Have you read Simon Black?s post about the 7 Types of Expats? I thought of it yesterday as my friend was buzzing me through the mountains near Chaing Mai, Thailand (beautfiul!). We got to talking about the lifestyle design ?scene.?
Make no mistake? it?s a scene for sure. Here in Chaing Mai there?s easily 100?s of nomadic internet types. One well-placed tweet will land you at a cafe where the conversations will hover losely around topics like Singapore vs. Hong Kong, Galaxy S3?s vs. iPhone 5?s, Pandas, Penguins, Paypal policies, and link building strategies.
One thing unites us all? love it or hate it? nearly all of us have read the 4 Hour Work Week and have a lot of varying opinions about it. In the book, Ferriss doesn?t offer a concise definition, so I?ll take stab(ish) at one:
Lifestyle design ? n ? the state of affairs created when basic living wages can be earned with an increasingly tenuious connection to time-input or physical location. This ?modularity? of personal income calls into question those lifestyle elements which traditionally correlated more closely with earning? namely? time, mobility, purpose, passion, and autonomy, among others.
The criticism that ?lifestyle design has always been around? is fair enough then, but it?s only really been available to rich people? people with property, companies, or other assets that generate cash without their?assistance.?What used to take a company, employees, start-up capital, can now get done with a website and a Paypal account. It?s easier than ever to try and strike it rich, and I guess in a way that?s what lifestyle designers are after. But unlike previous generations of business owners, they aren?t just counting cash.
Here?s some of the types of lifesytle designers I?ve met in my travels. What type are you?
The Gamer.?Gamers are very often poker players, affiliate marketers, SEOers, or paid traffic guys. Gamers are often very bright, and are attracted to the opportunity to ?hack? everything. They often find it difficult to building a business that scales. They tend move on to new money-making challenges fast.
What do Gamers think the 4 Hour Work Week all about? Using data driven strategies to put up effective offers on the web. Launch, test, optmize, and repeat.
The Passionate Practitioner. Much like many of my blogging co-horts, the promise of the 4 Hour Work Week was the opportunity to trade income and mobility in order to win back time. PP?s are excited about the opportunity to make money from work that they?d want to be doing anyway. Copywriters, bloggers, product designers, public speakers, fans of parkour,?juicing, or ?practically?anything under the sun can now dream of monetizing their passions without signing any leases.
What do?Practitioners?think 4 Hour Work Week all about? Earning back your time so you can do what you are truly passionate about.
The Entrepreneur. Probably the most natural audience for the book, the 4HWW?movement caught legs and extended much further beyond the over-worked business owner in the bay area. That said, I can?t tell you how many multi-million dollar business owners I?ve seen putting up e-book landing pages (some to great success!) after having been exposed to lifestyle design concepts.
Entrepreneurs are business people first, so they enjoy freeing time to do more business oriented side projects, or to spend time with family and friends. Given their history growing organizations and cash-flows, entrepreneurs don?t struggle as much with ?filling the void.? In my experience, it?s entrepreneurs who have taken the impact of 4HWW most in stride. ?Yeah, I put up a blog and backpacked through Europe? now what??
What do Entrepreneurs think the 4 Hour Work Week all about? Asking yourself what your business can do for you and not the other way around. Your business should empower you to find the things you want to do, not dictate a list of things you should do.
The Natural. Naturals, either by extraordinary personal experience, luck, special DNA, or necessity, are compelled to live outside of inhereted cultural scripts for making a living, educating themselves, and identifying projects to take on. The natural was doing it since day 1.
What do Naturals think the 4 Hour Work Week all about? ?Me!?
The Tourist. The tourist is drawn into the community by the most immediate and compelling promise of lifesytle design? the prospect of unlimited world travel. The tourist often cashes in assets or takes a step back in their career in order to test out life on the road. The tourist isn?t yet sure about owning their own means of production, or what that might mean exactly. But screw it, let?s travel!
What do Tourists think the 4 Hour Work Week all about? Working your whole life away is a waste, we should go after our true passions? like travel? while we are young and still able to enjoy it. We?ll figure out the income thing later. And anyway, those jobs aren?t going anywhere. Are they?
Got any more?
Cheers,
Dan
PS, sometimes readers are dissapointed because they miss out on events, jobs, and new stuff we are doing (we?re finishing a book and a graduate level entrepreneurship course by the end of the year!). The only way to keep 100% up to date is to subscribe to our mailing list:
Member?s of our inner circle get early action announcements on everything we do, and that was the case with our Bangkok meet-up. We ended up selling out all spots inside our forum so the offer never went public.
PPS, thanks for reading my blog yo!!!
PPPS, You can follow some other stuff I?m doing on?Facebook, Twitter, RSS, and Tropical Talk Radio.
Lovely seems and also presentable individuality is actually anyone desire to have and for these types of appealing as well as fascinating appears to be people try everything. They undergo a lot of remedies as well as solutions to further improve their all round seems and appearance. Occasionally these kinds of tests together with your epidermis or perhaps hair may result in side effects. You might sense grim as well as amazed. In case you are likewise among this specific league of folks that possess experienced this kind of side effects associated with attractiveness therapies then you certainly need to choose several trustworthy on-line companies.
In addition to the elegance therapies on your epidermis and also confront, if you are being affected by any type of tresses problems like a recurrent hair fall or even hairloss then you could choose of numerous hair thinning options. You will find a lot of frizzy hair specialists occasionally but for pick up for your expensive curly hair remedy or perhaps haircare professionals you ought to choose the dependable on the web frizzy hair services.
With such reliable on-line hair option companies you may get the actual high quality providers regarding top hairloss expert Noida with just a click on of your respective mouse button. These premium online providers usually do not see you as as the figures nevertheless deal with a person being an individual that is deserving of appropriate attention along with insight into the best means to fix his curly hair problems. These kinds of on the web frizzy hair specialist services is known for offering greatest consumer?s pleasure and first class providers this is why they feature they regarding highly trained along with effective specialists for your support.
All these on-line providers offer almost all their expensive hair thinning treatments along with assistance using best options which also from quite competing as well as bank account helpful rates. With these amazing agencies you will get very best curly hair hair transplant Noida with very affordable and reasonable prices. These qualified along with encountered companies offer you effect oriented services to all their customers along with consumers and their good quality driven group provides finest remedies in this.
With such online frizzy hair remedy services it is possible to pick up premium along with ultimate alternatives intended for tresses hair treatment. Whether you are looking for Follicular device tresses implant, follicular unit removal or even tresses implant maintenance these on-line companies get high quality remedy for all those. Actually , with one of these tried and tested expert services you can pick up superb eyebrow hair treatment also. There are several high quality solutions that exist by these types of on the internet curly hair specialist companies.
Besides hair hair transplant solutions also you can pick up special services regarding peladera, hairloss, guy routine hair thinning, woman design hair thinning etc .. Now as you are planning to grab these kinds of premium and also ultimate curly hair alternatives, then you can definitely grab online consultation at the same time. So , what more do you want!
Toronto?s city council asked for a report on the economic impact of a new casino before voting for or against the idea. Its version of our city council finance committee is going to take a look at it Nov. 5, with a council vote due Nov. 27.
Here?s the Toronto staff report and here?s the heftier report from Ernst & Young that it summarizes.
No dancing around: the report says a new casino, in any of a number of permutations (standalone vs. larger entertainment complex, in a few different locations), would be a huge economic plus for Toronto. The least awesome scenario they came up with was adding a standalone casino to the Woodbine racetrack, and even that would mean 2,100 to 2,700 additional jobs, $270 million in new money for the city economy, and between $32 million and $95 million for the city government itself. The most awesome scenario, a new entertainment complex probably on the downtown waterfront, would be two to four times better on all those measurements.
The down sides, in increased health problems, are treated briefly (the city?s health department is to report separately), but they?re overall considered fairly minor:
The Medical Officer of Health (MOH) has prepared a technical report on the public health impacts of gambling and of expanded access to gaming venues. The key findings are summarized herein. The MOH?s report concludes that increasing access to gambling through any means (including a casino) is associated with an increase in the prevalence of problem gambling which presently affects 0.2% of the population. Consequently, a casino located anywhere in the GTA will likely increase health risks for Toronto residents and nearby communities.
The OLG contributes approximately $40 million annually ? 2 percent of its annual slot revenues ? to the provincial government?s programs to fund the treatment, research, prevention and public awareness of problem gambling. The corporation additionally spent $12.9 million in 2011/12 on internal responsible gambling initiatives including staff training and self-exclusion programs. OLG works with other provincial agencies including CAMH to develop staff training, and the Ontario Problem Gambling Research Centre to conduct research.
The Ernst & Young report goes pretty deep into the details of Toronto?s particular circumstances and the assumptions that are built into the findings, though, and many of them are not transferrable to Ottawa ? it?s not just a matter of scaling down the population. For one thing, Toronto is just much more of a tourist destination, with much stronger international connections:
In our discussions with OLG and Casino Operators, it was noted that several characteristics of Toronto would make the City an attractive location for international high rollers including the lack of taxes levied on gambling wins, the number of direct flights from Asian countries and the local demographics and family connections to Asia. Accordingly, a casino in Toronto is anticipated to be able to capture a sizable portion of the international high roller market, if the casino is configured and promoted appropriately. The consensus view was that Gaming Revenue from international high rollers (and tourists) would be potentially between $250 and $400 million if an integrated Casino Complex is approved.
The report also notes the variety of casino options available to Torontonians now, from Casino Rama to Niagara and Buffalo. They play the same general role for Toronto as the Lac-Leamy casino does for Ottawa, but there are more of them, with more variety, all happily sucking Toronto gamblers in. They figure they?re looking at something like $1 billion from all GTA residents being spent in venues other than the Woodbine racetrack and slots, and they assume a Toronto casino could bring a lot of that money into Toronto itself.
Ottawa, of course, contains nearly all of the population that might be expected to go to an Ottawa casino; Carleton Place and Rockland are not Mississauga and Ajax.
One tidbit that probably is roughly transferrable, though, is that the report concludes that there?s a bunch of money in a casino for the Toronto city government as a casino landlord ? if a casino were built on city-owned land. That?s beyond the hosting fee promised by the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. just in exchange for political co-operation. Ernst & Young pegs it at $250 million, depending on the exact circumstances (that?s a one-off payment, not ongoing). The consultants also figure a casino would be worth $27 million a year in property taxes.
An Ottawa casino wouldn?t be as profitable as a Toronto casino, so all those kinds of payment would be smaller here, but the fact that the hosting fee isn?t the only revenue stream is worth remembering.
To sum up, a casino would be great for Toronto, according to consultants, partly because so much money is flowing out to other gambling centres and partly because of all the international tourists who visit Toronto and are looking for a good time.
(Obligatory disclosure: The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation?s chairman is Paul Godfrey, who is also chief executive of Postmedia Network Inc., which owns the Citizen.)
In this Oct. 18, 2012 photo, Ezzat, an Egyptian child paints clay pottery in front of his house in old Cairo, Egypt. The Egyptian government estimates that some 1.6 million minors work - almost 10 percent of population aged 17 or under, often in arduous conditions. Other experts put the number at nearly twice that. Some child labor activists worry that protections for children could be loosened further under the new constitution still being written. Earlier this month, the Egyptian Coalition for Children's Rights warned that early drafts of the document did not include as firm prohibitions on child labor as past constitutions.(AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
In this Oct. 18, 2012 photo, Ezzat, an Egyptian child paints clay pottery in front of his house in old Cairo, Egypt. The Egyptian government estimates that some 1.6 million minors work - almost 10 percent of population aged 17 or under, often in arduous conditions. Other experts put the number at nearly twice that. Some child labor activists worry that protections for children could be loosened further under the new constitution still being written. Earlier this month, the Egyptian Coalition for Children's Rights warned that early drafts of the document did not include as firm prohibitions on child labor as past constitutions.(AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
In this Oct. 2, 2012 photo, an Egyptian child stands in front of a tire repair shop where he works in Cairo, Egypt. The Egyptian government estimates that some 1.6 million minors work - almost 10 percent of population aged 17 or under, often in arduous conditions. Other experts put the number at nearly twice that. Some child labor activists worry that protections for children could be loosened further under the new constitution still being written. Earlier this month, the Egyptian Coalition for Children's Rights warned that early drafts of the document did not include as firm prohibitions on child labor as past constitutions.(AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
In this Oct. 17, 2012 photo, an Egyptian child loads a cart with cement bricks in a brick factory at the outskirts of Qalyobiya, 45 kilometers ( 27 miles) north of Cairo, Egypt. The Egyptian government estimates that some 1.6 million minors work - almost 10 percent of population aged 17 or under, often in arduous conditions. Other experts put the number at nearly twice that. Some child labor activists worry that protections for children could be loosened further under the new constitution still being written. Earlier this month, the Egyptian Coalition for Children's Rights warned that early drafts of the document did not include as firm prohibitions on child labor as past constitutions.(AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
In this Oct. 24, 2012 photo, An Egyptian child sells flowers at a street in Cairo, Egypt. The Egyptian government estimates that some 1.6 million minors work - almost 10 percent of population aged 17 or under, often in arduous conditions. Other experts put the number at nearly twice that. Some child labor activists worry that protections for children could be loosened further under the new constitution still being written. Earlier this month, the Egyptian Coalition for Children's Rights warned that early drafts of the document did not include as firm prohibitions on child labor as past constitutions.(AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
In this Oct. 2, 2012 photo, an Egyptian child kneels on a bench during his work at a mechanic workshop in Cairo, Egypt. The Egyptian government estimates that some 1.6 million minors work - almost 10 percent of population aged 17 or under, often in arduous conditions. Other experts put the number at nearly twice that. Some child labor activists worry that protections for children could be loosened further under the new constitution still being written. Earlier this month, the Egyptian Coalition for Children's Rights warned that early drafts of the document did not include as firm prohibitions on child labor as past constitutions.(AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
CAIRO (AP) ? It's early in the morning, and 13-year-old Ezzat is hard at work in one of Cairo's pottery workshops in an ancient part of the Egyptian capital. He sorts through the day's production. In the same area of workshops, three barefoot boys under the age of 12 carry clay pieces from inside the factory out into the sun to dry.
"I go to school, but I decided not to go today because it is time to paint the clay," said Ezzat, whose brother runs the workshop. Ezzat refused to give his last name.
The Egyptian government estimates that some 1.6 million minors work ? almost 10 percent of population aged 17 or under ? often in arduous conditions. Other experts put the number at nearly twice that, given that so many work in informal sectors and are difficult to track. In 2011, a U.S. Department of Labor report said Egypt had made some efforts to eliminate the worst forms of child labor, but it said the country has not addressed gaps in legal enforcement to protect children.
Some child labor activists worry that protections for children could be loosened further under the new constitution still being written. Earlier this month, the Egyptian Coalition for Children's Rights warned that early drafts of the document did not include as firm prohibitions on child labor as past constitutions.
In Cairo's Tahrir Square, famous as the epicenter of the 2011 revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak's one-party rule, children can be seen selling flags, popcorn and tea whenever a demonstration draws a crowd. On calmer days when traffic is flowing through the square boys will try and wipe the city's dust off the cars stuck in traffic to earn a few coins. Young boys can be found in the more upmarket neighborhoods of Cairo flogging a dozen and a half fresh roses for 10 Egyptian pounds, about $1.6.
A young boy is almost never missing from an Egyptian mechanic's workshop. Usually covered in grease and grime they fetch the tools, get the dirtiest work and are often physically abused with little or no recourse.
A short drive out of Cairo and all along the vast Nile valley children can be found working in the fields as hired farmhands or on family plots. Brick factories along the Nile also employ children who often endure extreme physical exertion in hot weather.
NEW YORK (AP) ? Hurricane Sandy has left more than 18,000 flight cancellations in its wake.
Chaos at airports? Hardly.
Not long ago, a powerful storm pounding the Northeast would have brought havoc to some of the nation's busiest airports: families sleeping on the floor amidst mounds of luggage; passengers stuck for hours on planes hoping to take off; and dinners cobbled together from near-empty vending machines.
In the aftermath of Sandy, airports from Washington to Boston are deserted. There are hundreds of thousands of travelers stranded across the U.S. and around the world, but instead of camping out inside airport terminals they are staying with friends and family or in hotels.
After years of storm mismanagement and the bad public relations that followed, U.S. airlines have rewritten their severe weather playbooks. They've learned that it's best to cancel flights early and keep the public away from airports, even if that means they'll have a bigger backlog to deal with once conditions improve.
This allows the airlines to tell gate agents, baggage handlers and flight crews to stay home, too ? keeping them fresh once they're needed again.
And by moving planes to airports outside of the storm's path, airlines can protect their equipment and thereby get flight schedules back to normal quickly after a storm passes and airports reopen.
These precautions make good business sense. They also help the airlines comply with new government regulations that impose steep fines for leaving passengers stuck on planes for three hours or more.
"The last few major storms created such gridlock, and such bad will with their best customers, they just had to shift their behavior," said Kate Hanni, who heads up the passenger advocacy group Flyers Rights and lobbied for the three-hour rule. "The flying public would rather have their flights pre-cancelled than be sleeping in Chicago on a cot."
Departure monitors at airports across the Northeast Monday and Tuesday reflected that new approach.
London: Canceled.
Seattle: Canceled.
Los Angeles: Canceled.
Hong Kong: Canceled.
Houston: Canceled.
And the number of cancellations is likely to rise.
"It will probably take until the weekend for things to return to normal," said Rob Maruster, the chief operating officer of JetBlue Airways, which is based in New York.
Even "normal" won't be perfect. Passengers are reporting multi-hour wait times at most airline call centers and they are likely to experience long lines once airports reopen.
JetBlue is keenly aware of what is at stake when a big storm hits. On Valentine's Day weekend 2007, a massive snowstorm hammered the East Coast. JetBlue was late to cancel flights. Passengers were stranded on planes for hours. When the storm finally cleared, other airlines resumed flights but JetBlue's operations were still in shambles.
Other airlines took note. Severe weather manuals were updated. Reservation systems were programmed to automatically rebook passengers when flights are canceled. And travelers now receive notifications by email, phone or text message.
"In past years, airlines would have soldiered on, trying to get their planes in the air no matter what," said George Hobica, founder of AirfareWatchdog.com. But they've learned that "there's no value in news cameras showing footage of people sleeping on cots in airports."
Enter Sandy.
Airlines spent days before the storm hit running though color-coded checklists to shut down their Northeast operations. Computers were covered in plastic tarps. Hotel rooms near airports were booked for gate agents and ramp workers. Planes, pilots and flight attendants were moved to other airports.
And ? don't worry ? shelter was found for animals traveling as cargo.
"Anything that could move by the wind, we've locked down," said Henry Kuykendall, who oversees operations for Delta Air Lines at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.
The airlines' in-house meteorologists started tracking this storm more than a week ago as it approached the Caribbean. By Thursday night, it was pretty clear that widespread cancelations would happen in Washington, Philadelphia, New York and Boston.
The next day, airlines started to waive fees for passengers who wanted to move to earlier or later flights. American Airlines, for instance, let travelers heading to any of 22 airports ? from Greensboro, N.C. in the south to Buffalo, N.Y. in the north ? change plans. Then teams started to cancel flights heading into or out of airports stretching from Washington to Boston.
That sounds easier than it is. Every plane in its fleet is in near constant motion. In one day, a single plane might fly from Atlanta to New York to Detroit ? and then back to Atlanta and then once more to New York.
If the airline doesn't want that plane to spend the night in New York, it has ripple effects throughout the system. For instance, that plane might have been scheduled the next day to fly passengers to Seattle and then on to San Francisco.
When Sandy hit, almost no planes were left in the Northeast.
JetBlue scattered the majority of its planes to 20 different airports across the country, even though 80 percent of its flights start or end in New York or Boston.
American Airlines moved 80 planes that were supposed to spend Sunday night in the Northeast to other airports.
One Boeing 737 didn't make it out of Boston in time because of a mechanical issue. Left with no other solution, American filled the plane with fuel to make it as heavy as possible, faced it toward the wind, locked the wheels and moved it away from anything else.
"We'll keep our fingers crossed," said Jon Snook, the airline's vice president of operations planning and performance.
Delta got all of its planes out of New York. The last plane took off at 1:01 a.m. Monday ? a Boeing 757 with 157 people on board heading to Georgetown, Guyana. US Airways held all but one of its Transatlantic planes bound for Philadelphia at European airports. And United Airlines removed all but about a dozen planes from its Washington Dulles and Newark, N.J., hubs.
Once the clouds clear, flights won't start up immediately.
JetBlue's Maruster equated starting up the airline again to be like putting together a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle. It's not about staffing levels, but an overall game plan that makes sense. "At a certain point, putting more hands on the table doesn't help get it solved faster," he said.
The airlines need to ask a lot of questions before bringing in planes.
First, are the runways open? New York's JFK and LaGuardia airports both had water flow onto the runways.
Next, is there public transit to get workers to the airport? If not, does the airline have enough staff staying at nearby hotels that can be bused in?
Finally, the airline has to check on all the other people needed to run an airport: the Transportation Security Administration, customs officials, caters, fuel trucks and even the people who push wheelchairs through the terminal.
"Before we can even move an airplane here, we need to make sure those resources are here," said Delta's Kuykendall. "There's a lot of moving pieces that people don't see. It's a dance to get it all to work."
___
Scott Mayerowitz can be reached at http://twitter.com/GlobeTrotScott.
Hope everyone has had a great weekend so far. Below we have some great articles for you to read and help get you through your day so sit back, relax, and enjoy some great reads.?Like always, if you have any investment questions or need advice on a specific stock,?Stocks?on Wall Street?is always here for you so feel free to?Contact Us?at anytime.?We always love to hear from our readers so please shoot us an email. Also let us know what you think about the articles below and your thoughts on the markets current climate by either commenting below, posting on our?Facebook Fan Page?or by sending us either?Stocks on Wall Street?or our?Founder?a Tweet.
Jack Bogle: Forget Trading, Start Investing (Market Watch)
Why Are You Outperforming? Why Are You Underperforming? (Mebane Faber)
Of Bulls and Bair (Rajiv Sethi)
It?s Time for a Tax to Kill High Frequency Trading (Naked Capitalisim)
Global & Local Inflation (Dr.Ed?s Blog)
Qualitative Easing: How it Works and Why it Matters (Ideas)
QE: Buyer?s Remorse? (Tim Duy?s Fed Watch)
19 Crazy Things That Only Happen in China (National Post)
Investing in Master Limited Partnerships ? Risks and Opportunities (NEPC)
High Returns and a Tax Break in One Investment (The New York Times)
Financial Survival in a Time of Fiscal Peril (The New York Times)
This Is The Biggest Economic Story In The World (Business Insider)
What?s An Index Worth? (Index Universe)
Apple $1000: Why it?s time to buy (Bullish Cross)
Investors Find New Housing Play (The Wall Street Journal)
Which Changed First, the Polls or the Markets? (The New York Times)
6 TV Networks That Aren?t What They Started Out to Be (Wired)
If you can?t access some of the articles it might be because you need to have a subscription, to get a Free-Trial or Subscribe to any of the Top Financial Publications,?Simply Click on the Link!
ScienceDaily (Oct. 29, 2012) ? Biologists from the University of Bonn have discovered that the cichlid fish Pelvicachromis taeniatus can see in the near infrared range; this was thought to be unlikely until now. Seeing in the infrared range is apparently helping fish to hunt in shallow African rivers.
The results will be published in the journal Naturwissenschaften and are already available online now.
A research team in the work group of Prof. Dr. T. C. M. Bakker at the Institute for Evolutionary Biology and Ecology, University of Bonn, has been studying the biology of the African cichlid fish Pelvicachromis taeniatus for years.
Researchers conducted a prey choice experiment
Researchers investigated the ability to see in the infrared range using a classical prey choice experiment. P. taeniatus also feeds on small crustaceans, such as freshwater shrimp. These prey animals reflect near infrared radiation. The researchers used this fact to examine the perception of infrared light. In a dark room a prey selection experiment was set up illuminated by infrared lamps. In front of the water basin containing the fish freshwater shrimp were offered in two separate chambers. One of the chambers with the prey was covered with a filter blocking infrared wavelengths. The other chamber was covered with a filter that would let only infrared light pass. "Consequently, the fish were only able to perceive the freshwater shrimp in one chamber in the near infrared range" explains Dr. |Sebastian Baldauf, one of the scientists involved in the study.
Physiologists thought that seeing in the near ir range would be unlikely
The experiment showed that the fish spent more time and were more frequently in front of the chamber that let infrared light pass. "The fish detect their prey based on infrared radiation alone" reports the biologist from the University of Bonn. "Until now, physiologists thought that noise levels in the near-infrared range were too high to allow visual perception." As the experiment has shown, the fish were capable of perceiving prey in a wavelength range above 780 nanometers. It is well-known that snakes can perceive far infrared radiation at longer wavelengths above 2,000 nanometers. "But they don't use their eyes for this purpose; instead they have a heat-sensitive pit organ," says Dr. Baldauf. Human eyes are not capable of seeing infrared radiation.
Seeing infrared is useful in the natural habitat
The advantage of the fish's ability to see infrared may become obvious when you look at its natural habitat. The shallow rivers of West Africa have a relatively large amount of infrared radiation. "That's exactly why it makes sense to use infrared cues for detecting prey organisms," explains Dr. Baldauf. "It is a clear selective advantage if you can perceive additional signals that others cannot perceive." It is quite likely that other animals also have evolved a perception of near-infrared radiation, e.g. for hunting or orientation, such as other fishes or birds. The researchers from the University of Bonn now want to study more closely the physiology of infrared vision, and to what extent infrared radiation is relevant in other contexts.
Infrared radiation in partner selection?
When performing color measurements on these fish the researchers found that certain regions of the cichlid body reflect the light in the near-infared range. "We found that females reflect infrared radiation from their belly region, and males from their fins" says Dr. Baldauf. The female belly is important for mate choice, and the fins are displayed during aggressive encounters between males. "Perhaps near-infrared signals play a role in visual communication in this species" says the biologist. "And that's what we additionally would like to study in further experiments."
Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:
Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Universit?t Bonn.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Denis Meuthen, Ingolf P. Rick, Timo Th?nken, Sebastian A. Baldauf. Visual prey detection by near-infrared cues in a fish. Naturwissenschaften, 2012; DOI: 10.1007/s00114-012-0980-7
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
MONMOUTH, NJ (WTVR) ? Worried bystanders jumped into action to try and help save a deer stuck in the wild surf at a Monmouth County beach in New Jersey as Hurricane Sandy loomed Sunday afternoon.
The deer was spotted attempting the navigate the breaking surf, but a barrier of rocks was keeping it from getting back to the beach. People tried approaching the animal to help it escape, but the frightened creature ran away every time.
Animal control and humane society responded and tranquilized the deer, which was found with a broken leg. They?re hoping to nurse it back to help.
Different business organizations are set up to provide services to their customers. Others provide manufacture goods which are then supplied to several market segments. The operations are carried out under regulated conditions. As a result of production processes, some problems may occur. This calls for mechanisms to address these problems. Complaints against companies are a mechanism of raising these issues and ensuring they are dealt with.
Businesses carry out market research to look for opportunities in the market segments. After the market analysis, gaps are established. These gaps are the unfulfilled demands of various consumers. The demands are taken care of producing goods which are tailored to incorporate various needs. Other commodities may be produced to take care of special needs of a special class of clients.
Manufacturing requires supervision. The company law stipulates that the production lines must be manned by skilled manpower. The review of such systems is done of independent expertise to establish whether the company meets the required conditions. Safety measures are of importance to ensure that the workers are hurt by the machinery. Health measures should also be put in place to ensure that the workers are affected adversely by the equipment. Complaints are raised when the conditions are not up to standard and the regulations are not being followed.
Businesses are registered under different names in order to create a brand. Names give a special identification to the businesses. This is what defines what a company is selling so as to create a brand. Some names may purport similarity in terms of goods produced and services offered. To avoid confusing the customers with the similarity in names and provision of services, the registrar of companies has to address the naming issues.
The manufacturing and production process involves the process of conversion of natural resources into new products that take care of varied demands. In the process of conversion, some lethal gases or harmful by-products may be released into the environment. In case of releases of harmful gases into the atmosphere, the firms in charge should devise methods of minimizing the production of harmful substances. Failure to devise control methods calls for complaining against such issues with the department of industrialization.
Firms employ skilled and unskilled manpower to run the production machines. The manpower is entitled to a fair remuneration by the firms employing the. Fair means that they should be paid according to the quality of work and this should be done in good time. The working conditions should be appealing. The environment of working should be improved constantly since it directly leads to good results.
The consumers form a very integral part of the businesses. They buy the goods from the firms producing them therefore increasing the turnover of revenues. The consumers give the feedback about the offering of services in a number of ways. The businesses establish the mechanisms of dealing with issues raised by the clients. The quality of products must also be addressed in case of substandard products.
Complaints against companies are looked into by the company managers. The directors of the firms are in charge of creating a strategy for the companies. They give organizations a sense of direction. Where problems arise, they are in charge of getting solutions. Solutions could be redrafting the firm strategies or changing the quality standards.
If you would like to search consumer complaints against companies click www.complaintslist.com. You can also post a complaint when you visit us at http://www.complaintslist.com today.
Microsoft Corp CEO Steve Ballmer displays a Nokia Lumia 920 featuring Windows Phone 8 during an event in San Francisco, California October 29, 2012. REUTERS\/Robert Galbraith","date":"Mon, Oct 29, 2012 3:06 PM EDT","credit":"Reuters","byline":"ROBERT GALBRAITH","provider":"Reuters","photo_title":"Microsoft CEO Ballmer displays a Nokia Lumia 920 featuring Windows Phone 8 during an event in San Francisco","pivot_alias_id":"microsoft-ceo-ballmer-displays-nokia-lumia-920-featuring-photo-190336632--finance","plink":"\/photos\/microsoft-ceo-ballmer-displays-nokia-lumia-920-featuring-photo-190336632--finance.html","plink_vita":"http:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/photos\/microsoft-ceo-ballmer-displays-nokia-lumia-920-featuring-photo-190336632--finance.html","srchtrm":"Microsoft CEO Ballmer displays a Nokia Lumia 920 featuring Windows Phone 8 during an event in San Francisco","revsp":"","rev":"b09db690-21fb-11e2-bdee-7e97989457e5","surl":"http:\/\/l2.yimg.com\/bt\/api\/res\/1.2\/0balajOuXQmzFvd06gFW9A--\/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD01NjtxPTc5O3c9OTM-\/http:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en_us\/News\/Reuters\/2012-10-29T190336Z_1_CBRE89S1GY500_RTROPTP_2_MICROSOFT-WINDOWS.JPG","swidth":93,"sheight":56},{"type":"image","url":"http:\/\/l.yimg.com\/bt\/api\/res\/1.2\/m2YpEmCHWaF4Ct9GTtIcxw--\/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD0yOTY7cT03OTt3PTQ1MA--\/http:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en_us\/News\/Reuters\/2012-10-29T190336Z_2_CBRE89S1EUL00_RTROPTP_2_MICROSOFT-WINDOWS8.JPG","width":450,"height":296,"uuid":"30c9280f-0073-3010-b957-abb76e544381","caption":"Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is seen during an interview prior to the launch event for Microsoft Windows 8 in New York, October 25, 2012. REUTERS\/Lucas Jackson","captionBakedHtml":"
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is seen during an interview prior to the launch event for Microsoft Windows 8 in New York, October 25, 2012. REUTERS\/Lucas Jackson","date":"Mon, Oct 29, 2012 3:06 PM EDT","credit":"Reuters","byline":"LUCAS JACKSON","provider":"Reuters","photo_title":"Microsoft CEO Ballmer is seen during an interview prior to the launch event for Microsoft Windows 8 in New York","pivot_alias_id":"microsoft-ceo-ballmer-seen-during-interview-prior-launch-photo-181809704--finance","plink":"\/photos\/microsoft-ceo-ballmer-seen-during-interview-prior-launch-photo-181809704--finance.html","plink_vita":"http:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/photos\/microsoft-ceo-ballmer-seen-during-interview-prior-launch-photo-181809704--finance.html","srchtrm":"Microsoft CEO Ballmer is seen during an interview prior to the launch event for Microsoft Windows 8 in New York","revsp":"","rev":"b2092d70-21fb-11e2-bb6b-044ee5ce6d1a","surl":"http:\/\/l.yimg.com\/bt\/api\/res\/1.2\/MQvcF4gsEZMGobD9T3NPzA--\/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD01NjtxPTc5O3c9ODU-\/http:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en_us\/News\/Reuters\/2012-10-29T190336Z_2_CBRE89S1EUL00_RTROPTP_2_MICROSOFT-WINDOWS8.JPG","swidth":85,"sheight":56}]}; Y.Media.boba_lightbox_module_configs['7974cf291e89184dcf3dc1e6ac139e23'] = {"spaceid":"1197280665","ult_pt":"story-lightbox","darla_id":"","images_total":0,"xhr_url":"\/_xhr\/related-article\/lightbox\/?id=68d5f41f-0b25-3909-b1eb-6365fe9360e9","xhr_count":20,"autoplay_if_first_item_is_video":true}; }); Y.later(10, this, function() {new Y.Media.RelatedArticle({count:"2",start:"1", mod_total:"10", total:"2", content_id:"68d5f41f-0b25-3909-b1eb-6365fe9360e9", spaceid:"1197280665", related_count:"-1" }); }); Y.later(10, this, function() {(function(d){ d.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(d.createElement('script')).src='http://d.yimg.com/oq/js/csc_news-en-US-core.js'; })(document); }); Y.later(10, this, function() { if(!("Media" in YAHOO)){YAHOO.Media = {};} if(!("ugcrate" in YAHOO.Media)){YAHOO.Media.ugcrate = {};} if(!("Media" in Y)){Y.namespace("Media");} YAHOO.Media.ugcrate.ratings_fadba3a5a0f0e4b519283a52c088e5af = new Y.Media.UgcRate({"context_id":"d4e46f51-766b-4b75-8126-49ec8f8fad35","sCrumb":"UUNNKJC5OyS","containerId":"yom-sentimentrate-fadba3a5a0f0e4b519283a52c088e5af","rateDimensions":"d1","appLang":"en-US","sUltSId":"1197280665","sUltProperty":"news-en-US","sUltCampaign":"","sUltPlatform":"ugcwidgets","sUltIntl":"US","sUltLang":"en-US","selfPageUrl":"http:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/holiday-gadgets-microsoft-phones-google-gadgets-230550264.html?_esi=0","artContentId":"b05c164e-d7e5-3a59-9487-fe46e2aa465e","sUltQstnTxt":"Are you considering the Microsoft Surface over the iPad?","artContentTitle":"Holiday gadgets: Microsoft phones, Google gadgets","artContentDesc":" Microsoft launched its new Windows phone system and Google unveiled new devices under its Nexus brand. Both part of an effort to grab more of consumers\\' holiday-shopping dollars.","sUltBucketId":"test1","sUltSection":"sentirating","sUltBeaconUrl":"","sUltRecordPageviews":"1","sUltBeaconEnable":"1","serviceUrl":"\/_xhr","publisherContextId":"","propertyId":"2fcd79b5-b3a3-333e-b98e-722536a6698f","configurationId":"435db9ee-c55e-3766-b20d-c8ad3ff889d1","graphId":"","labelLeft":"No way!!","labelRight":"Absolutely!","labelMiddle":"","itemimg":"http:\/\/l.yimg.com\/a\/i\/ww\/met\/yahoo_logo_us_061509.png","selfURI":"","aggregateRatingCount":"1578","aggregateReviewCount":"0","leftBlocksNum":"768","rightBlocksNum":"807","leftBlocksPerCent":"49","rightBlocksPerCent":"51","ugcrate_apihost":"api01-us.ugcl.yahoo.com:4080","publisher_id":"news-en-US","yca_cert":"yahoo.ugccloud.app.trusted_proxies","timeout_write":"5000","through_proxy":"false","optionStats":"{\"s1\":537,\"s2\":51,\"s3\":42,\"s4\":68,\"s5\":70,\"s6\":807,\"s7\":0,\"s8\":0,\"s9\":0,\"s10\":0}","l10N":"{\"FIRST_TO_READ\":\"You are first to read this. Share your feelings and start a conversation.\",\"SHARE_YOUR_FEELINGS\":\"You too can share your feelings and start a conversation!\",\"HOW_YOUR_FRIENDS_THINK\":\"Share your response with your friends on Facebook\",\"PRE_SHARE_MSG\":\"Your Facebook friends on Yahoo! can see how you responded to this question. To share your response on Facebook, click on the Facebook share option.\",\"START_THE_CONVERSATION\":\"Share\",\"THANKS_FOR_SHARING\":\"Your response has been shared with your friends on Facebook\",\"POLL_HEADER\":\"SOCIAL SENTIMENT\",\"SERVER_ERROR\":\"Oops there seems to be some error, please try again later\",\"LOADING\":\"Loading...\",\"SHARE_AFTER_COMMENT\":\"Your response has been shared on Facebook.\",\"UNDO\":\"Undo\",\"UNIT_PEOPLE\":\"People\",\"NUM_PEOPLE_DISAGREE\":\"disagree with your opinion.\",\"READ_MORE_TEXT\":\"Read what they have to say.\",\"SLIDER_THUMB_WORDING_BEFORE_VOTING\":\"WHAT DO YOU THINK?\",\"SLIDER_THUMB_WORDING_VERB_BEFORE_VOTING\":\"DRAG\",\"SLIDER_THUMB_WORDING_THANKS_VOTING\":\"Thanks for voting\",\"NUM_PEOPLE_ANSWERED\":\" 1,578 people have responded to this question\",\"ONE_PERSON_ANSWERED\":\" 1 person has responded to this question. Your response will be seen by your Facebook friends on Yahoo!\",\"TWO_PEOPLE_ANSWERED\":\" 2 people have responded to this question. Your response will be seen by your Facebook friends on Yahoo!\",\"NUM_PEOPLE_ANSWERED_AND_SHARED\":\" 1,578 people have responded to this question. Your response will be seen by your Facebook friends on Yahoo!\",\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s1\":537,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s2\":51,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s3\":42,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s4\":68,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s5\":70,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s6\":807,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s7\":0,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s8\":0,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s9\":0,\"NUM_PEOPLE_RATED__s10\":0}","fbconfig":"{\"message\":\"undefined\",\"name\":\"undefined\",\"link\":\"\",\"source\":\"\",\"picture\":\"http:\\\/\\\/l.yimg.com\\\/a\\\/i\\\/ww\\\/news\\\/2011\\\/09\\\/27\\\/yahoo-tc.jpg\",\"description\":\"\",\"captionLeft\":\"undefined\",\"captionRight\":\"undefined\",\"app_id\":\"196660913708276\",\"redirect_uri\":\"\\\/_xhr\\\/ugcratefbredirect\\\/\"}","template_id":"LONG_SLIDER_SOUTH","obj_id":"ratings_fadba3a5a0f0e4b519283a52c088e5af","opt_count":"6","opt_color1":"","opt_color2":"","template_html":"
Sandy uprooted this tree in Denville, N.J. Click image to see more Sandy photos. (Gioia Degenaars/Yahoo! Contributor Network)
From Florida to New England, residents along the eastern seaboard are sharing their anecdotes, photos and videos of Hurricane-turned-"Superstorm" Sandy. Below are excerpts from the latest dispatches from people living through the storm. All times on posts are ET. Interested in writing about your experiences? Share your story at Yahoo! Contributor Network and your Sandy photos on Flickr.
TUESDAY
12:30 a.m.
In New Jersey, trees falling and wind howling from Sandy
DENVILLE, N.J.?The tree fell easily. It was a thud. The lights flickered and came back on. It's a shock to think we still have power at this point but we are one of the lucky ones. I'd expect that will change soon.
When the winds blow, it sounds like a freight train. As I write, I read posts from my friends across New Jersey. Trees are down everywhere. Nearly everyone is without power. Each time I hear a strong gust the lights flicker and I hear something else hit the house.
My family and I have a makeshift camp in our basement where we will all sleep this evening. The chance of a tree falling on the house makes it too unsafe to be anywhere else. Only a few blocks away, this tree (pictured above) overturned and gratefully did so across a lawn. It missed the home and cars... more importantly it missed people.
We are now in the heart of the storm as the gusts are expected to keep up until midnight tonight. I fear for what we will see when daylight comes tomorrow
? Gioia Degenaars
12:18 a.m.
New York streets dangerous with falling debris
BROOKLYN?As the night progresses, it is getting scarier. The wind is coming in through every crevice of the old buildings many of us live in. Massive power outages are beginning to affect the city. Internet is starting to crash as well.
The FDR (a major highway in NYC) is flooded. This is a big outlet to and from the city. Crashes and clangs are being heard from outside. Making many of us wonder what is flying through the streets. Stores are closed. ATMs are malfunctioning.
While stepping out to throw out a smelly bag of trash, a piece of metal scaffolding flew down from more than five stories up and landed within four feet of me. (See picture.)
Winds are more dangerous than they feel right now. This city has much debris, making it seriously dangerous outside.
? Melissa Walker
12:02 a.m.
Sandy uproots tree, smashes Queens garage
QUEENS?Earlier Monday, a huge tree in Queens was knocked over by the powerful winds of Hurricane Sandy. Luckily no people were hurt; the tree just crushed the garage. As I walked by, I snapped pictures of the accident and you can see how it just barely missed the main house on the left.
The Forest Hills Gardens neighborhood in Queens is known for its English-style homes and large trees. However, during storms like this, it's best for the residents to stay indoors, take in their Halloween decorations, and park their cars in the garage. The force of the hurricane winds are so fierce you have to worry about the whole tree and not just the falling branches.
? Mike Wong
A tree smashed into this garage in Queens on Monday. Click image to see more Sandy photos. (Mike Wong/Yahoo! Contributor Network)
MONDAY
11:49 p.m.
Lulled for 'Superstorm' Sandy by indolent Irene
HOBOKEN, N.J.?As I sit in my darkened apartment, typing with a flashlight, I cannot believe that Sandy seemed inconsequential only 12 hours ago. 48 hours ago, I was enjoying the beginning of a weeklong series of Halloween celebrations for my three young children. Now, I sit with sewage-laden flood waters lapping at my children's bicycles and beloved possessions in the garage while the water inexorably rises through the building stairwell, leaving destruction in its wake.
Hoboken has hurricane fatigue. With two major storms in 14 months and the letdown of evacuating homes that remain pristine during our absences, my neighbors blithely disregarded the storm warnings over the last few days; virtually no one evacuated.
I first became aware that the threat was serious when I woke up on Monday morning to a picture of flooding at the Hoboken train station. Reports came in through the morning of high levels of water first lapping at the Hoboken waterfront and then flooding Sinatra Drive. The highest point in Hoboken, Castle Point, never floods -- until today. Heavy wind took down trees around City Hall and led to the explosion of a power station that plunged half of Hoboken into darkness. In anticipation of losing power, I established a text message group to stay in contact with local parents. The reports trickling in became increasingly dire as the storm surge moved west. Car alarms and explosions have punctuated the night.
? Kathy Zucker
6:40 p.m.
In Virginia, empty shelves at stores
FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va.?At noon, I took it upon myself to visit a couple of my friends and go around the city of Herndon to randomly ask how people are dealing with the preparations for the storm.
We went to the shopping mall and asked a woman, Janice, what she thinks. She said she's glad for the storm because it finally gives her a break from all the boring election news coverage on TV.
Brad Dansky, 22, said he "scored bananas and an LED flashlight at the 7-11. Woohoo."
Janette, 51, said she's taking bets with all her friends on how many leaks she'll find in the ceilings of her house this week and that she's going to brunch like there's no tomorrow.
Wendy Shaw, 34, says her plan of attack for the hurricane is to "get a few party boxes of tacos and call it a day."
We were surprised that there were a group of guys playing flag football in their yards. They said, "Sandy? BRING IT ON!!"
? Samuel Gonzales
6:24 p.m.
Hurricane Sandy flexes her power on Long Island
LONG ISLAND?Just past noon, I went out to take a few pictures expecting to do a before and after. Sandy had other plans, though. The water had already come inland in several places blocking roads and causing evacuations. Trees and telephone poles were down before 2 p.m.. Here are a few of the pictures I took today. The storm still hasn't really hit us here yet. I shudder to think the kind of damage we are about to experience.
? Edward J. Neary
Hurricane Sandy's storm surges flood portions of Moriches Inlet on Long Island on Monday afternoon. (Edward J. Neary/Yahoo! Contributor Network)
4:10 p.m.
Power still on in Far Rockaway in Queens
QUEENS?Folks around town crowded the local grocery store, Food Dynasty, and purchased huge amounts of food. I was one of them. While some people left Far Rockaway, others in the houses near me and the apartment building I live in stayed. For a while, things seemed calmed. The wind picked up, then died down.
By late this morning, the wind hit the building pretty hard and I could hear the wind's blasts. While there has been rain, my apartment in Far Rockaway has not experienced flooding as of 2:10 p.m.
At times, though, the whole building seems to shake. Power has not been affected. One lone man left the building during the storm. I wasn't sure who he was or why he was leaving the building in the middle of the storm on his bicycle. I just sat in my room, waiting for the storm to blow over, thankful I still had power.
? Justin Samuels
4:03 p.m.
Wind gusts increasing in Morris County, New Jersey
DENVILLE, N.J.?Hurricane Sandy is a monster to be sure. My family and I have tied down everything we can outside. We have a make-shift camp in our basement for fear of downed tree limbs. We are as ready as we can be for power outages. We sit and wait for Sandy's approaching wrath.
Gusts have already started that will reach upward of 60 to 70 mph by this evening. The trees swaying in the back are a fearful reminder of the damage that this storm can bring to us in northern New Jersey. While we do not have the ocean to contend with, we do have many rivers and large trees that can damage our homes.
? Gioia Degenaars
3:59 p.m.
Sandy already bringing down tree limbs in New York
BROOKLYN?As the storm approaches New York City, residents are preparing to hunker down for the immediate future. As of 2 p.m. on Monday in Crown Heights (in central Brooklyn) the storm gusts are increasing and the streets are pretty much empty.
Trees are starting to go down and branches litter the street. The winds are not very high, but as they increase, the damage will be much greater. With expected gusts up to 75 mph and with trees already going down with gusts of around 35 mph, this has the potential to be damaging as the buildings start creating a wind-tunnel effect.
Transportation has ground to a halt and the schools are closed. As a transplant from the South, weathering a storm of this magnitude in the Northeast is a bit odd. As the flooding in areas in NYC increases, watching the news turns those of us not in the evacuation zones into outsiders looking in, as well.
? Melissa Walker
A view of a flooded street in New York on Monday. Click image to see more photos. (Photo courtesy of Nick Cope via Melissa Walker/Yahoo! Contributor Network)
3:42 p.m.
A stormy wedding, thanks to Hurricane Sandy
QUEENS?My wedding is in four days. And while most of the preparations are ready, there are a few things that went wrong and need to be handled last-minute.
Last night, I was visiting my fiance's relatives in Massapequa. An hour after we got back to my mom's house in Elmont, we found out that they had to evacuate their home. His cousins in Long Beach were supposed to evacuate as well since they live right by the water, but they decided to stay home. They've since put up pictures on Facebook of the deluge outside their front steps as well as a snapshot of a reporter from ABC News coming over to interview them.
When I first heard about the magnitude of the storm, one of my first thoughts was, Oh no, I never got wedding insurance. And I sure as heck won't be able to get it now. When I was on the fence about purchasing wedding insurance, I thought that it ultimately wouldn't come in handy because the only disaster I could think of was a snowstorm, and those don't happen in this part of New York in November.
? Tricia Bangit
2:46 p.m.
On Upper East Side, Sandy is bad, but not horrible yet
MANHATTAN?Power remains on, the streets still have people and cars and, except for the pending arrival of the really bad weather, it seems like any other day.
Reports from friends and co-workers from the Jersey shore to Long Island say that the ocean is really kicking up and flooding has been anywhere from moderate to very bad. A friend reports that water was coming up to Ocean Avenue in Belmar, N.J., and another friend who decided to stay in her apartment in Battery Park is reporting water on the rise.
Do not be fooled, the worst is yet to come! Rain, wind and flooding will all increasingly worse as the day progresses. Stay inside or head to a shelter.
? TR Threston
1:27 p.m.
Blustering hollers of wind in New York
QUEENS?Earlier, I tweeted, "Hurricanes are always such teases. It's 2012. Bring on a real apocalypse already." Perhaps that was a bit arrogant, and I'll fully understand the irony should this hurricane murder me. However, I'm confident that it will sweep over with little impact on my life.
Outside, its effects are definitely being felt. The closure of the MTA for any given amount of time surely impacts business and industry substantially. I'm curious what operations may still be up and running during this windy mess. I've occasionally looked outside to see the trees moving back and forth from the gusts. The streets are mostly empty. I've seen no people today, but did see a single car driving around earlier.
I'm doing what I should do to stay safe: absolutely nothing. The real danger, if there is any, would be outside. So, I'm staying inside, and you should probably do the same. There are mandatory evacuations apparently happening in the major flood zones. I happen to be in a groove surrounded by Zone C, the least likely to flood. So, even if Zone A is in danger, my apartment building should be fine.
? Clayburn Griffin
11:22 a.m.
Expecting Hurricane Sandy floods in Denville and Rockaway, N.J.
DENVILLE, N.J.?This year we are ready. We've sand-bagged. We've moved things out of the way of water. We've lowered lakes and boarded up. Yet, something about Hurricane Sandy fills us with a dread that most of us in New Jersey cannot shake.This picture is a scene from the Broadway area of Denville on Sunday afternoon.
Residents of Denville and Rockaway are expecting the Rockaway River to spill over its banks and cause massive flooding just one year after Hurricane Irene nearly wiped out the main street.
? Gioia Degenaars
11:01 a.m.
Hurricane Sandy takes aim at northeastern Pennsylvania
MILFORD, Pa.?As of 10 a.m. on Monday morning, the track of Hurricane Sandy puts it just a few short hours away from here in northeastern Pennsylvania.
But already the winds are picking up in Pike County.
It is anticipated to make landfall along the Delaware coast, just south of Philadelphia. By the time the eye reaches inland, the winds are expected to cause it to be downgraded to a tropical storm. But by then, the damage for areas such as Pike County will have been done. Traditionally in this area, the rain will loosen the ground beneath trees and power poles. The high winds then rip these from the ground. In the past power has been off for days and weeks at a time. With the predictions calling for this storm to be worse than Irene of just two years ago, residents are gearing up for the worst: They're buying up water and staple foods at our local Wal-Mart, Kmart and other grocery stores. Even convenience stores like the Turkey Hill in Milford are feeling the panic.
ScienceDaily (Oct. 29, 2012) ? A group of researchers in Israel, the United States and other nations have made important advances in the rapidly-expanding field of "regenerative medicine," outlining for the first time connections in genetic regulation that normally prevent birth defects in heart and facial muscles.
Some of these problems are surprisingly common -- about 1 percent of all people have a congenital heart defect. This basic research will provide a road map to ultimately allow scientists to grow the cell types needed to repair such defects, from stem cells that can be generated from a person's own body.
The findings were published online October 29 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"Advances in regenerative medicine and developmental biology can now happen because we no longer require human embryos to generate stem cells," said Chrissa Kioussi, a co-author on the study and associate professor in the College of Pharmacy at Oregon State University. "The Nobel Prize this year was awarded to people who discovered how to make stem cells from adult biopsies."
Patient-derived stem cells can in principle be turned into any needed cell type, Kioussi said. The key is understanding the exact regulatory process than tells cells what type they are supposed to turn into, she said, such as a cell on the outside of the left ventricle of the heart.
"Once we understand these genetic controls in sufficient detail, we can not only turn a skin cell into a stem cell, but also turn that stem cell into the type needed for the patient to recover," Kioussi said. "We may eventually be able to grow replacement organs from the patient's cells."
In this study, researchers identified four specific "transcription factor" genes that control processes related to heart and head muscle formation. When there are defects in this process, the result can be death or a range of debilitating problems, from cleft palate to facial malformations and defective heart valves.
"There are about 20,000 genes in the human genome, but only 2,000 of the genes describe transcription factors," Kioussi said. "These transcription factors control the output of genes, the genetic machinery. They collectively determine which of the 20,000 possible molecular machines is actually deployed in each particular cell type."
Scientists have found that these transcription factors don't work alone to define cell types in mammalian development -- they function in small, self-stabilizing combinations of at least two or three.
The process moves rapidly after conception, and within one month most of the cells in the body "know" their cell type, based on the precise combination of transcription factors produced within them. When researchers understand how these stable transcription factor combinations get generated, they will know how to artificially generate these combinations in stem cells to convert them into the needed cell types.
Mammalian embryonic development is a process of self construction, a series of transitions of "temporary" cell types on the way to adult cell types. A fertilized egg is essentially a stem cell with the potential to become any other cell type. At each intermediate stage, the "temporary" cell types become more restricted in what they can become, until they ultimately achieve and maintain the adult type.
"In this work and in regenerative medicine, we care a great deal about all of these steps of cell differentiation," Kioussi said. "If you know all the steps it takes to get from here to there, you can identify what went wrong and find ways to fix it. This is being done already with some disease problems, and this work will move us closer to being able to repair heart and craniofacial defects."
The task is complex, Kioussi said, but very possible. Although there are 100 trillion cells in the human body, there are only about 100 adult cell types. Understanding and influencing the genetic specification of those cell types is possible and will probably revolutionize the treatment of many defects and diseases, Kioussi said.
This work was supported by the European Research Council, the Israel Science Foundation, the U.S. National Institutes of Health, and other agencies. The lead author was Eldad Tzahor at the Weizman Institute of Science in Israel, and other collaborators were from universities and agencies in the United Kingdom, India and Spain.
Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:
Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Oregon State University, via Newswise.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Itamar Harel, Yoshiro Maezawa, Roi Avraham, Ariel Rinon, Hsiao-Yen Ma, Joe W. Cross, Noam Leviatan, Julius Hegesh, Achira Roy, Jasmine Jacob-Hirsch, Gideon Rechavi, Jaime Carvajal, Shubha Tole, Chrissa Kioussi, Susan Quaggin, and Eldad Tzahor. Pharyngeal mesoderm regulatory network controls cardiac and head muscle morphogenesis. PNAS, October 29, 2012 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1208690109
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
By Kim Barker, ProPublica, and Rick Young and Emma Schwartz, Frontline Oct. 29, 2012, 12:01 a.m.
This post was co-published with PBS' Frontline.
The boxes landed in the office of Montana investigators in March 2011.
Found in a meth house in Colorado, they were somewhat of a mystery, holding files on 23 conservative candidates in state races in Montana. They were filled with candidate surveys and mailers that said they were paid for by campaigns, and fliers and bank records from outside spending groups. One folder was labeled "Montana $ Bomb."
The documents pointed to one outside group pulling the candidates' strings: a social welfare nonprofit called Western Tradition Partnership, or WTP.
Altogether, the records added up to possible illegal "coordination" between the nonprofit and candidates for office in 2008 and 2010, said a Montana investigator and a former Federal Election Commission chairman who reviewed the material. Outside groups are allowed to spend money on political campaigns, but not to coordinate with candidates.
"My opinion, for what it's worth, is that WTP was running a lot of these campaigns," said investigator Julie Steab of the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices, who initially received the boxes from Colorado.
The boxes were examined by Frontline and ProPublica as part of an investigation into the growing influence on elections of dark money groups, tax-exempt organizations that can accept unlimited contributions and do not have to identify their donors. The documents offer a rare glimpse into the world of dark money, showing how Western Tradition Partnership appealed to donors, interacted with candidates and helped shape their election efforts.
Though WTP's spending has been at the state level, it's best-known nationally for bringing a lawsuit that successfully challenged Montana's ban on corporate spending in elections, extending the provisions of the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark Citizens United decision to all states.
The tax code allows nonprofits like WTP to engage in some political activity, but they are supposed to have social welfare as their primary purpose. As reported previously by ProPublica and Frontline, when WTP applied for recognition of its tax-exempt status, it told the IRS under penalty of perjury that it would not directly or indirectly attempt to influence elections u2014 even though it already had.
The group is now locked in an ongoing dispute with Montana authorities, who ruled in October 2010 that the nonprofit should have registered as a political committee and should have to disclose its donors. WTP sued. A hearing is set for March.
In the meantime, the group has changed its name to American Tradition Partnership, reflecting its larger ambitions. This month, it sent Montana voters a mailer in the form of a newspaper called the Montana Statesman that claimed to be the state's "largest & most trusted news source."
The front page accused the Democratic gubernatorial candidate of being soft on sex offenders.
Donny Ferguson, American Tradition Partnership's spokesman and executive director, did not specifically address the documents found in Colorado or allegations of coordination made against WTP.
"American Tradition Partnership always obeys every letter of every applicable law," he wrote in an emailed response to questions. "ATP does not, and never will, endorse candidates or urge voters to vote for or against candidates. ... These false allegations are old hat."
On its website, the group says its primary purpose is issue advocacy and combating radical environmentalists, whom it sometimes calls "gang green." It describes itself as a grassroots group backed by a broad membership of small donors.
When asked about the documents found in Colorado, Jim Brown, a lawyer for the group, said he was unfamiliar with them.
After being shown some of the documents by Frontline, Brown, in a follow-up email, said his review indicated that they appeared to belong to a company called Direct Mail. Direct Mail and Communications is a print shop in Livingston, Mont., run by a one-time key player in WTP and his wife.
Brown urged Frontline to turn over the documents. "If the documents are purported to be what you say they are, then you may knowingly be in possession of stolen property," Brown wrote.
The records are in the hands of the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices, which considers them public and reviewable upon request.
* * *
In the anything-goes world of modern campaign finance, outside groups face one major restriction: They are not allowed to coordinate with candidates. That's because contributions to candidates and parties are still capped to limit donors' direct influence, while contributions to outside groups are unlimited.
The Federal Election Commission has a three-pronged test for proving coordination: Did an outside group pay for ads, phone calls or mailers? Did these materials tell people to vote for or against a candidate, or praise or criticize a candidate in the weeks before an election? Finally, did the candidate, or a representative, agree to the expenditure?
Many concerns have been raised about coordination in this election because of close ties between outside groups and campaigns. Super PACs supporting President Barack Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney are run by their former staffers. Super PACs and campaigns have used the same consultants, who insist in interviews that they have firewalls.
Proving coordination is extremely difficult, however. Since 2007, the FEC has investigated 64 complaints of coordination, but found against candidates and groups only three times, fining them a total of $107,000, a review of FEC enforcement actions shows.
Montana, which has similar rules, also receives few complaints about such activity, Steab said.
The boxes from Colorado contained a mixture of documents from candidates and outside groups.
Folders labeled with the names of Montana candidates held drafts and final letters of support signed by candidates' wives and drafts and final copies of mailers marked as being paid for by the campaigns. The folders often appeared to have had an accounting of what had been sent and paid for scrawled on the front.
Several folders included copies of the signatures of candidates and their wives. "Use this one," someone wrote in red pen next to a cut-out rectangle on a page with five signatures from one candidate.
Steab, the Montana investigator, said she believed these cut-out signatures were then affixed to fliers from the candidates.
Besides material from the campaigns, the boxes also contained mailers on 2008 and 2010 races in Colorado and Montana from Western Tradition Partnership and six other groups. There were bank statements for several groups, including the Coalition for Energy and the Environment, the Alliance of Montana Taxpayers and the Conservative Victory Fund.
In all the documents, one name repeatedly popped up: Christian LeFer. Even though two Montana Republican politicians founded WTP, investigators determined that LeFer was the man behind the scenes.
LeFer, who is described as WTP's director of strategic programming in memos in 2009, said in an email that the documents "appear to be stolen property" and that, as he'd had no access to them, he couldn't respond to most of ProPublica's questions, "which seem to be based on an erroneous and fanciful interpretation of what they mean."
LeFer did not address whether WTP had coordinated with candidates. Although former employees and candidates said LeFer helped his wife run Direct Mail and Communications u2014 the printing company that Brown, the lawyer, suggested was the owner of the boxes of documents found in Colorado u2014 LeFer said he did not "run or direct the activities" there.
Direct Mail listed its principal office address in Montana filings as being the same Colorado address WTP initially used.
Two outside groups with documents in the boxes u2014 the Montana Committee to Protect the Unborn and Montana Citizens for Right to Work u2014 listed their addresses on bank statements as the same post-office box in Livingston used by LeFer and Direct Mail. LeFer was also the executive director of Montana Citizens for Right to Work, an anti-union group.
Former state Rep. Ed Butcher said LeFer and Western Tradition Partnership aided candidates with no experience.
"They'll come in, if candidates want some help, they'll come in and help them," said Butcher, who described LeFer as "a Karl Rove type political strategist" who "stays in the background."
Butcher's file in the Colorado boxes was labeled "Butcher Primary '08 mail samples." It included an email from LeFer to Butcher with a survey about unions. There was a campaign donation form, and drafts of fliers and a letter from Butcher's campaign.
A "wife questionnaire" for Butcher's wife Pam said she met her husband "on a blind date arranged by his buddy that neither of us wanted." The questionnaire listed her children's names and that she had been taking care of her disabled mother for five years.
A letter on pink paper from Pam Butcher was in a file marked "wife letters." The letter, which contained much of the information in the questionnaire, was marked as being paid for by Butcher's campaign.
Butcher said his wife might have run her letter past LeFer. "He may have asked, 'Do you need any help?' and she said, 'Yeah, I need to get this family letter out,'" said Butcher, who won the Republican primary in 2008 by 20 votes.
A folder for another successful candidate, Mike Miller, included a fax cover sheet from Miller to LeFer, forwarding Miller's filled-out Montana candidate surveys for two outside groups, the National Gun Owners Alliance and the National League of Taxpayers. It also held a candidate survey asking Miller if he had any research about his opponent, including "any recent scandals."
Miller confirmed to Frontline that LeFer was an unpaid adviser on his campaign, but would not elaborate further.
Trevor Potter, a former federal election commissioner who now runs the Campaign Legal Center, a watchdog group that advocates for more restrictions on money in politics, reviewed the documents found in the boxes.
"This is the sort of information that is, in fact, campaign strategy, campaign plans that candidates cannot share with an outside group without making it coordinated," Potter said.
"You need to know more, but certainly if I were back in my FEC days as a commissioner, I would say we had grounds to proceed with an investigation and put people under oath and show them these documents, and ask where they came from and where they were."
* * *
After the 2008 election, Montana started investigating whether WTP should have disclosed its donors.
The inquiry progressed slowly until 2010, when a former WTP contractor handed over internal fundraising records, saying she was worried about what the group was doing.
The documents showed that the group raised money specifically by telling people and corporations that they could give unlimited amounts in secret.
"The only thing we plan on reporting is our success to contributors like you who can see the benefits of a program like this," said one document, a 2010 election briefing to read to potential donors. "You can just sit back on election night and see what a difference you've made."
A target list of potential donors included an executive at a talc mine, the Montana representative of an international mining group and a Colorado executive for a global gold-mining company.
One note about a potential donor advised: "Married rich, hard to get a hold of. Have a beer with him." Another said: "Owns big ranch, signed a hit piece I wrote on cty cmms'r last year (don't mention), should give $$ $10,000 ask."
Other notes suggested that solicitors "See Christian" or "Talk to Christian," apparently references to LeFer.
The documents cited the group's success in 2008, saying in a confidential grassroots membership development proposal that 28 Montana state legislators "rode into office in 100% support of WTP's responsible development agenda."
By 2010, the partnership was active in state races in Montana and Colorado.
That October, Montana authorities said Western Tradition Partnership had violated campaign-finance law and should be fined. They said the group's purpose in 2008 was "not to discuss issues, but to directly influence candidate elections through surreptitious means."
The Montana investigation also said the evidence was overwhelming that WTP had established the Coalition for Energy and the Environment, known as CEE, as a "sham organization" to act as a front for expenditures actually made by WTP.
But the investigation also found that "sufficient evidence has not been disclosed to establish coordination between WTP/CEE and any candidate. Concern and healthy skepticism is warranted, however."
That was before the boxes from Colorado turned up.
A convicted felon named Mark Siebel said he stumbled on them inside a known meth house near Denver at some point in late 2010.
It's not clear how they got there. Siebel said a friend found them in a stolen car. After reading through some of the documents, he reached out to people he thought might be interested in them u2014 primarily Colorado candidates attacked by Western Tradition Partnership. A lawyer married to one of the candidates shipped the boxes off to Montana investigators.
By that time, however, the Montana probe into the group's activities in the 2008 election was over. Steab also said that there was no way to determine for certain where the documents were from and who owned them. There was no whistleblower, and no information about how the records ended up in Colorado.
Despite this, Steab said, she found the documents very telling.
"It looks to me that there was a lot of coordination u2014 but I don't know that it's coordination that everyone is aware of in all cases," she said. She said she spoke to one candidate who told her he was upset about all the negative mailers against his opponent.
This year, American Tradition Partnership is as active as ever. It's suing to try to overturn contribution limits in Montana, so far unsuccessfully. The group sent out mailers attacking candidates before the June primary in Montana, reporting none of them to the state as political expenditures. It later put out a press release saying that 12 of the 14 candidates it backed had won.
For the general election, the group appears to be targeting Montana's attorney general, Steve Bullock, the Democratic candidate for governor. As attorney general, Bullock fought the partnership's lawsuits against the state, including the one that ended up in the Supreme Court.
The first issue of the partnership's Montana Statesman newspaper, dated Oct. 7, which a group press release said was sent to 180,000 voters, featured four photographs on the front page: Three of registered sex offenders, and one of Bullock, accusing him of allowing one in four sex offenders to go unregistered. "Bullock admits failure," the headline announced. A full-page ad accused Bullock of taking illegal corporate contributions and of "criminal hypocrisy."
The Statesman's editor and publisher is none other than Ferguson, the partnership's executive director, described as an "award-winning newspaper veteran" who has been "commended by other newspapers for his 'honest, intelligent and issue-oriented' approach."
Ferguson didn't respond to a question about his journalism credentials.
"Conservative group American Tradition Partnership now one of nation's biggest media outlets," said a press release on the group's website, adding that the newspaper would publish "several" editions through Election Day and into 2013.
Hope everyone has had a great weekend so far. Below we have some great articles for you to read and help get you through your day so sit back, relax, and enjoy some great reads.?Like always, if you have any investment questions or need advice on a specific stock,?Stocks?on Wall Street?is always here for you so feel free to?Contact Us?at anytime.?We always love to hear from our readers so please shoot us an email. Also let us know what you think about the articles below and your thoughts on the markets current climate by either commenting below, posting on our?Facebook Fan Page?or by sending us either?Stocks on Wall Street?or our?Founder?a Tweet.
