Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Complete These Health and fitness Tips About To Relatives And ...

Exercise indicates exceptional health and emotional well being. When individuals get in shape, their mind and body operate greater. Read through these guidelines to discover receiving wholesome if you?re a person looking to get in shape.

Get your dog to physical exercise together with you when hitting the gym. Your puppy requirements workout nearly as much as you are doing. Studies show that around 35 percent of pets are heavy, so you can help them, you are able to destroy two wild birds with a single gemstone. Just take a walk with the dog can the two of you.

Commit a little bit of time every day for workout.

Avoid having quickly ahead of working out. Doing lots of exercise immediately after makes it hard for the meal to resolve. This might lead to nausea or vomiting and right after your training session. Eat a light-weight or drink water prior to deciding to work out and save your dinner for after.

Give up smoking once you can to aid your way of life. It is possible to give up smoking regardless of how long you may have it be beneficial for your overall health.You will put many years for your life time and reduce the probability of using a stroke. Deal with your body and quit smoking.

Buy good quality fitness equipment if you wish to whip your very own. This purchase that will help you in profit as long as you continue to make use of it as far as possible. It is vital that you perform your due diligence and acquire an incredible selling price. It is important to buy a quality piece of equipment so that it lasts for quite some time.

Keep a sign of everything one does every day. You might even locate including the climate you had on that day. This can help you reflect on something that afflicted your day. When you ignore a couple of days of workout, jot downward a take note detailing why.

You might desire to disperse your healthy proteins, 35Per cent carbs and 45Per cent protein. You must try to eat proteins at each mean because it is essential to supply and make muscle tissue.

Don?t extend your thumbs round the club if you are performing workout routines such as lat pullup/pulldown exercises. You may give attention to your primary rear muscle tissue by putting your thumb after that your index finger. It takes some becoming accustomed to, but it?s essential for obtaining the right muscles figured out.

An excellent physical fitness tip for individuals looking to get fit and build durability is to lift lighter weight dumbbells at considerably faster rates. This allows your muscle and may give the identical effects as exercising with weightier weights. Choose bodyweight at about 50Percent of your respective upper restriction.

The standard technique of improving muscles by all at once carrying out a lot fewer reps. Start by picking a muscles like the torso. Start out with less heavy than usual to warmup your own muscles. It ought to be feasible that you can comprehensive 15-20 reps together with the lighter in weight. The second set up should be carried out by using an excess weight in which you are only 6-8 repetitions. Put about five a lot more pounds for the body weight and repeat.

It is very important which you routine from the day to locate serious amounts of prepare food and exercise. In the event you find out your plan upfront, you can have all your foods equipped in advance and understand specifically when to exercise routine.

After looking at this informative article, you will be now on the right track to knowing the way to get easily fit in the most effective manner probable. You could do what you intend to do in the event you remain targeted and check out tough. You will observe incredible life time rewards that may always possessing you sensing very good.

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Web Service Mining: Application to Discoveries of Biological ...

Home ? Education ? Web Service Mining: Application to Discoveries of Biological Pathways [Repost]

George Zheng, Athman Bouguettaya ? Web Service Mining: Application to Discoveries of Biological Pathways Published: 2010-06-25 | ISBN: 1441965386 | PDF | 152 pages | 6 MB Web Service Mining: Application to Discoveries of Biological Pathways [Repost]

George Zheng, Athman Bouguettaya ? Web Service Mining: Application to Discoveries of Biological Pathways
Published: 2010-06-25 | ISBN: 1441965386 | PDF | 152 pages | 6 MB

Web Service Mining: Application to Discoveries of Biological Pathways presents the major issues and solutions to mining services on the Web. This book focuses specifically on a reference framework for Web service mining that is inspired by molecular recognition and the drug discovery process; known as a molecular-based approach. Web Service Mining: Application to Discoveries of Biological Pathways applies the service mining framework and techniques back to biological processes for the discovery of biological pathways. It links various processes that are involved in an interaction network, as well as provides performance benchmarks for assessing web service mining techniques and algorithms. About this book: ? Presents in-depth analysis of issues related to service mining on the Web. ? Includes a novel application of service modeling and mining methodologies to the discovery of biological pathways. Web Service and Mining: Application to Discoveries of Biological Pathways is designed for researchers and practitioners working in the web service oriented computing industry. This book is also suitable for advanced-level students in computer science and biology as a secondary text or reference book.

Source: http://www.ebooktm.com/certification-education/web-service-mining-application-to-discoveries-of-biological-pathways-repost.html

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Monday, April 29, 2013

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Source: http://www.nuhitz.com/blog/18940/car-finance-calculator-online/

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Breaking a sports barrier, NBA's Jason Collins comes out as gay

By Julian Linden

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Veteran basketball player Jason Collins announced on Monday that he was gay, smashing through one of the final frontiers in U.S. sports with a frank personal statement and winning warm praise as a groundbreaker.

Collins, a 12-year player in the National Basketball Association (NBA), became the first active athlete from any of the four major U.S. men's professional sports leagues to come out publicly as gay.

He was quickly enveloped in a wave of support from the White House to tennis player Martina Navratilova, a pioneer for gay athletes in sport.

Collins is not a well-known sports star but is now likely to become famous for his stance. He revealed the secret he had harbored for years in a first-person account published in Sports Illustrated, saying he had gradually become frustrated with having to keep silent on his sexuality.

"I'm a 34-year-old NBA center," his essay began. "I'm black. And I'm gay."

Collins said he had considered coming out years ago but it was the Boston Marathon bombings this month that convinced him not to wait any more for a perfect moment to come out.

"I wish I wasn't the kid in the classroom raising his hand and saying, 'I'm different.' said Collins, who played last season with the Boston Celtics and then the Washington Wizards and is currently a free agent. "If I had my way, someone else would have already done this. Nobody has, which is why I'm raising my hand."

Players, administrators and some politicians applauded him for taking a stance. Some hailed it as a landmark day in American civil rights, perhaps as important as when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball.

President Barack Obama, a big fan of the NBA who regularly plays pickup basketball with his friends, called Collins to express his support, a White House official said.

"I can certainly tell you that here at the White House we view that as another example of the progress that has been made and the evolution that has been taking place in this country, and commend him for his courage, and support him in his - in this effort and hope that his fans and his team support him going forward," said White House spokesman Jay Carney.

DEBATE OVER GAY RIGHTS

Collins' move came at a time of shifting attitudes toward gay rights in the United States, where polls show public opinion is fast moving toward greater acceptance, although a core of social conservatives oppose such change.

Some in sports declined to join the chorus of voices in support of Collins. Sportswriter Chris Broussard, speaking on ESPN television, grouped homosexual acts with adultery and premarital sex, saying he believed this was "walking in open rebellion to God."

In the coming months, the Supreme Court will rule on whether to strike down parts of a federal law that defines marriage as the union between a man and a woman. In 2011, the military repealed a ban on openly gay soldiers.

"Jason's announcement today is an important moment for professional sports and in the history of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) community," former U.S. president Bill Clinton said in a statement.

NBA commissioner David Stern said he was proud of Collins for taking a brave stance.

"Jason has been a widely respected player and teammate throughout his career and we are proud he has assumed the leadership mantle on this very important issue," Stern said.

In a country where it is no longer news for politicians and entertainers to be openly gay, there had been questions over the lack of an openly gay player in the big four men's professional leagues: the National Basketball Association, the National Football League, the National Hockey League and Major League Baseball.

Sports, which helped play a key role in changing public opinion on racial discrimination, had come to seem out of step with much of the rest of American society.

Collins, who has played with six different teams during his 12 years in the NBA, said he never had any grand plans to be the first openly gay player, but events off the basketball court persuaded him to come out.

He was inspired by last year's gay pride parade in Boston, he said, but delayed making an announcement due to a desire to protect his team, waiting until the end of the regular 2012-2013 season ended. Collins was also prompted by the April 15 Boston Marathon bombings which killed three people and wounded more than 200, he said.

"The recent Boston Marathon bombing reinforced the notion that I shouldn't wait for the circumstances of my coming out to be perfect," he wrote in Sports Illustrated. "Things can change in an instant, so why not live truthfully?

PRAISE FLOODS IN

Kobe Bryant, one of the NBA's greatest players, was fined $100,000 in 2011 for a homophobic slur. On Monday, he was among the first of dozens of active players who took to social media to applaud Collins.

"Proud of @jasoncollins34. Don't suffocate who u r because of the ignorance of others," Bryant tweeted.

Two-time NBA Most Valuable Player Steve Nash tweeted: "The time has come. Maximum respect."

There are openly gay players in many top professional leagues in other countries in the world as well as smaller leagues in North America and individual sports.

Navratilova, the tennis star who also became a champion for gay rights, said Collins would feel like a burden had been lifted from him.

"Hey Jason Collins-you are now an activist!!! And trust me, you will sleep a lot better now - freedom is a sweet feeling indeed!," she tweeted.

Other gay athletes, including former NBA center John Amaechi, had waited until their retirement to divulge their sexuality publicly, but there was a growing sense that times were changing.

Earlier this year, the American soccer player Robbie Rogers outed himself, although he had just retired. And Brittney Griner, one of the country's top women's basketball players, said she too was gay.

But there were still no currently playing, openly gay athletes from the four biggest men's leagues.

The question came into sharp focus this year around the National Football League (NFL), usually viewed as the most macho of America's pro sports.

In the days leading up to this year's Super Bowl in New Orleans in February, San Francisco 49ers cornerback Chris Culliver told reporters he would not welcome a gay teammate into the locker room.

He later retracted his comments but reports later emerged of NFL teams asking college players about their sexuality at a scouting session in February.

This prompted the New York State attorney general to send a letter to the NFL, urging the league to take action and adopt a formal policy on discrimination over sexual orientation.

High-profile NFL players, most notably Chris Kluwe and Brendon Ayanbadejo, began advocating for gay rights, and suggested there were a handful of players ready to come out once someone had taken the first step.

"All of us have huge admiration for what Jason is doing," said Patrick Burke, co-founder of equal rights advocacy group You Can Play.

"Jason's courage in stepping forward with his personal story will provide athletes and fans with a new role model."

(Editing by Frances Kerry and Tim Dobbyn)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/breaking-sports-barrier-nbas-jason-collins-comes-gay-001323638.html

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Comparing proteins at a glance: Technique for easy comparisons of proteins in solution

Apr. 29, 2013 ? A revolutionary X-ray analytical technique that enables researchers at a glance to identify structural similarities and differences between multiple proteins under a variety of conditions has been developed by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). As a demonstration, the researchers used this technique to gain valuable new insight into a protein that is a prime target for cancer chemotherapy.

"Proteins and other biological macromolecules are moving machines whose power is often derived from how their structural conformations change in response to their environment," says Greg Hura, a scientist with Berkeley Lab's Physical Biosciences Division. "Knowing what makes a protein change has incredible value, much like knowing that stepping on a gas pedal makes the wheels of a car spin."

Hura led the development of what is being called a structural comparison map for use with small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), an imaging technique for obtaining structural information about proteins and protein complexes in solution. Cynthia McMurray, a biologist with Berkeley Lab's Life Sciences Division, provided the cancer-relevant protein used to test the new SAXS structural comparison map.

Says McMurray, "In biology, the first step in correcting a problem, such as the formation of a cancerous lesion, is understanding the conditions under which the problem arose. With the SAXS structural comparison map, we can compare multiple protein structures en masse and quickly identify areas of interest."

Greg Hura, Helen Budworth and Cynthia McMurray, shown here at the Advanced Light Source, developed a structural comparison map for SAXS imaging and tested it on a chemotherapeutic target protein. (Photo by Roy Kaltschmidt, Berkeley Lab)

Hura is the lead author and McMurray one of two corresponding authors of a paper in the journal Nature Methods that describes this research. The paper is titled "Comprehensive objective maps of macromolecular conformations by quantitative SAXS analysis." Also a corresponding author is John Tainer, who holds joint appointments with Berkeley Lab's Life Sciences Division and the Scripps Research Institute. The other authors are Helen Budworth, Kevin Dyer, Robert Rambo and Michal Hammel.

In perhaps no other area of science does the maxim "function follows form" hold more true than for proteins and protein complexes. The structural conformations created by the folding, twisting and turning of a protein's amino acid chain can allow or prevent the protein from doing what it's supposed to do and this can mean the difference between a healthy and an unhealthy cell. A protein can assume multiple distinct conformational states as it undergoes various chemical processes such as phosphorylation, nucleotide or ligand binding, ATP hydrolysis or the formation of complexes.

The most widely used technique for determining a protein's structure remains crystallography, but many proteins and protein complexes can't be crystalized. Furthermore, though precise, crystallography is a low-throughput process that can only capture one conformational state at a time. Enter SAXS, a high-throughput technique that can image any protein or protein complex in solution under any condition, and provide nanoscale resolution for distinguishing and characterizing the different conformational states that flexible biological macromolecules such as proteins can assume.

"With SAXS, there are relatively few restraints on conditions, construction, concentration or solution chemistry," Hura says. "However, analytical methods have not kept pace with the hardware. While there are many factors that may induce a protein to undergo structural changes, these factors are difficult to predict. Our structural comparison map technique gives us a high-throughput screening capability. The combination of SAXS and our maps allows us to highlight those factors that make the biggest difference in structural conformations. We're also able to track trends and identify intermediate states and other factors that shift equilibrium from one structure to another."

The data in a structural comparison map is presented in the form of a color-coded checkerboard with similarity scores displayed as gradients moving from red, indicating high, to white, indicating low, and various shades of orange and yellow in between.

"With structural comparison maps, I can immediately see which structures under which conditions are the same and which are not," says McMurray. "The maps provide both structural and chemical information and enable us to identify those conformations we should be looking at."

To test the structural conformation map technique, co-author Budworth, a member of McMurray's research group, prepared samples of a protein known as MutS?, an inviting chemotherapeutic target because of its ability to remove problematic DNA that can lead to cancer and other genetic mutations.

"MutS? is a heterodimer whose two macromolecules undergo an ordered series of nucleotide-dependent steps to initiate DNA repair," Budworth says. "Each discrete nucleotide-bound state is a conformational state decision point that primes the next pathway step. A mechanistic understanding of these steps is crucial to learning how cells avoid mutation."

Says McMurray, "Initially this was a very big puzzle because MutS? had no crystal structure, nor could we take a look at any one conformational state and say this is good or this is bad. The structural conformation maps allowed us to characterize the different conformational states individually and then compare them to one another. We discovered that DNA has surprisingly little impact on MutS? conformational structures, a fact that was not evident from biochemical measurements, but obvious when examining the maps."

From the SAXS imaging and structural conformation map analysis, McMurray and her group believe that DNA is sculpted to the protein conformation and that nucleotide-binding drives MutS? conformational changes. This, they say, holds implications for future cancer therapies.

The MutS? samples were subjected to SAXS at the SIBYLS beamline of Berkeley Lab's Advanced Light Source, a synchrotron that generates premier beams of X-ray and ultraviolet light for scientific research. The acronym SIBYLS stands for Structurally Integrated Biology for Life Sciences. The beamline is maintained by Berkeley Lab's Life Sciences Division under the direction of corresponding author Tainer.

Says Tainer, "The structural comparison map technique is a big step forward in the development of tools that will help biologists use the full potential of the awesome throughput we expect to achieve with the next generation of light sources."

This research was supported by funds from the DOE Office of Science and from the National Institutes of Health.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Greg L Hura, Helen Budworth, Kevin N Dyer, Robert P Rambo, Michal Hammel, Cynthia T McMurray, John A Tainer. Comprehensive macromolecular conformations mapped by quantitative SAXS analyses. Nature Methods, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nmeth.2453

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.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/_XQpz2Ub8Bw/130429130545.htm

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Gillmor Gang: Watertown

gillmor-gang-test-pattern_excerptThe Gillmor Gang ? Danny Sullivan, Dan Farber, Kevin Marks, John Taschek, and Steve Gillmor ? note the intersection of social and mainstream medias as the events in Boston unfolded in real time. What has been framed as a competition became something more, as Twitter streams, scanner apps, and local news streams meshed with CNN et al. Inspired curation by @dannysullivan produced an authoritative feed of credible crowdsourced updates. Tweeters at the scene produced wry commentary on reporter exaggeration, eventually encouraging a hybrid blend of real time speed and news judgement. Our thoughts remain with the brave and resilient people of Watertown, Cambridge, and Boston.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/d2F6DUYQVc0/

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Sunday, April 28, 2013

Google Glass Has Already Been Hacked and Rooted

Though Google Glass runs Android, it's not exactly as wide open as your typical Android phone. And given its spot as the most futuristic tech available right now, you know hackers want to tinker with Google's specs. Legendary hacker Jay Freeman, famously known as Saurik who created the Cydia app store for iOS jailbreak phones, did just that. He's already gained root access to Google Glass. More »
    


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/-S5Rvk9AtlY/google-glass-has-already-been-hacked-and-rooted

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New charges - and maybe a new home - coming for Maine hermit

By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News

The Maine "hermit" wants to get back to the land, but first he'll have to deal with up to a dozen new burglary charges.

When he was arrested for a break-in earlier this month, Christopher Knight, 47, amazed the public with his story of spending 27 years in the woods with no human contact, surviving on whatever he could steal from surrounding camps.

Kennebec County District Attorney Maeghan Maloney said Friday that police are combing through burglary reports from the last six years ? the statute of limitations ? and matching them to Knight's confession of hundreds of thefts.

Kennebec County Sheriff's Office

Christopher Knight was arrested on April 4, 2013, while stealing food from a camp in Rome, Maine.

In the next two weeks, Knight will be hit with a new round of charges. Maloney, though, said no one is anxious to throw the book at the remorseful recluse, who wants to pay back his victims.

"Christopher Knight has a bank account and all money put into that bank account will go first to pay restitution and any more left over goes to him," Maloney said.

"He has said it is his dream to have enough to buy his own piece of land."

Knight, who told police he simply walked into the forest when he was 19 and never looked back, built a makeshift camp for himself in Rome that has since been dismantled.

There were rumors of a "North Pond Hermit" who was breaking into camps that ring the pond, but no one saw him until Knight tripped an alarm three weeks ago and was arrested.

He was charged with one burglary and then a second. His bail was raised to $250,000 then lowered to $25,000, with the restriction that it couldn't be posted by a third party, to stop someone from taking advantage of him.

While he's been held in the county jail, where he's awaiting a mental health evaluation, his only complaint has been "the television is too loud," Maloney said.

He mainly speaks to his lawyer, who declined to speak about him, and the investigating officer, Trooper Diane Perkins-Vance. The trooper has befriended Knight, visiting when she's off the clock.

"He told me it's not that he dislikes people, he just doesn?t want to be around people," Perkins-Vance told WCSH.

Knight's apparent restraint in stealing only what he needed and his apologies to the victims have made him a sympathetic figure. He even got a marriage proposal, and there's talk of a book deal.

Maloney said the suspect lucked out by getting Perkins-Vance as an investigator and herself as the prosecutor.

"[She] hasn?t viewed this case as 'I want to lock him up and throw away the key," the DA said, "And I ran on a platform of being smart on crime and differentiating between crimes where a person can be rehabilitated and ones where they cannot."

?

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2b3914b0/l/0Lusnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A40C260C17932950A0Enew0Echarges0Eand0Emaybe0Ea0Enew0Ehome0Ecoming0Efor0Emaine0Ehermit0Dlite/story01.htm

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Imation Personal S250 16GB Secure Drive


When it comes to securing data, few names carry as much weight as IronKey. Developed in partnership with the Department of Homeland Security, and the first choice of actual government agencies, IronKey's reputation is well-earned. It's also now owned by Imation, so there's a slight change of name. That government-grade encryption is available to citizens as well, with the Imation Personal S250, the follow-up to the IronKey Personal S200.

Design
The S250 offers some of the strongest encryption available, with FIPS 140-2 level 3 certification meeting all requirements for use by civilian and military U.S. federal agencies. The construction is extremely rugged and ultra-secure. A solid, seamless metal enclosure is then filled in with epoxy, protecting it against both the elements and from attackers?moisture and dust are sealed out, while the epoxy filling makes it impossible to attack the internal electronic directly. The cap is also metal, with a rubber liner and gasket that extends the environmental protection to the USB plug, and keeps the cap securely attached.

The whole thing is ruggedized inside and out, made to military specifications and able to handle submersion in liquid, extremes in temperature and altitude, drops and bangs from absurd heights, and even handle 16Gs of force. For an extra dose of security, each drive is also laser engraved with a unique serial number, making it that much harder to swap out the key for an identical fake.

The hardware inside protects your data with as much?if not more?robust protection. The memory itself uses dual-channel SLC NAND Flash memory, which offers faster performance than the MLC flash modules found in most consumer grade drives, and lasts longer as well.

But the real protection lies in the encryption, which uses the renowned IronKey Cryptochip hardware encryption, certified for government and military-grade use as defined by Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS 140-2 Level 3). The chip is separate from the memory module and is a true-random number generator, creating all-but-theoretically-uncrackable encryption keys and using AES Cipher-Block Chaining. Without the correct password, there's no getting the data on this drive. Even trying to brute-force the password will end in failure?the drive data essentially self-destructs after 10 incorrect password entries.

The S250?including the encryption and onboard apps?is compatible with all major operating systems, including Windows (8/7/Vista/XP), Mac (OS X 10.5 and up), and Linux (2.6 and up). Imation covers the S250 with a one-year warranty, but given the rugged construction, it's unlikely you'll ever need it.

Features and Performance
Setting up the drive is simple, done by first opening the drive with the included IronKey Unlocker program?without it, the drive won't even register as a readable drive. It will prompt you to enter a password, and walks you through the process, including setting up a recovery email address to retrieve a lost password and prevent accidentally triggering a data wipe with too many incorrect guesses.

On the drive is a control panel, which offers a user's guide for detailed instructions, a secure backup program, and an identity management app for safely storing login and password data for online apps and accounts. It also offers a portable secure browser, a locked down version of Firefox that lets you browse the web with total peace of mind?each secure session creates an encrypted tunnel to a secure server maintained by Imation, and your local computer will be unable to store your cookies, browser history, or passwords.

In timed data transfer tests, the S250 demonstrated write speeds of 21MBps?a touch slower than the 24MBps claimed by Imation?and read speeds of 35MBps?exceeding Imation's claims of 31MBps. That puts it on slightly better footing than the Kingston DataTraveler Vault Privacy, which tested at 35 MBps (write) and 10 MBps (read), and notably faster than the consumer-oriented Editors' Choice, the Kingston DataTraveler Locker+ G2 (16GB), which had an average of 21MBps read and 12MBps write speed.

One area where the S250 stands apart is price?at $329 for 16GB, it's by far the most expensive encrypted drive we've reviewed in recent months, coming out to more than $20 per GB. In stark contrast, the 16GB Kingston DataTraveler Locker+ G2 has a list price of $25 for the entire drive. But if data protection is your primary concern, the Imation Personal S250 is far and away the best option available, and it's actually cheaper now than it has ever been?the previous iteration, the IronKey S200 sold for $79, for only 1GB of memory.

If you want to best security available, safeguarding you against hackers, thieves, and the elements with equal zeal, the Imation Personal S250 is Fort Knox. It will keep your data as safe as it can be, but that security and rugged construction comes at a steep price. If price is a concern, stick to our Editors' Choice Kingston DataTraveler Locker+ G2 (16GB)?but if you want the most secure drive you can buy, there's no choice better than the Imation Personal S250.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/ih3ATlIZNM0/0,2817,2418136,00.asp

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Saturday, April 27, 2013

ZTE's 2013 Q1 sees profits of $33 million despite three percent sales slide

ZTEs 2013 Q1 sees profits of $33 million despite three percent sales slide

ZTE has managed to break a run of two straight quarterly losses by posting a net profit of $33 million in its first 2013 financials. Unfortunately, the extra cash has come from selling a $133 million stake in surveillance firm Shenzhen ZNV, rather than any surge in handset popularity. A three percent fall in sales, project holdups, and squeezed margins have all helped to heap woes onto ZTE's plate -- not to mention the ongoing hostility from the folks in Congress.

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Source: Bloomberg

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/26/zte-2013-q1/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Russian court denies punk band convict Tolokonnikova parole

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian court refused to release from prison one of two jailed members of the Pussy Riot punk band so that she can look after her young daughter.

The court on Friday rejected Nadezhda Tolokonnikova's appeal for parole eight months after she was handed a two-year prison sentence for the band's performance of a "punk prayer" in Moscow's main Russian Orthodox cathedral.

Tolokonnikova, 23, has been serving her sentence for "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" in a prison colony in central Russia, about 550 km (350 miles) southeast of Moscow.

"I've spent enough time in the prison colony. I've had enough of studying it. Half a year is long enough," Tolokonnikova, a philosophy student, told the judge at the parole hearing, the RAPSI legal news agency reported.

She complained of having frequent headaches in jail in Mordovia, a region that has a large number of prisons.

Her lawyer, Irina Khrunova, said Tolokonnikova's five-year-old daughter Gera needed her mother.

The judge said Tolokonnikova's parental status had been taken into account when she was sentenced - prosecutors had asked for three years - and pointed to two reprimands she has received as evidence her conduct has not been sufficiently "corrected", RAPSI reported.

Tolokonnikova and two other band members, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich, were sentenced last August after a trial that was widely condemned abroad as part of a clampdown on dissent by President Vladimir Putin.

Performers such as Madonna, Sting and former Beatle Paul McCartney offered their support for Pussy Riot last year.

SENTENCES DIVIDED OPINION

Although the two-year sentences outraged many liberals, many conservative Russians saw their profanity-laced protest against Putin's close ties with the Church, performed in short dresses and brightly colored tights and balaclavas, as sacrilege.

Samutsevich, 30, was freed in October when her sentence was suspended on appeal after she argued that she had been prevented from taking part in the protest because a guard seized her.

Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina, 24, lost their appeals and in January a judge rejected Alyokhina's request for her sentence to be deferred until her child is older. She has also requested parole and that appeal could be heard next month.

The three women said they had not meant to offend Orthodox Christians with their protest in February 2012, while anti-Putin protests were drawing tens of thousands of people to the streets of Moscow and other big cities.

The rallies have since dwindled and did not stop Putin winning a presidential election the next month.

In his annual nationwide question-and-answer session on Thursday, Putin denied using the courts for political ends.

But he made clear he did not regret Pussy Riot's sentences, mentioning them in the same breath as people who desecrate the graves of World War Two veterans.

But Samutsevich says Pussy Riot's protest at least succeeded in drawing attention to what the all-women protest band sees as Putin's unhealthy relationship with the church and a lack of political freedoms.

"We wanted to start a discussion in society, show our negative view of the merging of the church and state ... The problem was raised internationally, the problem of human rights was put sharply into focus," she said in a recent interview.

(Writing by Timothy Heritage; Editing by Steve Gutterman and Mike Collett-White)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/russian-court-denies-punk-band-convict-tolokonnikova-parole-184156369.html

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Hormone levels and sexual motivation among young women

Apr. 25, 2013 ? Feeling frisky? If so, chances are greater your estrogen level -- and, perhaps, fertility -- are hitting their monthly peak. If not, you're more likely experiencing a profusion of desire-deadening progesterone, and the less fertile time in your cycle. Oh, the power of hormones.

Researchers have long suspected a correlation between hormone levels and libido, but now scientists at UC Santa Barbara, led by James Roney, a professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, have actually demonstrated hormonal predictors for sexual desire. Their findings appear in the current issue of the journal Hormones and Behavior.

"We found two hormonal signals that had opposite effects on sexual motivation," said Roney, the article's lead author. "Estrogen was having a positive effect, but with a two-day lag. Progesterone was having a persistent negative effect, both for current day, day before, and two days earlier." When hormone levels and sexual desire were factored against the menstrual cycles of test subjects -- in this case, undergraduate students -- the researchers saw a measurable increase in progesterone levels at the same time the subjects noted decreases in sexual motivation. Progesterone, the researchers say, is mediating this drop in desire from the fertile window to the luteal phase -- the second half of the menstrual cycle.

"Progesterone acting as a potential stop signal within cycles is a novel finding in humans," noted Roney. "We know in rhesus monkeys there is a strong negative correlation with progesterone and a positive correlation with estrogen. The patterns are actually comparable to what you see in non-human primates, but hadn't been shown in humans."

The researchers' findings have potential implications on the treatment of low sexual desire and how hormone replacement trials are done. "We're not controlling hormones the way they do in the hormone replacement literature, so, in a sense, that literature is more directly applicable in terms of medical applications," said Roney. "But in the long run, it would be good to have a model of the combination of signals that operates in the natural cycle. The way hormone replacement trials are done now, there's no model of the natural signals, so they're sort of random -- let's give estrogen, let's give testosterone, let's combine them this way or that way."

Roney noted that his findings don't present a full model, and he'd like to replicate his results with women of different age groups. "Undergraduates might be unique for a lot of reasons," he said. "Their hormone levels tend to be a bit different from those of women even just a little bit older. And married women in their 30's are likely to be more consistently sexually active, and that might change the patterns in some ways. They also tend to have higher hormone secretion and more regular cycles than younger women," he said

Eventually, Roney continued, the goal would be to have a better model of the signals in a natural cycle that might then inform medical research.

Another interesting finding, according to Roney, was the impact -- or lack thereof -- of testosterone on the women's sexual motivation. "There's a common belief in the medical literature that testosterone is the main regulator of women's libido," he explained. "Doctors tend to believe that, though the evidence isn't that strong in humans. In the natural cycles, we weren't finding effects of testosterone. It wasn't significantly predicting outcomes."

Roney doesn't deny that testosterone does seem to have a positive effect in hormone replacement therapy, but suggests the effects may be pharmacological. "Testosterone has those effects if you inject it externally in women who are menopausal, and there are a lot of reasons that might be the case," he said. "For example, testosterone can be converted to estrogen through a particular enzyme. If you inject menopausal women with testosterone, it might be acting as a device that's delivering estrogen to the target cells. So the fact that it works doesn't necessarily mean it's an important signal in the natural cycle."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California - Santa Barbara.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. James R. Roney, Zachary L. Simmons. Hormonal predictors of sexual motivation in natural menstrual cycles. Hormones and Behavior, 2013; 63 (4): 636 DOI: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2013.02.013

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.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/jAs8e-hNVtU/130425160214.htm

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Friday, April 26, 2013

38 die in mental hospital fire outside Moscow

In this image taken from Ministry for Emergency Situations, Moscow region branch website, a psychiatric hospital outside Moscow is on fire early Friday morning, April 26, 2013. At least 38 people died in the fire in the psychiatric hospital outside Moscow late Thursday night. Police said the fire, which broke out at about 2 a.m. local time (6 p.m. Eastern, 2200 GMT) in the one-story hospital in the Ramenskoye settlement, was caused by a short circuit. (AP Photo/Ministry for Emergency Situations, Moscow region branch website) EDITORIAL USE ONLY

In this image taken from Ministry for Emergency Situations, Moscow region branch website, a psychiatric hospital outside Moscow is on fire early Friday morning, April 26, 2013. At least 38 people died in the fire in the psychiatric hospital outside Moscow late Thursday night. Police said the fire, which broke out at about 2 a.m. local time (6 p.m. Eastern, 2200 GMT) in the one-story hospital in the Ramenskoye settlement, was caused by a short circuit. (AP Photo/Ministry for Emergency Situations, Moscow region branch website) EDITORIAL USE ONLY

Ministry for Emergency Situations workers and fire fighters work at a site of a fire of a psychiatric hospital Friday morning, April 26, 2013. At least 38 people died in the fire in the psychiatric hospital outside Moscow late Thursday night. Police said the fire, which broke out at about 2 a.m. local time (6 p.m. Eastern, 2200 GMT) in the one-story hospital in the Ramenskoye settlement, was caused by a short circuit. (AP Photo/Pavel Sergeyev)

Map locates fire a psychiatric hospital outside of central Moscow

Ministry for Emergency Situations workers and fire fighters work at a site of a fire of a psychiatric hospital Friday morning, April 26, 2013. At least 38 people died in the fire in the psychiatric hospital outside Moscow late Thursday night. Police said the fire, which broke out at about 2 a.m. local time (6 p.m. Eastern, 2200 GMT) in the one-story hospital in the Ramenskoye settlement, was caused by a short circuit. (AP Photo/Pavel Sergeyev)

Ministry for Emergency Situations workers and fire fighters work at a site of a fire of a psychiatric hospital Friday morning, April 26, 2013. At least 38 people died in the fire in the psychiatric hospital outside Moscow late Thursday night. Police said the fire, which broke out at about 2 a.m. local time (6 p.m. Eastern, 2200 GMT) in the one-story hospital in the Ramenskoye settlement, was caused by a short circuit. (AP Photo/Pavel Sergeyev)

(AP) ? A fire swept quickly through a psychiatric hospital outside Moscow early Friday, killing 38 people, most of them in their beds, officials said.

Health Ministry officials said that the one-story hospital brick-and-wood building housed patients with severe mental disorders.

An emergency ministry official said the fire started in a wooden annex and then spread to the main brick building which had wooden beams.

The patients were under sedatives and most of them did not wake up, Yuri Deshevykh of the emergency situations ministry told RIA Novosti.

At least 29 people were burned alive, said Irina Gumennaya, a spokeswoman for the Russian Investigative Committee.

Moscow region governor Andrei Vorobyev said some of the hospital windows were barred.

Officials from the Russian Investigative Committee said they are looking at poor fire regulations and short circuit as possible causes for the blaze that engulfed the hospital in the Ramenskiy settlement, some 85 kilometers (53 miles) north of Moscow.

Investigators listed 38 people ? 36 patients and two doctors ? as dead. Only one nurse and two patients managed to escape, according to the health ministry. The emergency services also posted a list of the patients indicating they ranged in age from 20 to 76.

A spokeswoman for the Investigative Committee told Russian news agencies that most of the people died in their beds.

Belovoshin of the emergency ministry said that it took fire fighters an hour to get to the hospital following an emergency call because a ferry across the canal was closed and the fire fighters had to make a detour.

Vorobyev told Russian state-television that the fire alarm seems to have worked but the fire spread too quickly.

Russia has a poor fire safety record, with about 12,000 deaths reported in 2012. In January, a fire in an underground parking lot killed 10 migrant workers from Tajikistan who were working and living there. In a similar incident in September, 14 Vietnamese workers were killed by fire at a clothing factory near Moscow.

In one of the most high-profile case of negligence, more than 150 people died in a night club in the city of Perm after a pyrotechnic show ignited a wooden ceiling.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-04-26-Russia-Fire/id-b7c5144da9414ee0920641f7a6f05df6

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Here's your chance to try out App.net for free; we've got 200 invitations to hand out

App.net

200 invitations won't last long, so if you're interested grab one quickly!

The good people at App.net have been trying something new by offering limited, invitation-only free tier accounts. It's a great way to try out the services App.net has to offer, like the Twitter-style social blogging, cloud storage, and messaging services before they decide to spend any money. Everyone likes to try before they buy, and it leads to more satisfied customers who know what to expect. It's a great idea, but invites aren't exactly the easiest thing to get.

We can alleviate that a little bit, as ADN has reached out to us and given us 200 invites to hand out. They know readers of sites like Android Central are the type who want to try out these sort of services, and can provide feedback to make everything as good as it can be. 200 invites won't last long, though, so if you're interested you'll need to jump on it.

Join App.net from AndroidCentral

If you use the invitation, you'll be automatically following Android Central, so you'll have some content in your stream while you look for others to follow and talk with. You don't have to keep following us though, there are no strings attached here.

This is a great way to try out the App.net service, so be sure to give it a look. We'll see you there!

    


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/JVUjiekXVgA/story01.htm

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Museum find proves exotic ?big cat? prowled British countryside a century ago

Apr. 23, 2013 ? The rediscovery of a mystery animal in a museum's underground storeroom proves that a non-native 'big cat' prowled the British countryside at the turn of the last century.

The animal's skeleton and mounted skin was analysed by a multi-disciplinary team of Durham University scientists and fellow researchers at Bristol, Southampton and Aberystwyth universities and found to be a Canadian lynx -- a carnivorous predator more than twice the size of a domestic cat.

The research, published today in the academic journal Historical Biology, establishes the animal as the earliest example of an "alien big cat" at large in the British countryside.

The research team say this provides further evidence for debunking a popular hypothesis that wild cats entered the British countryside following the introduction of the 1976 Wild Animals Act. The Act was introduced to deal with an increasing fashion for exotic -- and potentially dangerous -- pets.

The academics believe such feral "British big cats" as they are known, may have lived in the wild much earlier, through escapes and even deliberate release. There is no evidence that such animals have been able to breed in the wild.

The study of the Canadian lynx, rediscovered by research team member Max Blake among hundreds of thousands of specimens at Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, details records unearthed at the museum which showed the animal had originally been mislabelled by Edwardian curators in 1903 as a Eurasian lynx -- a close relative of the Canadian lynx.

The records also showed that the lynx was shot by a landowner in the Devon countryside in the early 1900s, after it killed two dogs.

"This Edwardian feral lynx provides concrete evidence that although rare, exotic felids have occasionally been part of British fauna for more than a century," said lead researcher, Dr Ross Barnett of Durham University's Department of Archaeology.

"The animal remains are significant in representing the first historic big cat from Britain."

Co-author Dr Darren Naish, from the University of Southampton, added: "There have been enough sightings of exotic big cats which substantially pre-date 1976 to cast doubt on the idea that one piece of legislation made in 1976 explains all releases of these animals in the UK.

"It seems more likely that escapes and releases have occurred throughout history, and that this continual presence of aliens explains the 'British big cat' phenomenon."

The researchers point out in their paper that Eurasian lynxes existed in the wild in Britain many hundreds of years ago, but had almost certainly become extinct by the 7th century. Laboratory analysis of the Bristol specimen's bones and teeth established it had been kept in captivity long enough to develop severe tooth loss and plaque before it either escaped or was deliberately released into the wild. Ancient DNA analysis of hair from the lynx proved inconclusive, possibly due to chemicals applied to the pelt during taxidermy.

Julie Finch, head of Bristol's Museums, Galleries & Archives, said: "Bristol Museum, Galleries and Archives were pleased to be a part of this ground-breaking research, which not only highlights the importance of our science collections, it establishes the pedigree of our 100-year old Lynx and adds to our knowledge and understanding of 'big cats' in the UK.

"Our museum collections are extensive and caring for them requires the considerable skills of our collections officers. We have an amazing collection of taxidermy animals on display and we welcome museum visitors to come along, to take a closer look and discover more about the natural world."

Dr Greger Larson, a member of the research team from Durham University and an expert in the migration of animals, said: "Every few years there is another claim that big cats are living wild in Britain, but none of these claims have been substantiated. It seems that big cats are to England what the Loch Ness Monster is to Scotland.

"By applying a robust scientific methodology, this study conclusively demonstrates that at least one big cat did roam Britain as early as the Edwardian era, and suggests that additional claims need to be subjected to this level of scrutiny."

The lynx is now on public display at Bristol museum.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Southampton, via AlphaGalileo.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Max Blake, Darren Naish, Greger Larson, Charlotte L. King, Geoff Nowell, Manabu Sakamoto, Ross Barnett. Multidisciplinary investigation of a ?British big cat?: a lynx killed in southern England c. 1903. Historical Biology, 2013; : 1 DOI: 10.1080/08912963.2013.785541

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.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/CDGCWic5qdo/130424222428.htm

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The George W. Bush library's version of history

A guard stands outside the Bush library in Dallas (Ron T. Ennis/Fort Worth Star-Telegram via Getty Images)

DALLAS?As former President George W. Bush prepares to officially open his presidential library on Thursday, a question arises as it has for his predecessors: How objective will it be about his time in the White House?

Bush left office five years ago as one of the most unpopular presidents in history, his poll numbers weighed down by public discontent over his handling of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and worries about the economy.

But the former president wanted to take the controversies about his presidency head on, say several former aides who worked closely with him on the library. One way of addressing the challenge is an interactive exhibit allowing visitors to see what it was like for him to make decisions as leader of the free world. People will hear information Bush was given by aides, then be asked to make their own choices. Afterwards, the former president's image will appear on a screen to explain what decision he ultimately made and why.

?He really wants people to go in there and get a sense of what it was like to be president during that time and to use that to make an informed decision about his presidency,? said Karen Hughes, a longtime Bush adviser.

But Bush?s museum is likely to face scrutiny over what version of history he?s telling?especially with his time in office still fresh in the minds of many Americans.

He?s not the only one who has faced this dilemma. When former President Bill Clinton?s library opened in Little Rock, Ark., in 2004, the library was criticized for not devoting more space to what some at the time believed was the biggest issue of his presidency: the scandal of his inappropriate relationship with a former White House intern that ultimately lead to the House voting to impeach him.

While the goal of presidential libraries is to be more focused on history than politics, those involved in creating them say it?s unreasonable to think they won?t be influenced by a former president?s point-of-view?especially as libraries are increasingly seen as vehicles through which former leaders try to shape legacies.

?Bush wants to people to know the kind of decisions he had to make in the course of his presidency and give [a rationale] for why he made those decisions,? said Mark Updegrove, director of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, Tex., who is also working on a book about Bush and his father, former President George H.W. Bush.

?There is great value in trying to understand why Bush did what he did,? Updegrove added. ?You don?t have to agree with him, but there?s value in trying to understand his perspective.?

Aides say Bush and his wife, Laura, were ?heavily? involved in the creation of the library?s exhibits, though they haven?t said exactly how hands-on the former president was.

Skip Rutherford, a longtime friend and adviser to Clinton who led the 42nd president?s library effort, recalls ordering Clinton to do a ?brain dump? with the people who designed exhibits while Clinton was still president.

?I basically said to him, ?Just talk to them about your successes and failures, what you thought you did well, where you thought you felt short, your best day and your worst day, what you would have done differently,?? Rutherford recalled in an interview with Yahoo News.

?Bring as many Diet Cokes as you need,? he recalled telling Clinton.

A few days later, Clinton spent more than three hours talking to the designers of his library, doing just what Rutherford had asked. And not surprisingly, his discussion with the group was very detailed. ?(Clinton) was passing on names of people they should talk to and recalling pictures of certain meetings he had that could be used,? Rutherford said. ?He has an incredible memory.?

In some ways, Bush?s library will be the first draft of history about his administration. Not unlike other museums, presidential libraries often go through renovations and exhibit changes over the years, as history gains a better understanding of a certain presidency.

When the LBJ Library opened in 1971, the former president asked staffers to include an exhibit on the Vietnam war and to quickly work to assemble and declassify his presidential papers related to it, in hopes the public would come to understand his thinking behind the events that clouded his final days in office.

Over the years, that exhibit has been updated?most recently with a $10 million renovation which expanded the section on LBJ and Vietnam to include more perspectives, including his efforts to gain input from members of Congress and how media coverage was effecting his decision making.

But the exhibit also plays up LBJ?s work on domestic issues, including civil rights, education and health care?issues largely overshadowed by controversies over Vietnam.

In that vein, Updegrove sees parallels between LBJ and Bush, who designed a library that also tries to call attention to domestic accomplishments he and his aides believe were overshadowed by the war. Updegrove says the Iraq War, not unlike Vietnam for LBJ, is likely to cloud the public?s assessment of Bush for ?many years to come,? especially since Iraq's fate is still largely unknown.

By then, Bush will likely want to renovate his library?just as the other living presidents have done in order to keep up with modern technology and evolving public opinion about issues in their presidency.

At the Clinton Library, staffers there are waiting to see what Clinton has to say after seeing the new Bush library.

?Everybody thinks he?s going to go down to Dallas and come back and say, ?We need this, we need to do that,? Rutherford says. By contrast, George H.W. Bush pushed for a major overhaul of his library after attending the Clinton opening in 2004.

?Everybody is bracing for when [Clinton] comes back from Dallas.?

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/bush-past-presidents-faces-scrutiny-over-library-version-122739710--politics.html

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Thursday, April 25, 2013

5 Big Brand PPC Ads with Critiques: What We Like, What We'd ...

What big brands are able to do with their enormous marketing budgets is inspiring ? though sometimes it mostly inspires jealousy. The typical small business can?t sponsor the Olympics or get an ad spot during the Super Bowl. You have to tinker around with more accessible campaigns that cost less but typically have smaller reach as well.

PPC is an example of an incredibly accessible marketing channel ? it?s being exploited by tiny one-man shops and huge multinational corporations alike. But how much better is a big-brand PPC ad than an SMB ad ? if at all? Is it like comparing the latest Pepsi commercial to what your local furniture store puts together?

Let?s look at five big-brand AdWords ads and see what they do well and what they could do better.

(More: Dear eBay, Your Ads Don't Work Because They Suck)

By the way, I fully admit to stealing the format for this post from Oli Gardner at Unbounce, who recently did something similar with big-brand landing pages. Thanks, Oli!

Big-Brand PPC Ad #1: LightingDirect.com

PPC Ad Example

A Google search for ?chandeliers? turned up these three ads in the coveted top-of-page ad spots. Let?s focus on the middle ad from LightingDirect.com (a Build.com network site), comparing it to its close competition.

What I Like:

  • Seller Ratings ? Both LightingDirect.com and LampsPlus are making use of the seller ratings extension available in AdWords. This helps them stand out a little more from the top-ranked ad. It?s working to the second ad?s advantage in particular because the company has over twice as many reviews as the third ad.
  • Lots of Benefits ? This ad manages to pack four different benefits (free shipping, easy returns, great selection, and friendly service) into a small amount of space. The other two ads only include two benefits in their message.

What I?d Change/Test:

  • Punctuation ? Putting punctuation at the end of the first line of descriptive text (a comma or period after ?Easy Returns?) would have made this ad easier to read, since top-ranked ads often find their two description lines expanded into a single long line. They could probably also increase CTR by including an exclamation point.
  • Call to Action ? There?s no explicit call to action in this ad. (The first ad makes the same mistake; the third ad has the ?Subscribe to newsletter? button to entice an action.) I might try losing one of those four benefits and turning one of the benefits into a CTA ? for example, ?Claim Your Free Shipping Offer? or ?Check Out Our Great Selection.?

Big-Brand PPC Ad #2: Audi

Brand Search PPC Ad

Unsurprisingly, Audi owns the top spot for a search on ?Audi.? (And yes, we think even small businesses should bid on branded terms.) So what are they doing with the prime real estate?

What I Like:

  • Sitelinks ? Sitelinks are an easy win: They make your ad bigger and give users many more places to click. In fact they increase CTR even when users aren't clicking the sitelines themselves, meaning you get a lift on the main headline link too.
  • Verbs ? Audi isn?t missing a call to action like LightingDirect was ? in fact, the main description line as well as every single sitelink includes a verb, enticing the searcher to take action.
  • Social Extensions ? Audi has an insane number of followers on Google+, so they?re right to show that number off. (According to Google: ?On average, search ads with annotations have a 5-10% uplift in click through rate and the AdWords Social Extension helps you show more of them.?)

What I?d Change/Test:

  • Headline ? Since this is the top result on a brand search, it probably has a super-duper high CTR, but nonetheless, I think the headline could be doing more work. All it really tells us is that this is the official site. Compare to this BMW ad that also tells us we can use the official site to build our own car.

Top Ranked PPC Ad

Big-Brand PPC Ad #3: Olay

Branded AdWords Ad

I know some of you dudes out there are thinking ?What the %^&$ is BB cream?? Basically, it?s like gussied up tinted moisturizer ? which is like a sheer foundation ? never mind. The point is, it?s makeup, and you can buy it. Let?s take a look at the Olay ad and the other competition in the yellow box.

What I Like:

  • Use of Symbols ? Did you know that using symbols, like the registered trademark symbol, can boost your ad performance? Test this now! They?re also using that powerful exclamation point.
  • Offers ? I like the specific offers in the sitelinks, especially ?Get a Free Skin Consultation,? which sounds like a great lead builder.

What I?d Change/Test:

  • Shorter Headline ? The headline is too long so it gets truncated. Instantly what? We don?t know.
  • Longer Description ? On the other hand, the description line is throwing away its extra characters, space that could have been used for a call to action (Maybelline?s CTA in the third ad is awesome) or to repeat the keyword (?BB Cream?) in the text again. Remember, when the search query appears in your ad, it appears in bold face, so your ad stands out more.

Big-Brand PPC Ad #4: ULINE

Bad PPC Ads

ULINE is one of the top PPC spenders in the business and industrial category, spending over $35 million a year on AdWords advertising. Are they making the most of that big PPC budget?

What I Like:

???? <crickets> ????

I don?t like much about this ad. Let?s get to what I don?t like.

What I?d Change/Test:

  • Better Keyword Matching ? It looks like they?re broad-matching on ?labels,? but they?re not using dynamic keyword insertion (DKI), so the word ?printing? doesn?t actually appear in the ad ? not a great intent match. The ad is all about designing and customizing labels, not printing them. They should be keeping a better watch over their search query report and building out more targeted ad groups.
  • More Benefits ? The only benefit here is ?Over 27,500 Products? ? which, some might argue, is actually a shortcoming. Who wants to search through nearly 30,000 products? Paradox of choice, anyone? Sounds like a waste of time. Compare this to the other two ads, which offer lots of information on price and specific details about label sizes and other information that would help the searcher make a decision.
  • Ad Extensions ? ULINE?s ad doesn?t make use of any extensions at all. Can we get a sitelink up in this piece?

Since ULINE?s ad is relatively weak compared to the #2 and #3 ads, they?re probably bidding higher and paying a lot more than their competitors per click.

Big-Brand PPC Ad #5: SelectQuote

PPC Ad Text Help

Here?s an ad that follows a lot of the best practices we?ve already mentioned ? clear call to action, using the search query in the text, sitelinks, etc. What are they doing that?s new?

What I Like:

  • The Local Connection ? SelectQuote has localized their ad to recognize my location. I?m in Colorado, so I might want to deal with a local agent.
  • Communication Extension ? Including a phone number means that your ad could lead to conversions even if they don?t click the ad. (That means it?s free, yay!)

What I?d Change/Test:

  • Numbers ? The top-ranked Metlife ad gets specific with numbers: ?Pay as little as $1/day for up to $500,000 coverage.? If I were SelectQuote?s PPC manager I?d test out concrete dollar amounts in my text too.
  • Appeal to Emotions ? People looking for life insurance might be driven by some strong emotions ? fear, compassion, concern for one?s loved ones, etc. An ad that speaks to those emotions could really do well here. I?d test something like ?Take Care of Your Family. Get a Free Quote Today.?

Do you steal from the big boys when it comes to writing ad text? Or do the little guys do it better?

Source: http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2013/04/24/big-brand-ppc-ads

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Cycleway plans unveiled | Otago Daily Times Online News : Otago ...

Portobello Road Image supplied. Artists' impressions commissioned by the Dunedin City Council show what cycleway improvements proposed for Royal Crescent and Portobello Rd, both in southern Dunedin, would look like.

The separated paths were designed to remove users from traffic flows and cater for children, families and recreational cyclists, and would also include landscaping, council senior transportation planner Lisa Clifford said.

They were among a mix of cycleway facilities planned for South Dunedin, also including quiet streets, on-road cycle lanes and shared paths.

The cost of the $4.5 million project - details of which were the subject of public consultation - would be shared between the council ($1.5 million) and the New Zealand Transport Agency ($3 million).

Royal Crescent. Image supplied.

Source: http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/254297/cycleway-plans-unveiled

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