore we were a pool company,? he told me when I interviewed him for my book, Content Rules.
?In hindsight, though, this mentality was all wrong,? he says. ?Today, I see my business as a content marketing company. My entire goal is to give more valuable, helpful and remarkable content to consumers than anyone else in my field, which will in turn lead to more sales.?
Search engines love people like Sheridan. Those who produce keyword-rich online content, including YouTube videos, blog posts, articles and so on, consistently show up on the first page of search results for their targeted keywords.
But Sheridan sees the content he produces as more than that: He views it as a competitiveadvantage that expands and deepens his relationships with would-be customers. In other words, his customers might find him organically through search, but they do business with him because of the no-BS nature of the content he?s producing: His willingness to talk about problems and pitfalls to avoid, which builds trust and credibility and, ultimately, rabid fan loyalty.
What I love about Sheridan?s story is the way it clearly demonstrates that any company?even a swimming pool company?can find tremendous success with content at the lead-gen stage and throughout the entire sales path, from generating interest to converting browsers into buyers by educating them and by serving as a resource for referrals after the sale.
So what kind of content is being used to start and nurture relationships with prospects? According to a study from Focus Research, companies use a mix of content types to attract customers, depending on the kind of business they do: from blog posts, white papers, webinars and other virtual events (especially business-to-business operations) to research papers (particularly businesses that sell to consumers).
And then there?s the kind of content that can more effectively help you build trust with your prospects. Here are some examples:
Competitive comparisons (yes, really).
Create a downloadable document that offers a feature comparison of your product to your competitors? products, or that reviews pricing details of the products. TechTarget?s 2009 Media Consumption Benchmark Report found that a majority of technology companies want content comparing a vendor?s offering to the competition as they get further along in the decision process. Yet few companies put out competitive comparisons for public consumption.
But doing so is important, because so often the content you publish is your first line of defense. In other words, it?s information your sales reps would have handed over during initial meetings with prospects in the past. In a world where most buyers start their searches on the web?either by Googling or asking for advice on Twitter or LinkedIn?you need to deliver this information online. If you don?t offer it but your competitors do, guess who?ll make the short list of potential vendors?
Get Resourceful.
Consider the approach of a company based in Vancouver, British Columbia. RitchieWiki is a collaborative website created and maintained by Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers as the go-to source for industrial equipment specs and everything else anyone could ever want to know about heavy machinery?its manufacturers, uses, projects, history and more. Ritchie Bros. curates information for its industry and makes it available in a central, accessible location.
So how might you become a go-to resource for your industry, including your would-be customers?
A more nuanced approach to case studies.
Use case studies?or, as I prefer to call them, customer success stories?for more than just demonstrating the value of your product. Rather, position them to overcome objections early in the buying cycle.
First, understand why your customers might initially be skeptical of your offering. Maybe yourcompany sells document-management software, and during interviews, you discover that many of your customers hesitate because your solution is offered via a software-as-a-service model. They may be wondering about users without internet connections. How will they access the electronic files?
If you hear that concern from several sources, you might pre-empt the objection before it scares off other potential customers. Present a story that highlights one customer?s concern with this issue and why your offering ultimately won that customer over.
So instead of producing a case study titled ?Our Awesome Company Helps XYZ Corporation Locate Records in Half the Time,? you might instead publish ?Assessing Your Document Management Options: Why All Software-as-a-Service Offerings Are Not Created Equal.?
Address the elephant in the room.
The frequently asked questions (FAQ) pages are the unsung heroes of your company website. Often unappreciated and undervalued, they can help easily and succinctly communicate your brand value to would-be buyers, enticing them to take a closer look at what you have to offer. Done right, they can function as an online customer service center, cutting down on repetitive inquiries by anticipating the questions your visitors might have. So create a list of the common questions and answers that will allow your would-be buyers to find answers to their questions on their own.
But here?s the thing: Most businesses seem to go out of their way not to address certain questions for fear they?ll open themselves up to criticism or other negative feedback. But on FAQ pages (as in life), it?s better to address the elephant in the room.
For example, the vintage timepieces sold at Chicago-based Father Time Antiques are a little more expensive than you might find elsewhere, and the company takes the opportunity, on its FAQ page, to address exactly why:
Q: How do you price your watches?
A: Our prices may be slightly higher than other watches you may find on the internet, but this is due to our exhaustive restoration process. When one of our master watchmakers finishes with the restoration of an individual piece, it is timed to within factory specs, or better, in all original, rated positions for that particular timepiece. ? We also warranty our watches for one full year without an extra charge that some other dealers charge. Included in our price is a good quality watchband at no extra charge.
What we are really talking about here, of course, is creating content people will find useful. Done right, the content you create will position your company not just as a seller of stuff but as a reliable and consistent source of information. And that, Marcus Sheridan says, is ?the ultimate gift that keeps on giving.?
?
This article was originally published in the?January 2012?print edition of?Entrepreneur?with the headline: Why Content Is Still King.
[unable to retrieve full-text content]AP - Iranian television station Press TV says two British journalists are being held in the Libyan capital, Tripoli.
Tattoos are viewed as the oldest kind of art work. Up until now, many people see tattoos to provide a creative style of self expression. However, there are a few who still don?t concur with it?s desired purpose a result of the negative aspect connected with tattoos, lots of young people and grownups as well still take pleasure in it.
Getting a tattoo is actually a choice only an individual can choose for him or her self. It normally entails not only second thoughts considering that tattoos are intended to be everlasting. Once you get one, it is impossible to get rid of it anymore. So prior to walking into a tattoo shop to ask an artist to provide you one, think of various components first.
Discuss with tattoo artists to inquire about questions you may have. You might like to know the way the process works and exactly how long a specific design will last. When you have sensitive skin for example, you may want to find out about the sort of tattoo supplies a certain artist makes use of. Although almost all tattoo inks are hypoallergenic, it is still best to be certain you don?t get an allergic reaction once you elect to get one.
Find out about the sort of tattoo products they make use of, how they?re stored and sterilized and look around the shop to obtain your first impression. Tattoo supplies that are of superior quality could decrease or even, remove your fears about the safe practices of tattooing.
On the contrary, tattoo apparatus that appears to be worn-out and unsafe would definitely turn you off the thought of getting a tattoo. It goes exactly the same with the shop you opt to get a tattoo; a tattoo shop that looks untidy and unappealing would give you a feeling of insecurity.
One more thing you must think about is the pain connected with piercing your skin. There are actually certain regions of the human body that have considerably less nerve endings that cause a person to feel pain. In case your pain tolerance isn?t that high, you may think of having a smaller size tattoo in areas where you will feel less pain.
Getting a tattoo would likewise entail a number of constraints on your end so be sure you are completely conscious of the restraints of having a tattoo. For instance, there are particular medical procedures you aren?t permitted to go through once you?ve chosen to get a tattoo.
When searching for a job, most companies and employers don?t allow obvious tattoos. More frequently than not, they have policies concerning tattoos and various other types of body art.
Online shopping is bound to surpass traditional one in a not so distant future, but for the time being, the interest is still impressive. People are attracted by the vastly superior offers, the numerous discounts and promotions that allow them to make great daily deals. The markdowns are usually below 50% and most of the time, only a couple of products have their prices reduced, but with nomorerack this is not the case.
Their surging popularity can be explained by two factors and the first one has to be the incredible discounts on all the products that they have in their inventory. Buying high-tech equipment and gadgets that cost well over one thousand dollars for as little as five percent is crazy, so they came up with a very inspired name for it. Insanity Deals are those amazing daily deals, when clients bid a fraction of the regular price and take home state of the art equipment.
It is not easy to win these products but every day, there is a new item to bid for and the race resumes. The second reason for people to return over and over again is that nomorerack has the most entertaining system. Their biddings are always fun and exciting, making auctions more enthralling that placing orders.
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The government?s new consumer-watchdog agency is launching a probe into costly overdraft fees charged by big banks.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said Wednesday that it will ask banks for information about how overdraft fees affect consumers, how overdraft protection is marketed and what information consumers receive.
The probe could result in new rules or even lawsuits if banks are accused of violating consumer laws.
?Overdraft practices have the capacity to inflict serious economic harm on the people who can least afford it,? CFPB Director Richard Cordray said in a statement. ?We want to learn how consumers are affected, and how well they are able to anticipate and avoid paying penalty fees.?
Banks impose overdraft fees when people spend more money than they have in their accounts. The fees didn?t exist 15 years ago; by 2009, they were generating tens of billions of dollars for banks.
The fees function like extremely high-cost, short-term loans. The cost of pushing your checking account into the red averages $30 to $35 per transaction, the CFPB said.
Banks were barred from automatically enrolling customers in overdraft programs for debit card or ATM transactions in 2010, under a rule issued by the Federal Reserve. The rule did not apply to checks and online bill payments or recurring debits. It also did not limit how much banks can charge for the service.
Banks have responded by marketing overdraft protection aggressively. They told consumers that opting out of overdraft protection ?may prevent you from completing everyday transactions including . . . medical or health emergencies,? according to research published last year by the Center for Responsible Lending, a consumer group that opposes overdraft fees.
Some banks increased their fee income through a practice known as ?re-ordering.? The banks would collect all the transactions in a given day then apply them in order, from largest to smallest. The effect is to maximize the number of transactions that trigger a fee.
Reordering has been challenged in class-action lawsuits around the country. Bank of America settled one case for $410 million last July. JPMorgan Chase agreed this month to pay $110 million to settle similar claims.
The CFPB outlined four areas of interest in its inquiry:
? The reordering of transactions in ways that increase costs to consumers.
? Missing or confusing information. The agency wants to make sure people understand how they can avoid overdraft fees. It will look at how the fees are disclosed and what other options are presented.
? Misleading marketing. The number of people who choose overdraft protection varies widely from bank to bank, the CFPB noted. It wants to know how marketing affects people?s decisions. The Center for Responsible Lending report noted several examples of misleading or threatening language in banks? marketing materials.
? Disproportionate impact on low-income and young consumers. According to a 2008 study by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., 9 percent of checking accounts incur 84 percent of overdraft fees. The study found that nearly half of younger cardholders paid the fees.
The CFPB also is requesting public input on a draft ?penalty fee box? ? a disclosure on a consumer?s checking-account statement that would highlight any overdrafts and related fees.
The results of the probe will inform the CFPB?s policy on overdraft programs. It could spawn consumer-education efforts, new rules, guidance for bank examiners or legal action against banks that are accused of wrongdoing.
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[unable to retrieve full-text content]HealthDay - TUESDAY, Feb. 21 (HealthDay News) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Tuesday what it called a series of steps to ensure the continued availability of vital cancer drugs that have been in dangerously short supply.
It?s easy to wax nostalgic about old technology?to remember fondly our first Apple IIe or marvel at the old mainframes that ran on punched cards. But no one in their right mind would use those outdated, underpowered dinosaurs to run a contemporary business, let alone a modern weapons system, right?
Wrong!
While much of the tech world views a two-year-old smartphone as hopelessly obsolete, large swaths of our transportation and military infrastructure, some modern businesses, and even a few computer programmers rely daily on technology that hasn?t been updated for decades.
If you?ve recently bought a MetroCard for the New York City Subway or taken money from certain older ATMs, for instance, your transaction was made possible by IBM?s OS/2, an operating system that debuted 25 years ago and faded out soon after.
A recent federal review found that the U.S. Secret Service uses a mainframe computer system from the 1980s. That system apparently works only 60 percent of the time. Here?s hoping that uptime statistics are better for the ancient minicomputers used by the U.S. Department of Defense for the Minuteman Intercontinental Ballistic Missile system, Navy submarines, fighter jets, and other weapons programs. Those systems, according to the consultants who help keep them going, will likely be used until at least the middle of this century.
Here are a few stories of the computers that time forgot, and the people and institutions that stubbornly hold on to them.
Sparkler Filters of Conroe, Texas, prides itself on being a leader in the world of chemical process filtration. If you buy an automatic nutsche filter from them, though, they?ll enter your transaction on a ?computer? that dates from 1948.
Sparkler Filters? IBM 402, with self-employed field engineer Duwayne Leafley in the foreground. Sparkler?s IBM 402 is not a traditional computer, but an automated electromechanical tabulator that can be programmed (or more accurately, wired) to print out certain results based on values encoded into stacks of 80-column Hollerith-type punched cards.
Companies traditionally used the 402 for accounting, since the machine could take a long list of numbers, add them up, and print a detailed written report. In a sense, you could consider it a 3000-pound spreadsheet machine. That?s exactly how Sparkler Filters uses its IBM 402, which could very well be the last fully operational 402 on the planet. As it has for over half a century, the firm still runs all of its accounting work (payroll, sales, and inventory) through the IBM 402. The machine prints out reports on wide, tractor-fed paper.
The punched cards used in the 402, with some mangled cards from a recently cleared jam in the card reader. The cards sit on the IBM 029 key-punch machine.
Of course, before the data goes into the 402, it must first be encoded into stacks of cards. A large IBM 029 key-punch machine?which resembles a monstrous typewriter built into a desk?handles that task.
Carl Kracklauer, whose father founded Sparkler Filters in 1927, usually types the data onto the punch cards. The company sticks with the 402 because it?s a known entity: Staffers know how to use it, and they have over 60 years of company accounting records formatted for the device.
The key punch isn?t the only massive accessory in Sparkler?s arsenal. The 402 also links to an IBM 514 Reproducing Punch, which has been broken for three years. When it works properly, the 514 spits out punched ?summary cards,? which typically contain the output of the 402?s operation (such as sum totals) for later reuse. Sparkler stores all of its punched data cards?thousands and thousands of them?in stacks of boxes.
Sparkler Filters? collection of IBM 402 programs on IBM plugboards.
The company also possesses dozens of 402 programs in the form of IBM plugboards. Computer programming in the 1940s commonly involved arranging hundreds of individual wires in a way that would likely drive a modern software engineer insane. In the 402?s case, a spaghetti-like pattern of wires attached to hundreds of connectors on each plugboard determines the operation of the machine, and different plugboards can be pulled out and replaced as if they were interchangeable software disks. So you might insert one plugboard for handling, say, accounts receivable, and a different one for inventory management.
Sparkler?s 402 is a such a significant computing relic that the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, sent a delegation to the company last year to try and convince its executives to move to a more modern accounting system and donate the 402 to the museum. That will someday be an appropriate resting place for the 402, but as long as it still does its duty, the Texas company has no problem keeping its digital dinosaur living a little while longer.
Next: Modern military weapons run on ancient minicomputers.
Reuters - Senior U.N. inspectors arrived in Iran on Monday to push for transparency about its disputed nuclear program and several European states halted purchases of Iranian oil as part of Western moves to pile pressure on a defiant Tehran.
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Public release date: 27-Feb-2012
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