Tuesday, February 28, 2012

If FMLA leave has expired, when must we grant additional time off ...

Q. We have an employee who has exhausted his FMLA leave, but wants additional time off. Do we have to grant his request?

A. Maybe. It depends on the employee?s reason for asking for more time off. If the employee?s reason for FMLA leave is to care for his own serious health condition, he may have a ?disability? under the ADA. ?

Employers subject to the ADA have an obligation to reasonably accommodate employees who are qualified individuals with a disability.

If the employee?s condition does constitute an ADA disability, a reasonable accommodation may be providing additional time off at the expiration of FMLA leave.

Keep in mind, however, that employers are not required to make an accommodation that would impose an undue hardship on their business. You should engage in an interactive process with the employee to determine whether additional time off is a reasonable accommodation.

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Source: http://www.businessmanagementdaily.com/29416/if-fmla-leave-has-expired-when-must-we-grant-additional-time-off

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Monday, February 27, 2012

Renting Homes Requires Research Too! | The Real Estate Briefings

The down turn in the housing market has resulted in a lot fewer people being able to qualify for mortgages. Five years ago nearly everybody that applied for a mortgage was granted one. Today, the banks and mortgage companies are being much more cautious, and as a result, many people are finding that renting homes and apartments is their only option.

Renting homes is very similar to buying in regards to researching the areas and prices that might interest a renter. There are lots of websites that focus on renting homes and other resources that can be very informative for a renter. It is important that this research is thorough because although renting a house is not as permanent as buying a home, but it can still be an expensive mistake if a renter is unhappy.

The initial expenses when renting homes can add up. A landlord will generally require the rental payment for three months up front. This is for the first month payment, the last month payment and a security deposit. They will also usually require a pet deposit, if a pet will be moving in with the renter. There is also the cost of the actual move; this could include movers, boxes, packing materials or truck rentals. These expenses can really add up if a renter does not perform the proper research and has to move again months later.

Whether a person is planning to buy or rent, research is the key to a smooth move. Many feel that when renting homes they can just take a quick look around and move. This can be a huge mistake for a renter?s mental health if he or she later finds the home or location is unacceptable. Although not as permanent as buying, renting a home can be a very important step in a person?s life. Research will ensure a smooth move in this big step.

Related posts:

  1. Renting A Home That?s In Foreclosure
  2. The Negative Effects Of Renting A Home
  3. Renting Wisely and Buying Smart
  4. A Market Ready to Move ? The Research Triangle
  5. Renting with the Landlord Right Upstairs

Source: http://www.realestatebriefings.com/renting-leasing/renting-homes-requires-research-too/

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Sunday, February 26, 2012

Microsoft Killing off the Zune and Windows Live Brands

Microsoft Killing off the Zune and Windows Live Brands

Good stuff on The Verge on how How Microsoft is killing off the Zune and Windows Live brands in Windows 8. Good stuff, a more consistent identity solution across all your products and services is a Good Thing.

Posted by Arcterex at February 24, 2012 09:57 AM

Source: http://ufies.org/archives/2012/02/24/microsoft-killing-off-the-zune-and-windows-live-brands.html

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  • #FellowesInc PowerShred 79Ci 100% Jam-Proof Cross-Cut Shredder Review And Contest to Win One for Yourself

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Saturday, February 25, 2012

Rosacea Treatments: Use Natural Alternatives to Treat your Skin ...

New Health And Fitness.Org - Health Information You Can Use

If you experience symptoms of facial redness, flushing, and sensitivity, it is possible that you could have rosacea. Rosacea has a variety of different symptoms making it difficult to say exactly what it is.

There is still a lot of information left to be known about rosacea. For a long time doctors tried to find relevant connections and causes of rosacea, but are still searching for answers. Rosacea, however, presents its symptoms in many different ways depending on the person it affects without relation to other conditions. Nevertheless, people who are affected by rosacea generally experience the most common symptoms of facial flushing and acne like bumps. Fortunately there are no other more serious risks involved with rosacea, but still the symptoms can be socially stressful and uncomfortable.

Who is at Risk?

Light-skinned people of Irish or other European backgrounds are most commonly affected by rosacea because of their higher genetic predisposition. It usually appears in people between 30 and 50 years old, and women find themselves with symptoms more often than men.

Organic Skin Care for Rosacea

Unfortunately there is no cure known to treat rosacea completely, but products are available that can help manage the outbreaks of symptoms. With the right natural products you can reduce facial flushing and acne like papules typical of rosacea. With the appropriate biological ingredients, you can change the way rosacea affects you. Choose an effective bio skin care product that can reduce or completely diminish most or all of your rosacea symptoms.

Protect healthy skin cells by finding an effective solution and learning how to control rosacea outbreaks.

The organic component is able to eliminate dermal bacteria, control inflammation, and entirely control facial reddening. Take advantage of the available bio skin care and avoid unnatural treatments with unsure results and painful side effects.

This natural treatment should be applied to clean skin for about two months which gives it time to work with your biological skin cells and:

*kill of dermal bacteria with antimicrobial peptides. This decreases the likelihood of rosacea as well as other skin problems such as acne as dermal bacteria are the main cause of both.

*control the reddening of skin by decreasing inflammation. This keeps the over exaggerated inflammatory response typical of rosacea from harming healthy skin cells.

*promote the regeneration of collagen, elastin tissue and other skin cells while eliminating scar tissue.

*repair and renew healthy skin cells by triggering natural enzyme response.

Biocutis offers products in natural rosacea skin care that contain the most modern and effective ingredients to counter uncomfortable symptoms and outbreaks. This one of a kind natural rosacea skin care not only controls symptoms but addresses the root causes of rosacea. The treatment eliminates dermal bacteria, decreases inflammatory reactions, and promotes healthy skin cell growth. It is a truly natural, complete, and successful rosacea treatment.

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Source: http://newhealthandfitness.org/2012/02/24/rosacea-treatments-use-natural-alternatives-to-treat-your-skin/

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Personal Finance Tips for Avoid Bad Credit history and Build ...

Posted by Stephen on February 24, 2012 in Education | ?

The following menu of personal finance tips for avoid bad credit are a powerful means of acquiring personal finance results. This disciplined way to personal finance will help you avoid bad credit and uncover you on record to wealth generating. Some of you may already be following this advice without knowing it, for some people, life?s distractions have led it to forget these common-sense guidelines.

What is a good credit score? The personal finance secret in order to avoid bad credit together with financial ruin is usually to create an correct budget monthly. Wealth building is usually a journey and it?s also vital to this kind of journey to know what your location is to understand where you should go. Successful wealth builders keep track of their money with meticulous precision, this focus on an individual?s monthly income and expenses makes it possible to maintain spending concentration. If your budget is now too painful to look at, try not in order to worry, and maintain track anyway, there is absolutely no avoiding this essential step towards success creation. Bad credit together with financial ruin can be caused by life?s surprises, or poor planning or projections, a budget will help you be prepared pertaining to and limit a lot of these unexpected expenses.

How to dispute credit score items? Many personal finance articles have already been written on the situation of money. Can?t say Image moved to action by many. First I?d like to say it is ok that you feel down concerning the current situation about your current finances. I provide you permission to believe your feeling for ones next 24 hours after which it pull yourself by your boot straps and let?s what we can do.

I bet today with the current economic situation you are announcing to yourself, ?I just wish I was able to the lotto! ? Boy don?t every person and yet studies and personal lending facts show that almost all people who succeed the lottery, turn out broke and a whole lot worse off before their winnings! Imagine of which. You among several seeking wealth, money, fame few people find that money isn?t the perfect solution is to their trouble; the way you feel about money is this challenge and the formula.

Alongside overeating, most consumers are inclined to overspend during the vacation season. With the popular Year?s Day basically here, consumers should manage their personal expenses and budgets with the best personal lending books of 2010.

Theodore Connolly, co-author from the Road Out with Debt, researched many unique finance books in writing a manual for financial defense if you happen to need to stop financial problems previously rebuilding their expenses. With so countless good credit guide books, finding the most effective one for the particular needs might be difficult. Ted Connolly highlights the most effective personal finance catalogs of 2010 that will serve the reader ponder which one could best meet the needs for financial well being in 2011.

Managing your current finance and personal budget is already very easy. Pictures manage all an individual?s finance by using one of many thousands of dollars management software for sale online.

Making budgets had been a very complex and boring task previously. One had to take many days and weeks creating his personal finance afford himself or an individual?s family. The husband and therefore the wife had to take many sleepless nights creating their house handle budget. But upon getting made a afford yourself, making a small change for it was almost for example starting it from the start.

Tags: credit, good credit, good credit loans, reduce debt

Source: http://youthtech.info/personal-finance-tips-for-avoid-bad-credit-history-and-build-plethora/

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Friday, February 24, 2012

Primary Drama Lesson Plan | Drama New Zealand

Reading the story

Move to the mat to hear a story about a grandmother:? ?The Granny who wasn?t like other grannies? by Denis Bond.? As chn settle you might like to discuss how they used drama techniques ? facial expression or posture, gesture to show their role.? You may also like to look for examples from the work that highlight/discuss how DIFFERENT everyone?s grandparents are.

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Read the story up to the bus conversation. Discuss the problem with Tim?s Gran and explain that we are going to bring to life some of these moments so we can really understand what is happening for Tim.? Discuss/clarify what drama techniques we use when we are creating a frozen moment.

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Re-creating the story

In small groups create these frozen moments: -

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  • Gran arrives on a noisy motorbike while Tim?s friends look on and laugh.

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  • Gran cheers loudly at the football match and joins in scoring the winning goal.

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  • Gran drives very fast on the fairground bumper cars and scares people

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  • Gran goes on the rollercoaster while other grannies watch, unimpressed.

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  • Gran climbs on the adventure playground, higher than the children

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  • Gran jumps in the puddles getting Tim and another child all wet and tells the child, ?Don?t be such a cry-baby!?

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Present and use spoken thought, overheard conversations and playing the action to explore the situation and the characters.

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Reflecting on our understandings

Move chn back to the mat and create a Role on the Wall ? Tim?s Gran.? Together generate words to describe Tim?s Gran. Set aside. (Leave room for additions later in the lesson.)

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The Pre-text The teacher explains that a letter has arrived for the chn.? She opens it and discovers that it?s from Tim.? Since Tim?s heard the chn are experts on grandparent behaviour, he wants them to help his Gran, who he is sending along in a few minutes.? Generate ideas for questions.

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Teacher in role as Tim?s Gran

Go into role using a prop or costume item for Tim?s gran. Chn meet Tim?s Gran. In role, share your concern about Tim and ask chn to help you to learn how to be a ?proper? grandmother.? Do they know how she should be behaving?? Who could she go and speak to to learn about these matters?? Where did their grandparents learn?? Take chn?s suggestions but maintain a confused, uncertain demeanour.? Thank the children and ask if the children would take a bit more time to think about this so she can be a better grandparent to Tim.

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Circular drama and teacher in role

The Perfect Grandparent.? Brainstorm ideas of what grandparents are like and how they should behave.

The teacher (out of role) explains that there are other people who might know about how to be a good granny.? Together with the chn identify people to consult on grandmother behaviour ? Therapist, other grans, chn, and teachers.? Come up with several options.? From these, form several small groups (4-5 chn) and assign each group one of these roles.?

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Developing Role: Discuss the kind of advice would this group give to Tim?s Gran.? Arrange the space to suit these roles and prepare to meet & advise Tim?s Gran.? How would these characters behave when they meet Tim?s Gran?

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Teacher-in-role visits each group and gets advice on how grannies should behave.? She thanks everybody and teacher comes out of role and moves chn to the mat to hear how the story progresses.

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Read the rest of the story.

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Discussion:

Ask the chn to explain the ending and clarify this change in Tim?s understanding.? Through the discussion and with reference to the story, highlight the idea that being different makes life interesting, that we don?t have to be the same to be okay.

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Come up with some other (positive) adjectives, describe her feelings, thoughts ? as much information as we need to provide to have our work capture this new perspective Tim has of his gran? add these on the Role on the Wall.

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In pairs, create a sculpture of Tim?s Gran to go in our Grandparents gallery.? One sculpt, one be clay.? As the teacher activates your pair, have the Sculptor create an adjective statement using the words from the role on the wall or adding your own.? ?Tim?s Gran was?.?

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Reflection:

Who loves you ?just the way you are?? Discuss differences in our grandparents, in people.? Discuss the idea of ?equal but different?.?

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Discuss what we learned about using drama techniques to show roles and to tell our story today.

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You may like to move the discussion into the ways we are ?equal but different? to others including people who are disabled, have a different colour skin, a different way of talking etc.

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If chn have prior experience, they can craft a frozen moment.? If not, you may like to ask them to play the moment and then freeze. Ask roles to speak aloud the thoughts of their character and/or allow the audience to overhear conversations from the characters who are watching Tim?s gran.? Vary the use of conventions as you wish, depending on the scene and confidence of group members. Give rehearsal time and rove to assist.

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?What kind of things might we need to ask Tim?s gran in order to help her??

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?What kind of advice would this group give to Tim?s gran? Come up ideas for Tim?s Gran in order to become a better grandparent.? How would these characters behave when they meet Tim?s Gran??

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?Tim changes his mind!? What were the positive things about his Gran?s behaviour?? What did Tim?s friends really think???

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?I love you just the way you are? ? What does that mean??

Who loves you ?just the way you are?? Think about the differences in our grandparents.? They are not perfect, and we are not perfect, but we love each other ?just the way we are?.?

Source: http://www.drama.org.nz/?p=2729

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Thursday, February 23, 2012

The Beer Chicks Appearing Next Week on Cooking Channel's Eat ...

Perozzi and Beaune

Perozzi and BeaunePhoto: Tatiana Arbogast

Christina Perrozi and Hallie Beaune, AKA The Beer Chicks, have a one-hour show coming up next week as part of The Cooking Channel's "Eat This, Drink That" series. The show will explore the Chick's passion for drinking and pairing booze--not only beer, but wine, spirits, and cocktails, too--while traveling in Mexico and L.A. Watch the well-regarded beer sommeliers, who also have good sushi recs up their sleeves, pair just-caught shrimp with absinthe, make a sweet corn beer float in L.A., and make a cocktail using sweet spuds on March 4th at 8:00 P.M. [Cooking Channel]

Source: http://losangeles.grubstreet.com/2012/02/beer-chicks-cooking-channel-eat-this-drink-that.html

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Research discovers potentially deadly fungus senses body's defenses to evade them

Research discovers potentially deadly fungus senses body's defenses to evade them [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 22-Feb-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Leslie Capo
lcapo@lsuhsc.edu
504-568-4806
Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center

New Orleans, LA Glen Palmer, PhD, Assistant Professor of Microbiology, Immunology & Parasitology at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, was part of an international research team led by Luigina Romani, MD, at the University of Perugia, that discovered opportunistic fungi like Candida albicans can sense the immune status of host cells and adapt, evading immune system defenses. Unlike previous studies, this research investigated both sides of the infection equation as well as the interaction between the fungi and the cells they will invade. The findings are published online in Nature Communications in the most recent articles section (February 21, 2012).

This study demonstrates that this process is much more elaborate and complex than previously understood. The researchers determined that C. albicans binds to the host immune signaling molecule, Interleukin (IL) 17A, which permits the fungus to navigate and tolerate the active immune environment of healthy host tissue, mounting effective countermeasures. IL-17A may also contribute to disease susceptibility by modifying the intrinsic virulence of the fungus. This study provides molecular evidence that by exploiting IL-17A, the fungus not only survives, but can cause disease to develop.

"It's a bit like the fungus is listening in to the conversations our immune system is having so it can best determine how to react and survive in our tissues. This may also be a crucial step in determining when this opportunist decides to invade host tissue and cause life-threatening disease in an immunosuppressed patient," notes Dr. Palmer.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are more than 20 species of Candida yeasts that can cause infection in humans, the most common of which is Candida albicans. Candida yeasts normally live on the skin and mucous membranes without causing infection; however, overgrowth of these organisms can cause symptoms to develop. Symptoms of candidiasis vary depending on the area of the body that is infected. Candidiasis that develops in the mouth or throat is called "thrush" or oropharyngeal candidiasis. Candidiasis in the vagina is commonly referred to as a "yeast infection." Invasive candidiasis occurs when Candida species enter the bloodstream and spread throughout the body. Candidemia (a bloodstream infection with Candida), is extremely rare in people without risk factors, but it is the fourth most common bloodstream infection among hospitalized patients in the United States.

"Disrupting or manipulating the fungal sensing of these host molecules could trick the fungus, essentially suppressing an infection, or enabling us to eliminate this potentially dangerous fungus before it causes problems," concludes Dr. Palmer.

###

The research team also included scientists from the University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy, University Complutense, Madrid, Spain, University of Lausanne, Switzerland, University of Gttingen, Gttingen, Germany, and Institut Pasteur, Paris, France.

This work is supported by the Specific Targeted Research Project ALLFUN and by the Fondazione per la Ricerca sulla Fibrosi Cistica.

LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans educates Louisiana's health care professionals. The state's academic health leader, LSUHSC comprises a School of Medicine, the state's only School of Dentistry, Louisiana's only public School of Public Health, and Schools of Allied Health Professions, Nursing, and Graduate Studies. LSUHSC faculty take care of patients in public and private hospitals and clinics throughout the region. In the vanguard of biosciences research in a number of areas in a worldwide arena, the LSUHSC research enterprise generates jobs and enormous economic impact. LSUHSC faculty have made lifesaving discoveries and continue to work to prevent, advance treatment, or cure disease. To learn more, visit http://www.lsuhsc.edu and http://www.twitter.com/LSUHSCHealth.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share 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.


Research discovers potentially deadly fungus senses body's defenses to evade them [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 22-Feb-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Leslie Capo
lcapo@lsuhsc.edu
504-568-4806
Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center

New Orleans, LA Glen Palmer, PhD, Assistant Professor of Microbiology, Immunology & Parasitology at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, was part of an international research team led by Luigina Romani, MD, at the University of Perugia, that discovered opportunistic fungi like Candida albicans can sense the immune status of host cells and adapt, evading immune system defenses. Unlike previous studies, this research investigated both sides of the infection equation as well as the interaction between the fungi and the cells they will invade. The findings are published online in Nature Communications in the most recent articles section (February 21, 2012).

This study demonstrates that this process is much more elaborate and complex than previously understood. The researchers determined that C. albicans binds to the host immune signaling molecule, Interleukin (IL) 17A, which permits the fungus to navigate and tolerate the active immune environment of healthy host tissue, mounting effective countermeasures. IL-17A may also contribute to disease susceptibility by modifying the intrinsic virulence of the fungus. This study provides molecular evidence that by exploiting IL-17A, the fungus not only survives, but can cause disease to develop.

"It's a bit like the fungus is listening in to the conversations our immune system is having so it can best determine how to react and survive in our tissues. This may also be a crucial step in determining when this opportunist decides to invade host tissue and cause life-threatening disease in an immunosuppressed patient," notes Dr. Palmer.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are more than 20 species of Candida yeasts that can cause infection in humans, the most common of which is Candida albicans. Candida yeasts normally live on the skin and mucous membranes without causing infection; however, overgrowth of these organisms can cause symptoms to develop. Symptoms of candidiasis vary depending on the area of the body that is infected. Candidiasis that develops in the mouth or throat is called "thrush" or oropharyngeal candidiasis. Candidiasis in the vagina is commonly referred to as a "yeast infection." Invasive candidiasis occurs when Candida species enter the bloodstream and spread throughout the body. Candidemia (a bloodstream infection with Candida), is extremely rare in people without risk factors, but it is the fourth most common bloodstream infection among hospitalized patients in the United States.

"Disrupting or manipulating the fungal sensing of these host molecules could trick the fungus, essentially suppressing an infection, or enabling us to eliminate this potentially dangerous fungus before it causes problems," concludes Dr. Palmer.

###

The research team also included scientists from the University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy, University Complutense, Madrid, Spain, University of Lausanne, Switzerland, University of Gttingen, Gttingen, Germany, and Institut Pasteur, Paris, France.

This work is supported by the Specific Targeted Research Project ALLFUN and by the Fondazione per la Ricerca sulla Fibrosi Cistica.

LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans educates Louisiana's health care professionals. The state's academic health leader, LSUHSC comprises a School of Medicine, the state's only School of Dentistry, Louisiana's only public School of Public Health, and Schools of Allied Health Professions, Nursing, and Graduate Studies. LSUHSC faculty take care of patients in public and private hospitals and clinics throughout the region. In the vanguard of biosciences research in a number of areas in a worldwide arena, the LSUHSC research enterprise generates jobs and enormous economic impact. LSUHSC faculty have made lifesaving discoveries and continue to work to prevent, advance treatment, or cure disease. To learn more, visit http://www.lsuhsc.edu and http://www.twitter.com/LSUHSCHealth.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share 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.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-02/lsuh-rdp022212.php

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Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Telomere failure, telomerase activation drive prostate cancer ...

By Rihard Raza | February 21, 2012

ScienceDaily (Feb. 20, 2012) ? Genomic instability brought on by an erosion of the protective caps on chromosomes, followed by activation of an enzyme that reinforces those caps, enables malignant cells to evade destruction and acquire much more deadly characteristics, researchers report in an On the web Now write-up at the journal Cell.

In a strain of mice engineered to develop prostate cancer, all mice that went by means of this two-step method developed lethal cancer and 25 percent had the disease spread to the spine. Two groups of mice that avoided this cycle developed only precancerous lesions or localized prostate cancer.

A comparative evaluation of genetic modifications in the metastatic mouse tumors and those identified in metastatic human prostate cancer identified the Smad4 gene as a driver in bone metastasis. Fourteen other genes had been found to be related with human prostate cancer prognosis.

The study focused on telomeres ? repeat nucleotide sequences at the guidelines of chromosomes that stop genomic damage during cell division. Telomeres shorten with every single cell division, sooner or later permitting genomic instability in the cells that normally causes these abnormal cells to die.

In cancer the enzyme telomerase becomes activated and lengthens telomeres, preserving damaged cells to survive and reproduce. Telomerase is inactive in standard cells.

Telomerase activation confers new strengths on tumors

?These in vivo mouse scientific studies, together with human and mouse prostate cancer genomic information, supply evidence that telomere dysfunction plays a essential function in prostate cancer initiation and progression,? mentioned co-senior author Lynda Chin, M.D., professor and chair of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center?s Department of Genomic Medicine.

?Our research also show that telomerase activation right after genomic instability triggered by telomere dysfunction enables evolving cancers to progress and acquire new biological properties, including central features of advanced human prostate cancer,? Chin mentioned.

Chin, co-senior author and MD Anderson President Ronald DePinho, M.D., and colleagues conducted this research although at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

Telomere dysfunction, fired-up telomerase, result in bone metastasis

The team took a strain of mice with both the p53 and pten tumor-suppressing genes knocked out that normally develop nonmetastatic prostate cancer and engineered some to express telomerase. They had been cross-bred for several generations.

  • Control mice with intact telomeres (either wild-kind mice or those with telomerase expressed) avoided the genomic instability triggered by telomere shortening. All of these mice created locally invasive, nonmetastatic prostate cancer.
  • Mice with out telomerase were subject to telomere dysfunction and genetic modifications and created precancerous high-grade prostate intraepithelial neoplasia (HPIN) but 60 percent of them did not progress to prostate cancer. Signs of programmed cell death triggered by genetic abnormalities abounded in this group.
  • Mice topic to telomere dysfunction, genomic instability and telomerase activation also developed HPIN but then progressed to lethal bulky tumors, with 5 of 20 producing spinal metastases that were not noticed in the genome-stable mice.

?Not only did telomerase reactivation bypass the cancer progression block that arises with telomere dysfunction, it also conferred a new property ? bone metastasis ? that was not observed in tumors that did not go via telomere dysfunction followed by telomerase reactivation,? mentioned first author Zhihu Ding, Ph.D., formerly of Dana-Farber and now with Sanofi-Aventis, Inc.

?This provides the first genetic evidence that telomerase reactivation and genome stabilization are required to drive complete malignant progression in epithelial cancers,? Ding said.

Aligning genetic alterations in mice and humans

Chin, Ding and colleagues analyzed gene copy quantity aberrations ? genes deleted or amplified ? in 18 advanced tumors from the mice and 194 human prostate tumors.

They identified 22 of the 94 copy quantity alterations involving deletion or amplification of 741 genes identified in mice were comparable to those discovered in humans. A series of analyses of alterations located in bone metastases pointed to deletions of the Smad4 tumor-suppressor gene, which regulates the transforming growth aspect beta (TGF-?) pathway.

The team took this finding back to the mouse model with tumor suppressors p53 and pten knocked out. These mice don?t create bone metastasis, but when the researchers also knocked out Smad4, far more aggressive tumors created, which includes bone metastasis in 3 of 24 mice.

Genes prognostic for human prostate cancer

Subsequent, they looked at 14 genes in nine molecular pathways located to be enriched in bone metastasis to see if they had been prognostic for recurrence (as measured by PSA levels right after surgery) among 140 prostate cancer patients.

The 14-gene set was significantly prognostic of biochemical recurrence, providing evidence of their biological relevance to human prostate cancer, but the researchers noted that their individual contributions and mechanisms of action will require additional analysis.

?General, our findings validate the integrative approach of employing genotype-phenotype correlations identified in the mouse model with the power of genomic and bioinformatic analyses to discover and explain molecular mechanisms that drive prostate cancer,? mentioned co-very first author Chang-Jiun Wu, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in MD Anderson?s Department of Genomic Medicine.

This study was funded by grants from the National Cancer Institute, the Prostate Cancer Foundation, the U.S. Department of Defense, the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, the Several Myeloma Study Foundation, an American Cancer Society and the Robert A. and Renee E. Belfer Foundation.

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The above story is reprinted from supplies supplied by University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, through Newswise.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Zhihu Ding, Chang-Jiun Wu, Mariela Jaskelioff, Elena Ivanova, Maria Kost-Alimova, Alexei Protopopov, Gerald?C. Chu, Guocan Wang, Xin Lu, Emma?S. Labrot, Jian Hu, Wei Wang, Yonghong Xiao, Hailei Zhang, Jianhua Zhang, Jingfang Zhang, Boyi Gan, Samuel?R. Perry, Shan Jiang, Liren Li, James W. Horner, Y.?Alan Wang, Lynda Chin, Ronald?A. DePinho. Telomerase Reactivation following Telomere Dysfunction Yields Murine Prostate Tumors with Bone Metastases. Cell, 2012 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2012.01.039

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

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to give medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed right here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

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Source: http://www.sciencegobble.com/telomere-failure-telomerase-activation-drive-prostate-cancer-progression.science

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Residential housing crisis may become goldmine for investors ...

As more and more families are either voluntarily leaving their Florida homes or are being forced out by foreclosure, some Florida investors are seeing the housing crisis as an opportunity. As the tide goes out on home ownership, the tide comes in on home rental.

Residential real estate investors are able to purchase properties to renovate and turn into rental homes, rather than 'flipping' the property as was more common during the housing boom at what many consider bargain prices. Investment properties that become rentals are offering a better return on their money for some commercial owners than even banks or the stock market.

"The banks are paying 0 percent interest," lamented one investor. But he's made offers on residential real estate where he projects, "[T]he rent stream will return 25 percent on my investment."

The good news for homeowners is that these real estate investors are helping to unclog the real estate market. Despite the bargain prices that many people report finding on these investment properties, an occupied rental property may make a much better neighbor than a vacant home that is no longer maintained.

In terms of investment property, one investor in the Tampa Bay area considers this to be, "[T]he most intense buyer's market that I have seen in 35 years of owning real estate."

But, investing in Florida real estate with the intention of managing rental property is not for everyone. Few banks will offer financing to even what might be considered the most qualified buyers. The investors who can truly make it in this market are those who can come to the table with cash and are willing to pay over the asking price on a property.

Source: Tampa Bay Times, "More investors put cash in rental homes," Katherine Snow Smith, Feb. 19, 2012

Source: http://www.bocaratonrealestatelawyerblog.com/2012/02/residential-housing-crisis-may-become-goldmine-for-investors.shtml

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8 Black Divas Who Died Way Too Soon | News One

1) Whitney HoustonWhitney Houston, a legendary songstress who had a scintillating voice and a talent beyond compare, passed away at age 48.? Recognized by the Guinness World Records as the ?Most Awarded Female Act of All Time,? Houston sold more than 170-million albums, videos, and singles worldwide during her career.? Houston?s artistic talents also spilled over on to the big screen, where she graced audiences with her acting abilities.? Houston was found dead on February 11, 2012, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel only one day before the 2012 Grammy Awards.? The cause of death is still unofficial but there is suspicion that a cocktail of drugs and alcohol might have been the culprit.


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2) AaliyahAaliyah was ?the princess of R&B.?? The young sensation?s voice had a declaration of ?strength, independence, and a look that had crossover appeal, garnering admirers globally.? Aaliyah ventured into acting, landing her first movie role in the film ?Romeo Must Die,? which also starred martial arts phenom Jet Li. The film opened No. 2 at the box office.? Unfortunately, on August 25, 2001, Aaliyah boarded a plane that would end her life at just 22 years young.

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3) Minnie RipertonMinnie Riperton left her fans in awe of her five-and-a-half octave singing voice as evidenced in her 1975 timeless hit ?Loving You.? During her short-lived career, she managed to sing backup for such greats as Etta James, Chuck Berry, and Muddy Waters. In 1976, when Riperton was only 29 years old, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Since the cancer had spread, Riperton was given only six months to live. Riperton, Mother of actress Maya Rudolph, became one of the first celebs to go public with her diagnosis and became a spokesperson for the American Cancer Society.? She passed away at age 31 on July 12, 1979.


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4) Phyllis Hyman

Phyllis HymanPhyllis Hyman was a statuesque and enviable beauty with a powerful voice that touched the souls of listeners.? Hyman never received the acclaim that many thought she was so worthy of, but this didn?t stop her from continuing to produce the music that she was meant to do.? A tragic figure who was beset with troubles from drugs, fluctuating weight problems, and countless broken hearts, Hyman took her own life by overdosing on drugs on June 30, 1995, closing the book on a career that was truly appreciated by romantic jazz and R&B aficionados everywhere.


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5) Florence Ballard

Florence Ballard was a founding member of the most-heralded girl group of the sixties, The Supremes.? Ballard sang in the group from 1963 to 1967, and during her reign, she helped spawn 10 No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.? Ballard, whose voice was often described as ?commanding,? battled Motown boss Berry Gordy throughout her time with the group.? When Diana Ross was placed front and center and the trio became Diana Ross and the Supremes, Ballard?s days were numbered. ?After Ballard was released from the group, a failed solo career and marriage left her destitute with three children.? Ballard was forced to apply for welfare and this news spread like wildfire.? Soon after, she tried to resurrect her career and marriage, but on February 21, 1976 at the age of 32, Ballard died from a blood clot in one of her coronary arteries.

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6) Billie Holiday Billy Holiday or ?Lady Day? had a musical persona that just never fades. She was inimitable with a voice that was haunting, vulnerable, and so reflective of the tragic life she led from the time she entered this earth.? Holiday?s mother was a prostitute, and Holiday became one too before she even turned 14. ?After a stint in jail for prostitution charges, Holiday turned her attention to singing, and by 17, she was already performing at local Harlem, New York, haunts.? Holiday was 20 years old when she was signed to a record label, and two years later, she found herself touring with such greats as Count Basie and Artie Shaw. The latter made her one of the first Black women to work with a white orchestra.? By the time Holiday reached 30, she had established herself as a vocal force to be reckoned with.? Soon Holiday?s light was dimmed by drug problems with weekly earnings of more than $1,000 spent on heroin.? Holiday?s life became plagued with booze, drugs, and battles with abusive men, causing her health to spiral downward and her voice to lose its vibrancy.? Diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver, doctors ordered her to stop drinking but she didn?t.? On May 31, 1959, Holiday was rushed to a hospital for liver and heart disease, and while there, she was placed under arrest for drug possession as she lay dying.? Holiday remained under police guard at the hospital until she died two months later at age 44 on July 19, 1959, from pulmonary edema and heart failure caused by cirrhosis of the liver.

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7) Tammi Terrell
Tammi Terrell, who accompanied Marvin Gaye, made the pair a Motown phenom. By age 15, she had already signed with major record label Scepter Records as a solo artist.? Terrell caught James Brown?s eye when she was 17 and became one of his first female headliners.? She and Brown became lovers, but the two-year relationship was fraught with the Godfather of Soul?s physical abuse.? Berry Gordy became enamored with Terrell?s voice when he heard her perform at a venue and signed her on to Motown at age 20.? She soon began touring and became involved with the Temptations lead singer David Ruffin, who also allegedly beat her unmercifully, striking her at one point with a hammer, machete, and motorcycle helmet in the face.? Terrell?s success soared when she began singing with Gaye and their first hit, ?Ain?t No Mountain High Enough,? flew off the charts.? Soon the young singer began experiencing unbearable headaches and migraines, which turned out to be a malignant brain tumor.? Eight operations later, Terrell lapsed into a coma and died from complications of brain cancer on March 16, 1970. She was only 24 years young.

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8) Lisa Lopes
Lisa ?Left Eye? Lopes was a member of the famed hip-hop R&B girl group TLC.? As the most vocal member of the group, she began speaking out against the group and eventually went her own way.? She was featured on albums, collaborated with other vocalists like Toni Braxton, and even appeared on a couple of television shows.? Lopes was never one to be silent about her personal life.? She came from an abusive and alcoholic home and even struggled with alcohol herself.? The petite performer also made headlines when she was accused and convicted of setting fire to the home of ex-lover NFL player Andre Rison.? Lopes told police that he had beat her and she retaliated by setting his tennis shoes on fire in a tub and the flames spread, completely destroying his home.? The young rebel rouser was sentenced to five years probation and therapy at a halfway house, but was never able to shake the incident from her reputation.? On April 25, 2002, in La Ceiba, Honduras, Lopes, age 30, died of neck injuries and severe head trauma as the result of a fatal crash.? There were three other passengers in the SUV that Lopes was driving. Lopes was the only fatality.

Check out HelloBeautiful?s gallery of the Top 10 Divas:

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Source: http://newsone.com/nation/black-history-month/game-changers/ruthlogan/8-black-divas-who-died-way-too-soon/

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Various branding options to pursue for promoting your business ...

What does your business need to succeed? This is a question asked by many new start-up entrepreneurs desperate to escape the daily grind and work towards creating a sustainable business that they hope will one day put them in a position to leave their job and earn a full-time income doing something the love. However, starting up in business is never an easy task and it?s essential before you make a start to have some form of company branding in place and then market this branding in unique and innovative ways that will encourage consumers to look at your online presence or visit your storefront.

Some of the more obvious options when starting up in business include purchasing business cards, flyers, pens and maybe even notepads all of which will include your company branding. These items are, needless to say, very useful when it comes to attending networking events and also when having something easy and simple to offer to existing customers with a view to helping them remember your store presence and hopefully return to buy from you again. However, quality can differ markedly and before choosing a particular designer or company to publish your materials it?s important to browse around for testimonials and to look at the various price points in the marketplace ??? it?s important not to always opt for the cheapest option, but it?s also important to make sure you don?t end up out of pocket either.

One increasingly popular option is to use point of sale websites or provider to print business cards or marketing materials on your behalf. If you have some experience using graphics packages then by all means have a go at designing your own materials and then send them on to your company of choice for printing.  However, this is a very important consideration, you don?t want to end up with sub-standard products ??? always be careful when it comes to branding your company and make sure the products you are purchasing are of quality and will create the right impression.

Source: http://handsontherapy.biz/archives/1726/various-branding-options-to-pursue-for-promoting-your-business/

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Tuesday, February 21, 2012

How monkeys handle moral outrage

During a 2011 talk at the TEDxPeachtree conference in Atlanta, primatologist Frans de Waal discusses the moral sense possessed by monkeys, apes and elephants.

By Alan Boyle

When Occupy Wall Street and similar protests played out over the past year, the phenomenon looked familiar to Emory University primatologist Frans de Waal: He's seen similar moral outrage over economic inequity expressed by monkeys and chimps. And he thinks we could learn a lesson or two from our fellow primates.

"The role of inequity in society is grossly underestimated," he told reporters today, on the final day of this year's meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Vancouver, Canada. "Inequity is not good for your health, basically."


Based on primate studies, that goes for the haves as well as the have-nots. Far from being a uniquely human quality, a sense of fairness is something biologists have seen in studies of primates as well as crows and dogs. Even elephants may have an appreciation of inequity, although de Waal said he and his colleagues haven't done such a study with that species because "you don't want to piss off an elephant."

One of the classic studies involves capuchin monkeys who were given treats when they exchanged tokens with their human handlers. Two types of treats were offered: cucumber slices (meh...) and grapes (yum!). If one monkey saw that another monkey was consistently getting grapes while she was getting only cucumber slices, she'd quickly start protesting ? by flinging the cucumber back at the handler and angrily jumping onto the cage walls.

"This is basically the Wall Street protest right here," de Waal said.

De Waal's replay of the scene never fails to get a human laugh, whether it's at the AAAS meeting or at a TEDx conference in Atlanta, as shown in the must-see video above. But there are serious points behind the laughter: Inequality causes tension and stress, not only for the one who gets the cucumber, but also for the one gets the grape (or a million-dollar bonus) and has to endure the resulting outrage.

Researchers set up a barter game with capuchin monkeys to see how they responded to unequal payoffs. For the full story behind this experiment, check out the NSF Science Nation video.

Some primates actually get the message. "In some combinations, the one who gets the grape refuses it unless the other one gets the grape," de Waal said. Other primates make a different choice. De Waal pointed to a chimpanzee study of selfish vs. altrustic behavior, in which the chimps are more likely to be in a sharing mood if they've attracted the attention of another chimp. However, they're not quite as likely to share if the other chimp is actively pressing them to do so.

The bottom line from de Waal's talk is that a sense of fairness, outrage over moral equality and the ability to reconcile and cooperate are not uniquely human behaviors. Rather, such sensibilities were hard-wired into brains long before the rise of the human species. This is reflected in neuroscience as well, de Waal said. "Very ancient parts of the brain are involved in moral decision making," he observed.

All this meshes with the message of de Waal's latest book, "The Age of Empathy." For more from de Waal about the altruism of animals, check out my Q&A from 2009.

Here are a few more nuggets from de Waal's lecture and news briefing in Vancouver:

  • Different primate species express signs of reconciliation in different ways. For example, stumptail monkeys make up by inspecting each other's rear ends, without ever looking each other in the eye. In contrast, chimps and other apes (including us hairless apes) "need eye contact" when they reconcile their differences, de Waal said.
  • Men make a characteristic pursed-lip gesture when expressing regret ? a gesture that's also widely seen in other male primates under similar circumstances. But de Waal says it's rarer to see women making that pursed-lip look.
  • Empathy?? the ability to share an emotional connection with other individuals ? isn't unique to humans. But humans, like many other species, make a distinction between in-group and out-group connections. Having a sense of empathy for people beyond our "in-group," however that's defined, may be a "fragile experiment" being conducted by our species, de Waal said.
  • During an earlier session at the AAAS meeting, a group of scientists and philosophers called for the promulgation of a "Declaration of Rights for Cetaceans." De Waal was asked what he thought of setting up a declaration of rights for non-human primates, and he replied that he generally took a "welfarist" view toward other species. Humans were bound by an obligation to animals rather than by a set of rights drawn up on their behalf, he said. He pointed to the recently adopted limits on chimpanzee research as an example. "If they [chimps] are not so necessary for biomedical studies, should we be using them in biomedical studies?" de Waal asked.

More from the AAAS meeting in Vancouver:


Alan Boyle is science editor for msnbc.com. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or?adding the Cosmic Log Google+ page?to your circles. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

Source: http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/20/10459741-how-monkeys-handle-moral-outrage

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Mexican prez sister accused by former ruling party (AP)

[unable to retrieve full-text content]AP - The sister of Mexican President Felipe Calderon was hit with accusations of possible corrupt practices Monday

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120220/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_mexico_politics

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Monday, February 20, 2012

The Reason Why You Will Want To Buy Extended Automobile ...

Whenever people buy a new or pre-owned car, they often find out information on it first, the mileage this has already handled, have there recently been any works carried out on it, and also that most of the assessments and documents are in place to be sure that it is actually road worthy and legitimate. Cars which are new, or near brand new generally still have the makers warranty in place. With regard to old vehicles it is unlikely to be the case.

Possessing a warranty on the car or truck ensures that if anything ought to go wrong you will be covered for the vehicle repairs. The down-side, is not all extended warranties cover everything. You should definitely figure out just how much coverage you may have with a certain warranty. That is why you could think about considering and having an extended auto warranty.

Some automobile dealers may additionally offer their own warranty whenever you purchase a car from them. The actual down-side to these particular offers, is always that automobile stores will almost certainly try to offer this for you on the forecourt, and that means you won?t be able to compare and contrast their warrantee offer with someone elses, and could feel forced to buy it.

Many car dealerships will actually price the particular warrantee more than is necessary and after that mark it down and that means you believe you are getting a great deal, and a lot of these people in reality get commission with what number of these they offer to buyers. There is also the possibility that the particular warranty they offer onto you, does not take care of all aspects of the auto and could make you out of pocket should that specific component fail or even need maintenance.

A good thing for you to do would be to tell them that you?re going to give it some thought and come back to them within a week, a lot of may well point out it?s a today only price, but the truth is need to look around at getting rates prior to you signing the contract, if he or she really want your business they should gladly wait around a few days.

Searching online for compare extended auto warranties certainly is the best idea, the online world has made it easy for many of us to learn more details and help us to save cash. When you have located a company that would seem trustworthy and offers ample warrantee protection, don?t forget to take your time to seek out some testimonials on the organization. By obtaining content or disappointed consumers posting their own encounters, will provide you with a good indication whether or not the warranty is worthwhile.

Any time you purchase a car, you may think that taking out one of these warrantee offers is too much of an extra charge, and could become a total waste of money if you do not require it. With that being said, there might come an occasion when the vehicle requires maintenance which will be covered, saving you a lot of money. So what happens when you breakdown far from your home and you also don?t have the amount of money to help get the automobile repaired, transported home or even to pay money for a place to stay for that night? There are various providers that will sort all of those things out for you.

Once you purchase your vehicle, be sure you really take into consideration taking out an extended warranty. Not only will this offer peace of mind along with your motor vehicle, but can assist cover the price tag on any small or significant car repairs, including vehicle breakdowns.

If you?re looking to learn more with regards to extended car warranty the good thing to try and do is always to go online for compare extended auto warranties to determine which can work best for you.

Source: http://beginjob.com/automotive/car-detailing-customization/the-reason-why-you-will-want-to-buy-extended-automobile-warranty.html

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California Levee Fixes Lead To Greater Risk, Analysis Shows

LATHROP, Calif. -- When Jack Robertson walks his dog atop the earthen levee just blocks from his home, the San Joaquin River rushes past on one side and rows of tract houses unfold on the other.

In Lathrop, a small community that mushroomed on a floodplain in California's Central Valley, 18,000 people live in the shadows of levees that once failed.

To pave the way for thousands more homes and a tripling of its population, the community is making levee repairs funded largely by $5 billion in state voter-approved flood control bonds.

In California, whose antiquated levee system is the nation's largest, such ambitious plans have raised the stakes in a long-running debate over how much should be built behind levees designed in large part to safeguard farmland, not the 1 million people and $69 billion in property now protected by them.

The planned development in Lathrop and other flood-prone places also has raised questions about whether the state's flood control spending is heading off a potentially disastrous problem or will exacerbate it in the long run.

After Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast, California voters approved the bonds in 2006 for improvements to the most important and vulnerable levees and other flood infrastructure. The $5 billion is less than one-third of the $17 billion needed to completely shore up the state's flood protection system.

An AP analysis of the $3 billion spent so far shows the largest expenditures have focused on improving levees in flood-prone areas where development recently occurred and where much more growth is planned. In several cases, the levee projects were also partially financed by developers waiting to build more housing on the floodplains.

In addition to Lathrop 75 miles east of San Francisco, major repairs are taking place to the north in Plumas Lake in Yuba County and in West Sacramento, across the Sacramento River from the state capital, and the Natomas area of Sacramento itself.

Records show $629,290,000 in bond funds were spent in direct costs on these projects, not counting state-wide costs such as levee evaluations, floodplain mapping or flood notifications.

Critics say this is a poor way to spend the state's flood control dollars, because encouraging new development in floodplains puts more people and property at risk. And higher risk means ever-escalating demands for levee repairs, as well as greater rescue and rebuilding costs after flooding.

"It doesn't make economic sense," said Jeffrey Mount, geology professor at UC Davis. "The state should not be funding projects that induce growth and increase flood risk."

But the state has little power over local land use decisions, and local governments need tax revenue from new construction to help pay for levee repairs.

"Communities are caught in a vicious circle," said Mount. "To pay for their share of the cost of levee repairs, they need to have growth on the floodplain." Mount is a former state's levee safety board member who was critical of development and was fired by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2005.

State water officials say the Central Valley's flood risk ranks among the highest in the nation and they are spending the bond money to protect existing communities. The levees built along the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, they say, are particularly vulnerable to warm rain on top of a heavy melting snowpack, which can fill reservoirs and rivers to overflowing within days.

Although courts have found the state financially liable for levee failures, officials acknowledge the state has exercised little control over years of rapid residential and commercial development on what once were lightly populated floodplains.

But they have begun taking steps to change that, said Mike Mierzwa, senior engineer at the California Department of Water Resources.

A state flood control plan released in December calls for limiting growth in undeveloped floodplains and encourages smarter land use planning. It advocates widening floodways and bypasses and purchasing conservation easements to prevent urban development.

The state also will require urban communities that want to do new development to achieve 200-year flood protection, double the federal standard, by 2025. That level of protection means a flood has a 0.5% chance of occurring in any given year. That corresponds to a 14 percent chance of flooding over the course of a 30-year mortgage.

"Moving to 200-year protection sets the bar a little higher," Mierzwa said. "It causes local communities to think about what they're doing out there, and focus less on protection and more on risk."

Experts say the state needs to do more to limit aggressive development behind levees.

"Climate change may bring larger floods, so we don't have any certainty about what level of protection we really need," said John Cain, director of conservation for California Flood Management at the nonprofit American Rivers. "One day, we could find out that gee, we were wrong, those people we allowed to buy houses behind that levee are in great danger."

Meanwhile, communities that are hungry for development race to have their levees meet the minimum federal 100-year flood standard, as they will be grandfathered in under the lower standard of protection. Once accredited, they are no longer considered to be in a "floodplain" ? even if they have experienced frequent flooding.

That level of flood protection means that over the course of a 30-year mortgage, the chance of a 100-year flood occurring is about 1 in 4, or 26 percent.

In Lathrop, a new city hall and more than half dozen developments were built on land which most recently filled with water after the levees leaked during the 1997 flood. The levees, dating back to the mid-1800's, were improved ? including recent widening and addition of seepage berms.

Eliud Nduti, a Kenyan immigrant who works as a Bay Area elevator mechanic, bought a house here two years ago. But he said he didn't realize Lathrop was behind a levee until he moved in.

"One day, I just drove up, parked my car and walked," he said. "I was really surprised. This levee is a concern for us, but we can't afford flood insurance."

Other residents, like Robertson, a retired computer company manager, said they feel safe and don't buy insurance because the levees meet the federal 100-year flood protection standard. Federal records show only 173 Lathrop residents, fewer than 1 percent, have flood insurance, which is not required.

In Lathrop, as in several other areas, developers eager to build more housing helped pay for the local share of levee repairs.

More repairs will be needed, said the local reclamation district secretary, Dante John Nomellini Sr. Future development will help raise money so the district can continue paying for more repairs, he said.

Nomellini said his district had little choice but to develop the floodplain and put more people at risk.

"If you have an existing population in place that you want to protect, not developing anymore is not going to help; it's going to hurt," he said. "You've got to increase the risk, because that's how you're going to get revenue to provide increased protection."

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Online:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/19/california-levee_n_1287210.html

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Sunday, February 19, 2012

Two Short Expensive Fiction Horror Tales

You are able to call me Percy Doore, or Vard?ge-I am unsure who I?m any longer, or at best sometimes therefore it seems in Santiago, Chile, I had been put in the hospital last year approximately (October, 2001),for any chronic nerve disorder, here is things i authored during my journal notes, and what happened, which now i?m going to reedit for offspring sake-and clearer notes, for individuals who would like to attempt to comprehend the mind, otherwise the 2nd self:

?I?d gone through electrical stimulating a couple of days ago to my left temporoparietal junction ((also known as: where both temporal and parietal lobs meet) (in the Sylvain Fissure))-creating an from body experience, which manifested a double-master (or else crowned as, Vard?ger/doppelganger). To become frank and honest, or as truthful as I understand how to become-it had been as though my ghost, my double walked from me, from my own space, even though this body else was a more youthful me by forty-years, there I lay, motionless, because he happened about and extended as though from the lengthy sleep, just awakened. I ought to mention-a minimum of in passing: it had been as though I?d an evil double that laid dormant inside a grave, stimulated, I requested its title, ?Vard?ge,? is it stated, arrogant and smug. Thus I?d met my very own-so known as ghostly double.

?That evening I?d a nightmare, and also the nightmare came into being, each morning. My double mused at me during my hospital room, when i retrieved, walking about, strutting, coupled with placed the morning paper alongside my mattress, opened up towards the second page, within the left hands corner read, ?Mysterious person burns the Quran,? along with a picture of me around the paper, but of me after i was twenty-3 years old, there I?m on the roof of some building with several books from the Quran, having a match in hands, torching the books.? And my double stated, ?Just a little revenge for 9/11,? and chuckled. Again I had been amazed I?d met myself, and began to consider: what next??

This now being our second meeting, he stated in my experience, as though in passing, ?Until Dying reunites us (meaning my physical dying)I?ll walk our planet, while you, with no middle title, for you will find two mobile phone industry?s of existence, it?s only a matter of awakening another really, it is possible by simply searching inside a mirror and summoning me (a treadmill people, up),however, it is just like me awakening right into a dream, the thing is me however for a expensive, i quickly fade back to my underneath grave, type of, the one which you?ll inhabit beside me afterwards, as well as in due time, shed me like lizard-skin, or own me such as the half-demon I?m. Behold, I?m a part of you-but stored far away permanently reasons. However when you do things like a household power into my central nervous system, you pull me out of my second world to become listed on you in forces, voluntarily or unwillingly.?

Everything helped me question my living. Now when i try looking in the mirror I see two faces. After I relaxation, and drink a glass water, I can tell two faces his and mine. Refer to it as an illusion from the mind, for your is how visions are created, but what we should often forget as living creatures, visions are really the-into another world, one we own, so when we have seen it we do not always recognize it, despite the fact that they vanish. It had been at this time around the ghost of me was increasingly real than me, therefore it appeared. What he would do next, I could not phantom, but over time-I found realize increasingly more, he actually was my second, so that as lengthy when i seen that face-in some places, in insights, I understood I had been alive-although I?d never see him again-within the waking world that?s, obviously, he didn?t desire to be merged with me, I guess, lest he be reminded from the advantages of existence-that was against his character, just like a drunk does not choose to be consuming having a person attempting to sober up, with no success. (Reedited, October 6, 2010)?

Note: Written 10-6-2010 (No: 690)

Stock-still (Aboard a cruiseship within the Waters from the Drake)

It?s not not even close to the reality had I transformed instinct for reason during my youthful days that I?d be lengthy dead now. Yes, indeed, instinct, natural gift of creatures living within character. For frequently I?ve been benumbed and humbled through the functions from the mysterious, and sometimes hardly in a position to move, and also have made it all ordeals, yet that one time-I dare say, I had been baffled-which as being a mild description of my feelings, I had been literary shocked-

I unbolted my cabin window to determine exactly what the disturbance was, ?Rope. Obtain a rope!? a voice within the darkness stated, as though someone was losing potency and efficacy. Satisfied I?d heard properly I moved on by this time around, and also the moaning sounds I?d heard together with the cry for help, had faded sufficiently, to some less clearer quality, tone or tenor. When I looked the window, downward, I saw a shadow trembling and quivering-piteously.

Inside a pleading voice-the cisco kid, which had a form of an individual, that looked ghostly-a voice almost piercing in helplessness, which in some way did not go right to my heart, and affected me strangely, still possibly half asleep, I stated ?A rope, okay, I?ll obtain a rope?? constantly presuming I had been inside a dream, otherwise a nightmare, thus finding myself-regardless of the dream, or nightmare-rushing from the cabin towards the deck area, near inside a run, behind me my spouse calling, ?Wait, stop one minute, you are getting nightmare!?

?Where?s some rope,? I stated to her, in near stress, getting a lifejacket rather and hurrying towards the fringe of the ship.

?No, no!? screamed my spouse, and that i stopped ?stock-still!? intuitively.

Now catching her breath, and composure she snapped up me, drawn me back, my right feet within the fringe of the ship, the Drake below me and 6000-meters deep water. She is at a frightful fit, shivering within the October atmosphere. How heavy the climate was with wet dampness, I simply found notice, an easy rain, lit through the evening light, known as the moon and lights from the ship-I felt as though isolated in the finish, and edge around the globe, throughout me water, it encircled me, when i blown out the intoxicating numbness, quietly being released of the fog, searching overboard for my phantom.

?You had been fantasizing,? my spouse explained, now fully awake, or apparently so. Possibly it had been some type of manifestation, I told my thoughts, but my thoughts wouldn?t accept it. Now i required so that it is, reason over instinct. Why don?t you I stated, it?s rarely I make such options.

After I returned to my room, half naked, I grew to become horribly cold, and my teeth chattered in the wet, I felt very awkward, I had been thus, shutting your window, slowly and gradually my teeth stopped chattering, the heat from the cabin-stole through me, and also the influence from the quiet, whistling from the ship, and my exhaustion put me to rest because it all encircled me, wrapped me in the scarf.

Whenever we showed up in Punta Arenas the following day, at 11:40 a.m., the sister ship to ours had been docked. Someone were standing about speaking, and searching quite serious. I guess I?m a practical guy, so anyway, we, went and requested what all of the commotion involved, and among the staff people, stated-unwillingly, with tripping words, ?We are one passenger short.?

Written October, 5, 2010 (No: 689) baloney

Source: http://arts-short-fiction.chailit.com/two-short-expensive-fiction-horror-tales.html

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The Naked Truth Behind Debt Relief & Settlement Companies

New York, NY (PR) February 18, 2012

lawicm.com logoAs the economic recession continues, consumer debt is on the rise and Americans are struggling to pay their credit card bills. In response, thousands of debt settlement or debt relief companies have emerged. These for-profit businesses lure consumers by claiming that they can successfully renegotiate or consolidate consumer credit card debt to a much lower balance and therefore allow consumers to pay off debt, improve their credit score and avoid bankruptcy. The Law Firm of Imbesi Christensen & Michael explains in depth below how these companies will actually cause a consumer to be financially worse off than when they first started.

The truth is that the debt relief industry is riddled with deceptive and abusive practices. These companies prey on the financially weak and often appear as the only light at the end of the bankruptcy tunnel. Jeanne Christensen, a Bankruptcy attorney with the Law Firm of Imbesi, Christensen & Michael, says that most clients that contact her for a consultation have already attempted to cure their debt with these companies and are worse off than when they first started. There is little evidence demonstrating that creditors negotiate with debt settlement companies or that consumers are able to avoid bankruptcy through a debt negotiation plan. In fact, there have been thousands of claims that these companies fail to do precisely what they promise.

Debt Settlement companies have literally popped up all around the United States such as: Credit Solutions, Care One Debt Relief Services, Debt Solutions USA, Legal Helpers Debt Resolution, LLC, Safe Trust Financial, Inc., Global Logistics Enterprises, In Charge Debt Solutions, Lifeguard Financial, LLC, Lighthouse Credit Foundation, Morgan Stevens Financial Solutions Company, National Financial Freedom LLC, Nationwide Consumer Advocacy Group Financial Network, LLC, Freedom Debt Relief, Global Financial Services, Safe Trust, Superior Debt Services and U.S. Debt Associates.

Why Debt Settlement Does Not Work

Under the terms of the plan, the consumer is instructed to open up a separate account through a servicing company so that they can deposit money on a monthly basis. The debt settlement company is supposed to use this money to pay off the creditors.

However, this process rarely takes place. Heres why: The servicing companies charge excessive monthly fees to the consumer for the account on top of the already excessive monthly fees charged by the debt settlement company. In the meantime, consumers have stopped making any payments and have ceased communications with their creditors as per the debt settlement companys instruction.

The debt settlement companies will not even attempt to negotiate with a creditor until sufficient funds have accumulated in the servicing account. It can take 12-24 months before a creditor is even contacted by the debt relief company.

This delay in negotiating results in the following: (1) increasing debts already owed through accumulated fees and interest; (2) debt collection harassment; (3) delinquencies reported to credit reporting agencies; (4) lawsuits and default judgments entered by creditors for the delinquent accounts; (5) garnishment of wages or levied bank accounts; and finally (6) the inevitable bankruptcy filing.

Although the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) prohibits debt settlement companies from charging fees until a settlement is obtained, the relief companies violate this rule repeatedly. There is little or no incentive to settle debts for consumers when the companies and their servicers are making huge profits on the monthly fees alone.

The above chain of events leaves the consumer worse off than before the consumer entered into contract with debt settlement companies.

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The Warning Signs (Red Flag) List

**Consumers should be extremely cautious before signing up for services with debt settlement companies especially when the following warning signs exist:
1. The company charges up-front fees or unreasonably large fees through payments.
2. The company claims that it will significantly reduce the total amount of consumers debts by as much as 50 to 60 percent (or fifty cents on the dollar).
3. The company claims that it will settle consumers debts over a shorter period of time if consumers deposit as much money as they could towards their trust accounts.
4. The company advises consumers to stop paying debts and communicating with creditors.
5. The company claims that lawsuits against consumers will be rare because creditors are willing to negotiate with it on behalf of consumers.

Tags: Behind, Companies, Debt, Naked, Relief, Settlement, Truth

Source: http://www.americanonews.com/the-naked-truth-behind-debt-relief-settlement-companies/2782/

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